Biological Research Databases

Research Article Databases 

AGRICOLA (1970s-present)
The National Agricultural Library provides this database, which covers animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, farming, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences.  AGRICOLA contains no full text, so be sure to check our Journals List to see if we have the journal!

 

BIOSIS (1992-1999 - library use only)
BIOSIS, or Biological Abstracts, is a database composed of abstracts and citations from over 6,000 life sciences research journals worldwide. There is no full text available, so be sure to check our Journals List to see which journals we have. BIOSIS is a CD-ROM, and can only be used in the library. 

• Use AND, OR, NEAR to separate your concepts.
• Use the index as a FIRST step to searching.
• Use concept codes and biosystematic codes.
• Combine searches by number or just typing AND to connect a previous search to your current search.
• Use truncation (*).
• Search example: Find research on the effects of calcium on osteoporosis in mice. Search 1: calcium Search 2: and (mouse or mice or mus) Search 3 and osteoporo*

BIOSIS Previews (2000-present) 
BIOSIS Previews contains citations/abstracts to over 6,000 biological journals.

• Use the "Search" option (not the "Advanced Search" option).
• Use AND: helianthus annuus and lepidoptera
• Use OR:  evolution or adaptation.
• Use the "Search History" link to combine searches.
• Use truncation (*).
• Limit searching by major concepts, language, document type, and literature type.
• Use the "Analyze Results" link from the results list to get citation and author data.

JSTOR (not current) 
A largely full-text, social sciences database that covers complete runs of scholarly periodicals.  MAY NOT BE CURRENT!

• Use the Advanced Search.
• Select whichever disciplines that are relevant to your research, noting that you decide whether or not JSTOR includes citations and links to other content.
• Use the drop-down menu to connect search terms:  AND, OR, and NEAR.
• Use "*" to account for variant word endings.
• Use quotes to search phrases:  "helianthus annuus"

General Science (1982-present)
General Science is a good place to start looking for articles.  This database contains a mixture of popular and scholarly sources.  A portion of this database is full text. 

• Use the advanced search for more searching options.
• Use * on the end of your term for variant endings.  Ex.:  environment* retrieves environmental, environmentalist, etc.
• Boolean/Phrase search mode requires "AND" to break your search terms.
• Use the indexes to search for journal titles, subject terms, and author information.

ScienceDirect (2000-present) 
ScienceDirect contains citations, abstracts, and some full text of articles in scholarly scientific journals.

• Select the "Journals" box, if desired.
• Under the Source menu, select "Subscribed Sources" to retrieve mostly full text articles.
• Limit to a subject area to focus your searching.
• Check out the related articles, cited by, and reference articles to the right when viewing an abstract.
• Beware the "white page" icons - you can read the abstract of those articles, but not access the article itself.

PubMed (1946-present)
MEDLINE is the largest component of PubMed, the freely accessible online database of biomedical journal citations and abstracts created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM®).  Approximately 5,500 journals published in the United States and more than 80 other countries have been selected and are currently indexed for PubMed.

• Automatically "ANDs" words together, but you can use AND, OR, and NOT to connect terms.
• Use "Limits" feature to narrow searching.
• Take advantage or MeSH - use it instead of "All Fields" to improve results.
• Look up full journal titles by hovering over the journal title abbreviation.
• Use the MeSH database as a thesaurus.
• Remember to check our Journals List and UCA's Journals List before you order an article on interlibrary loan!  Prepubs and e-pubs are difficult to get.

Google Scholar 
Google's answer for broad searches of scholarly literature.  Good for checking citations but not for starting the search process.

• Google Scholar aims to rank documents weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature.

• Try to narrow searches by phrase (using quotes), date, subject area, journal, or author.
• Use initials instead of full first and middle names in the author search.
• Be careful with publication searches - they are often incomplete.  If using them put alternative titles:  Journal of Biological Chemistry OR J Biol Chem
• If "ORing" a search, capitalize OR!
• Search for terms "in the title of the article."  But do so cautiously!

Bookish Databases

Springer eBooks (2005-2012) 
Search 30,000 eBooks in the areas of the sciences, including biomedical and life science, environmental science, and medicine. 

• Results are displayed as book chapters.

• View and download the PDFs to your device, print, or email. 
• Bailey's access includes books published between the years 2005-2012.

Annual Reviews (1996-present)  
Critical reviews written by the leading scientists in the biomedical, physical, and social sciences which give an annual look at the most significant primary research literature within a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines.

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Journals List & Interlibrary Loan 

For a complete list of which journals Bailey Library has, check out our Journals List.  If we don't have the journal you need, check UCA's Journals List.  If they don't have it, order your article on interlibrary loan!

Last Modified on 9/07/2012