Below are some of SEJ members' favorite reference books:

• "The Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology." By Christopher Morris. Academic Press, 1992.
• "The Almanac of American Politics 2002." By Michael Barone with Richard E. Cohen. National Journal Group, 2001.
• "The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine." AMA, 1989.
  SEJ member comment: useful for basics.
• "American Wildlife & Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits." By Alexander C. Martin, A. L. Nelson, and Herbert S. Zim. Dover Pubns, 1985.
  SEJ member comment: First published about 50 years ago. This is among the most useful books I've ever picked up.
• Audubon Field Guides [2]: wildflowers, fungi, birds, mammals, fish, pinnipeds, regional, etc.
• "Before the Streetlights Come On." By Heather McTeer Toney. Broadleaf Books, 2023.
• "Brownfields: A Comprehensive Guide to Redeveloping Contaminated Property." By Todd S. Davis. American Bar Association, 2002.
  SEJ member comment: a once definitive book of state laws.
• "Chemicals, the Press and the Public: A Journalists' Guide to Reporting on Chemicals in the Community." Published by the National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center, 1989.
• The Codex of the ESA Vol 1 and Vol 2, by Lowell E. Baier. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2023.
  SEJ member comment: A must-have book for any journalist writing anything about an endangered species or the ESA. 
• "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Botany." Edited by Michael Allaby. Oxford University Press, 1992.
• "The Condensed Chemical Dictionary." By Gessner G. Hawley. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 10th edition, 1985. Later editions available.
  SEJ member comment: for basic chemistry concepts.
• "The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed." By Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Pantheon Books, 1993.
• "A Dictionary of Biology." Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 2000.
• "The Dictionary of Ecology and Environmental Science." By Henry Warren Art (Editor), F. Herbert Bormann. Henry Holt & Company, Inc., 1993.
• "A Dictionary of Environmental Quotations." Compiled by Barbara K. Rodes and Rice Odell. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Approximately 3,700 quotations in 143 categories.
• "The Dorling Kindersley World Reference Atlas." By Deni Bown. DK Publishing, 1999.
• "The Dose Makes the Poison: A Plain-Language Guide to Toxicology." By M. Alice Ottoboni. John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
• Encyclopedia Britannica [3].
• "The Encyclopedia of Mammals." Edited by David W. MacDonald. Checkmark Books, 1995.
  SEJ member comment: probably the animal book we use most.
• "The Encyclopedia of the Environment." By Ruth A. Eblen (Editor), William R. Eblen (Editor), Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1994.
• "Encyclopedia of World Environmental History [4]." Edited by Shepard Krech III, J.R. McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant. Routledge, 2003.
• "Environmental Law Handbook [5]." By Thomas F.P. Sullivan, Editor Emeritus, with contributing authors. Government Institutes Press, 17th edition, May 2003.
• "Environmental Regulatory Glossary." By Thomas F.P. Sullivan. ABS Consulting, 1993.
• "Environmental Toxicants: Human Exposures and Their Health Effects." Edited by Morton Lippmann. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.
  SEJ member comment: great for detail on a few substances.
• "The Essential Researcher." By Maureen Croteau and Wayne Worcester. Harper Collins, 1993.
• "The Facts on File Dictionary of Environmental Science [6]." Edited by L. Harold Stevenson and Bruce C. Wyman. Third Edition, Facts on File, 2006.
• A copy of the state and federal FOIA! Full text of The Freedom of Information Act 5 U.S.C. § 552. [7]
• "A Grain of Truth: The Media, the Public and Biotechnology." By Susanna Hornig Priest, associate professor of journalism at Texas A&M University. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2000.
  SEJ member comment: see Chapter 2, Reinventing Milk (clearly written scrutiny of rBGH story); Chapter 6, The Labeling Controversy and Public Perceptions of Risk; and Chapter 7, The Cloning Story.
• "Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia." By Bernhard Grzimek, Neil Schlager (Editor), Donna Olendorf (Editor), Melissa C. McDade (Editor). Gale Group, 2nd edition, December 2003.
• "The Handy Science Answer Book [8]." Compiled by The Science and Technology Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Edited by James E. Bobick and Naomi E. Balaban. Centennial Edition, Visible Ink Press, 2003.
