LibGuides: BIO 210/211: General Biology I & II: Finding Scholarly Articles

Searching Critically & Strategically

Scientific Databases
Scholarly Journals at WSU

Now that you have an idea of what you are searching for - it's time to dig deeper and get more specific - into primary research and review articles. In order to do this, and to be assured that we're investigating credible, authoritative and relevant scholarly research, we will turn to subject-specific electronic databases and academic scientific journals.

Biological Sciences Databases at WSU Libraries (links science-specific databases available to you through WSU)

SmartSearch Advanced Search - this multi-disciplinary discovery tool searches through many databases at once

SciTech Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
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Databases in the SciTech Premium Collection include: Agricultural & Enviornmental Science Database (1946-Present), Biological Science Database (1946-Present), and Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database (1950-Present), Medline (1946-Present), Materials Science & Engineering Database (1965-Present), and Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database (1962-Present). Terms of Use
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
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How to Use Google Scholar off-campus Provides access to scholarly sources across many disciplines including articles, theses, books, etc. from a variety of publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Links to full-text when available.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
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Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Terms of Use

Brief Tutorials for Searching Scopus
Searching Scopus has unique differences from other academic databases and search tools. These brief tutorials on searching help to see how to perform searches in the Scopus database.

ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
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Provides online access to the tables of contents of over 2,500 journals published by Elsevier, with strong collections in the sciences, social sciences, engineering, and medicine. Full-text access to articles is available for over 100 journals subscribed to by WSU and over 150 open access journals.
To link to ILLiad from Science Direct, click on the article title, then “360 Link to Full-Text”, and then “Submit Request”.
Instructions for eBook Downloading
As of January 1, 2016, ScienceDirect will no longer support Internet Explorer 8.
Biological Science Database This link opens in a new window
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The Biological Science Database provides comprehensive coverage of biological science fields including animal behavior, aquatic life and fisheries, chemoreception, biochemistry, ecology, plant science, toxicology, virology, microbiology, immunology genetics, health and safety science, oncogenes, entomology, and endocrinology neuroscience. The resource also includes access to MEDLINE®, bringing ProQuest’s award-winning search functionality and the ability to cross-search with over 30 subject-specialized abstract and citation databases. Terms of Use
BioOne This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles from research journals in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences.
Terms of Use

REMEMBER!

•A primary research article reports novel findings on a specific research topic. When published in a reputable scientific journal, these articles are peer-reviewed, technical in nature, and intended for scientific audiences.

•To identify a primary research article, look for the presence of the following article sections

•Materials and Methods

•Results

•Discussion

•A review article is written by an expert from a particular field, and it summarizes the highlights from multiple primary research articles.

•Review articles are extremely useful to researchers and science students, but they are not considered primary sources of scientific information.

Each database you search will provide you with help sections, tools and tips for searching their system most effectively. Some basic things to remember when using computer systems for human use are the following:

USE AVAILABLE LIMITERS! Dates / Language / Document Type / Subject Categories, etc...
Put phrases in quotation marks to search for all the words together
eg: "enzyme inhibitors"
Use * to truncate words
- eg: immun* would find any words that start with immun, indluing immunity, immune, etc.
Make use of "Boolean Operators" - the connectors AND, OR and NOT to clarify your search

*For a brief tutorial on reading primary research articles effectively - click on the Reading Scientific Research box on this guide page

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A key element of developing research is following references and citations found in resources that are useful to you. Another is examining articles surrounding an article or review you've found particularly informative. Academic journals often run themed issues, or specialize in particular aspects of their field or discipline. Browsing issues or searching for related articles will often help you find alternate perspectives, arguments and affiliated research to the topic you are developing. WSU Libraries provides access to thousands of scholarly scientific journals (both physically and electronically) that you can look through and search for here:

WSU Catalog by Journal Title

Electronic Journals by Subject

Electronic Journals by Title

Can't Find the Full Text of an Article?

Try Interlibrary Loan!

Login with your myWSU ID and password to request a copy of an article or book. WSU Libraries participates in RapidILL, so articles are emailed within 24 hours (and often come as soon as 1-2 hours after they're requested). Books are shipped within 24 hours of the request and are sent to Ablah Library for you to pick up. It's free!