About Marcellex

Marcellex is a knowledge exchange tool for research and policy. Unconventional methods of shale gas extraction began in Pennsylvania in 2008 and expanded rapidly. Research on the social impacts of the development proliferated soon after. Social scientists meeting at the Multi-State Marcellus Shale Research Conference in May, 2012 identified two problems: lack of coordination among researchers and insufficient knowledge about other research projects. Marcellex is an open-access, searchable database of research on social impacts of unconventional gas extraction developed at Lehigh University to address these problems. Using dropdown menus and interactive maps, researchers voluntarily input information about their research topic, geographic location of research, methods, status of data collection, and contact information. News reporters, researchers seeking to collaborate or coordinate, potential funders, policy-makers and planners can search with keywords or choose from pull-down menus to identify research of interest. Marcellex is different from databases of published research in that it also includes information about projects that are in preliminary stages or for which results have not yet been published.