• The Hiking Trails of North Georgia. By Tim Homan. Peachtree Publishers, 1997.
• "Instant Notes in Ecology." By A. Mackenzie. Springer Verlag, 1998.
• "It Ain't Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality." By David Murray, Joel Schwartz, S. Robert Lichter. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2001.
• "Maps With the News: The Development of American Journalistic Cartography." By Syracuse Univ. Newhouse School Prof. Mark Monmonier. University of Chicago Press, 1989.
• "The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, & Biologicals." Edited by Maryadele J. O'Neil, Ann Smith, Patricia E. Heckelman, John R. Obenchain, Jo Ann R. Gallipeau, and Mary Ann D'Arecca. Merck & Co., 2001.
  SEJ member comment: the real lowdown on particular chemicals, versus the concepts.
• "A Moment on the Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental Optimism." By Gregg Easterbrook. Penguin USA, 1996.
  SEJ member comment: I use this book a lot as a primer on any given issue.
• National Academy of Sciences (NAS) reports, including "Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children", "Toxicological Effects of Methylmercury" and "Understanding Risk." National Academies Press. [9]
• "National Geographic Atlas of the World." National Geographic, 7th edition, 1999.
• "The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference." By Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Frommer. Hungry Minds, Inc., 1995.
• "News & Numbers: A Guide to Reporting Statistical Claims and Controversies in Health and Related Fields." By Victor Cohn, former science/environmental reporter for The New York Times and then The Washington Post. Iowa State University Press, 2001.
• "Our Living Oceans; Report on the Status of U.S. Living Marine Resources, 1999 [10]." NOAA.
• Peterson Field Guides. [11] Houghton Mifflin Company.
• "Report on Carcinogens, Tenth Edition [12]." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program, December 2002.
• "The Reporter's Environmental Handbook [13]." By Bernadette M. West, M. Jane Lewis, Michael R. Greenberg, David B. Sachsman, Renee Rogers. Rutgers University Press; 3rd edition, August 2003.
• "Reporting on Risk: A Journalist's Handbook on Environmental Risk Assessment [14]." By M.A. Kamrin, D.J. Katz and M.L. Walter. National Sea Grant College Program and Foundation for American Communications, 1995.
  SEJ member comment: does a good job of explaining statistics and epidemiology for English majors.
• "Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations From the Library of Congress." Edited by Suzy Platt. Congressional Quarterly, 1992.
• "RISK: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Really Dangerous in the World Around You [15]." By David Ropeik and George Gray. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
• "Science Communication; An Interdisciplinary Social Science Journal." Edited by Carol L. Rogers, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. SAGE Publications.
• "The State of the Nation's Ecosystems [16]." By H. John Heinz III Center of Science, Economics, and the Environment, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• State of the World [17]. Annual publication from Worldwatch Institute. 
• "Status and Trends of the Nation's Biological Resources [18]." By M.J. Mac, P.A. Opler, C.E. Puckett Haeker, and P.D. Doran. 2 vols. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va, 1998.
• "Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary." Edited by Donald Venes, Clayton L. Thomas, Clarence Wilbur Taber. F A Davis Co., 19th edition, 2001.
  SEJ member comment: broad in scope; very helpful for figuring out what the heck those researchers, government types and doctors are saying.
• "Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact in America." By Cynthia Crossen of The Wall Street Journal. Hardcover: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Paperback: Touchstone Books, 1996.
• "The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future." By Peter Gleick., PublicAffairs, 2023.
• "Toxics A to Z: A Guide to Everyday Pollution Hazards." By John Harte et al. University of California Press, 1991.
• "Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia." By Glenn D. Considine (Editor), Peter H. Kulik (Editor), Douglas Considine. Wiley-Interscience, 2002.
  SEJ member comment:The OED of science terms.
• Vital Signs [19]. Annual publication from Worldwatch Institute.
• "Wetlands." By William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink. John Wiley & Sons, 3rd edition, 2000.
• "The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004." Edited and published annually by World Almanac.
• "The World's Water: The Report on Freshwater Resources [20]." By Peter H. Gleick. 
  SEJ member comment: for anyone who wants global water stats in atlas-type form.
• "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook." By Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht. Chronicle Books, 1999.

SEJ members: Do you have suggestions for new books or feedback on this page? Please send to cmac@sej.org. [21]