Subject/Research Guides: Technology Guide: GIS: Geographic Information Systems

Key Library Resources

Transactions in GIS
Peer reviewed coverage of GIS research. GIS (Geographic Information System) is organized activity by which people measure and represent geographic phenomena then transform these representations into other forms while interacting with social structures.
Journal of Geographical Systems
The Journal of Geographical Systems (JGS) is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journal that aims to encourage and promote high-quality scholarship on new theoretical or empirical results, models and methods in the social sciences. It solicits original papers with a spatial dimension that can be of interest to social scientists. Coverage includes regional science, economic geography, spatial economics, regional and urban economics, GIScience and GeoComputation, big data and machine learning. Spatial analysis, spatial econometrics and statistics are strongly represented.
International Journal of Geographical Information Science
Strives to provide a forum for the exchange of original ideas, techniques, approaches, techniques, approaches & experiences in the rapidly growing field of geographical information science.
Geographical Analysis
Publishes significant advances in geographical theory, model building and quantitative methods.
GeoInformatica
Aims to promote the most innovative results coming from the research in the field of computer science applied to geographic information systems.
Professional Geographer
Publishes short articles of academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies, as well as book reviews.
Remote Sensing
peer-reviewed open access journal about the science and application of remote sensing technology, and is published semi-monthly online by MDPI. Remote Sensing is affiliated to The Remote Sensing Society of Japan (RSSJ) and members receive a discount on the article processing charge.
Geographical Journal
Refereed original research papers and review articles ranging across the entire subject of geography, restricted neither by area nor by topic.

A Geographic Information System (GIS) "integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. What is GIS used for? There are many applications, spanning a wide variety of disciplines. Some examples include:

Emergency Services: wildfire spread, missing person location, least-cost paths to accident sites

Environmental Sciences: soil/groundwater contamination, drainage networks, erosion, pollution

Social Sciences: crime rates, food deserts

The Global Open Data Index Survey was compiled from the data collected from the national Open Data Census. Here you will find a graphical representation of 70 countries' scores on data accessibility.
The Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal is an online toolkit and resource center that includes a map interface Marine Planner and access to dozens of datasets organized into the following categories; Administrative, Fishing, Marine Life, Maritime Industries, Recreation, Renewable Energy and Security.
District of Columbia Data, Demographics & Maps
Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset available at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110 million scales. Featuring tightly integrated vector and raster data, with Natural Earth you can make a variety of visually pleasing, well-crafted maps with cartography or GIS software. Supported by the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS), and free for use in any type of project.
The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2012.
National States Geographic Information Council NSGIC, promotes statewide geospatial coordination activities and advocates for states in national geospatial policy and initiatives, thereby enabling the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).
US State GIS Data sites

Mapping & Data Sources by Subject

The quality and content of GIS data can vary greatly, as well as the fees and ease of access. Many datasets can be obtained for free. Listed below are links to sources for data types ranging from global to city level.

ICPSR
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan
Google Earth download
National Weather Service GIS data portal
US Federal Government Data
US Census TIGER Shapefiles
Harvard Election Data Archive
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
Esri Data & Maps
Access to data layers from the Esri Data and Maps DVD set that you can download for use with your ArcGIS software.