Research Guides: Biology: Locating Articles (Databases)

Steps for Searching

Databases

Begin looking for articles on your topic. The electronic databases are the place to start. It is important to develop a search strategy using keywords that you have identified describing your topic. Additional terminology may be found as you use the databases. Remember to distinguish between scholarly and popular articles.

Keywords and Search Strategy

Connect keywords using "and" to narrow and focus the search statement –both concepts must appear in each article reference. For example: water use and sustainability.

Abstracts and Subjects/Descriptors

Skim the titles of the articles and then read the abstracts for more detail. If an article looks good, check the subjects, descriptors, or other terms assigned by the author(s) or database to describe the content of the article. Incorporate some of these terms into your search strategy. Also think of other ways to describe your topic, scientific terms or medical terms (check a science or medical dictionary).

Authors and References

Finally, if an article is on-point, click on the authors’ names for additional articles by them. When you have the full article, review the list of references that the authors provide since some of these article titles might be helpful to you, too. You will then need to check the Journal Locator for availability.

Select Databases

JoVE Science Education Database
Created by the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), this database features resources dedicated to teaching scientific fundamentals through simple, easy to understand video demonstrations.

Note: We currently ONLY have access to following four modules: Basic Methods in Cellular and Molecular Biology; Essentials of Biology 1: Yeast, Drosophila and C.Elegans; Essentials of Neuroscience ; and Essentials of Behavioral Science. Mobile application available.

MEDLINEPlus
Medical information presented at a basic consumer level. Nice place to start for overview information and links to other trusted resources. Provided by the National Library of Medicine.

PubMed
Comprehensive coverage of the world’s biomedical journal literature. The Library links to the National Library of Medicine’s complete database known as PubMed. Comprehensive coverage of the world’s biomedical journal literature. The Library links to the National
Library of Medicine’s complete database known as PubMed. It is primarily an indexing and abstracting
database but some linking to full text articles is available. A key feature is the “Related Articles” option which identifies articles with similar subject content. Approximately 25% of the database is foreign
language, so limit results to English.

Science Direct
Indexing and abstracting of more than 1,000 Elsevier Science journals, with approximately half of them full text. Coverage is primarily from the mid- 1990s. Click on the Search button, then the Journals tab, type in the keywords, and limit "Source", "Subject" and "document type" as needed.
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Select the “PDF” scanned image version since this accommodates graphics. If a “Login” screen appears, the article is not available in the database. An Interlibrary Loan request would then be necessary. When looking for a particular journal article, type the journal title in the box next to Journal/book title. Those journals with a green page at the beginning of the title provide the full articles in the database. Select the journal of interest and the journal volumes available in Science Direct appear, click on the appropriate one and then the issue number. At that point a table of contents appears arranged by page number. Locate the article of interest and click on “PDF” for the article.

To search only the journals that provide full text articles, click on Search and then the Journals tab. After entering the keyword terms, limit the Source option to Subscribed journals. Apply other limits as needed.

Scopus
An abstracting and indexing database of almost 13,000 academic journals and allows tracking of citations. It provides 100% coverage of the Medline database.

Journal Finder

The Library maintains a collection of periodicals in the field of biology and medicine. These resources are available in a variety of formats:

Electronic
Print
Microfiche
Microfilm.

To check the availability of journal articles that are not full text in a database, click on the blue "Check for Full Text" while in the database and follow the links. If that is not an option, please use the online listing "Journal Finder" which is on the Library homepage to determine

First, if the journal is part of the collection and,
Second, in what format the particular year of interest is found.

All entries that contain "Bernhard..." or "Find paper" mean that you will find the periodical in the library building, whereas all the other entries are electronic links to the database that has the full text of the article. If the article is unavailable, it can be requested through Interlibrary Loan.

Click here for the Journals list.