Skyline College
Library

 

Biology/Zoology/Microbiology/Chemistry
Research Links Page

Search Preparation
Databases for Finding Articles
Catalog for Finding Books
Selected Web Sites
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General Science Topics
-
Zoology-related Sites
-
Marine Animals Sites
- California -- Ecology and Natural History
-
Microbiology-related Sites
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Researching Diseases
- Chemistry
How to Write a Paper in Scientific Style


Search Preparation

Before searching for articles on a topic, you should prepare for your search by:

  • developing a clear, specific research topic or research question, and
  • dividing the research topic in "concepts" (different subtopics or elements)

For example, a specific research question might be: 
What recent research studies have been done on the effects of distraction on concentration or memory?

This research question can be divided into two or three "concepts":

1. research studies
2.
distraction
3.
concentration or memory

For each concept, related search terms should be used.
Place an “OR” between each search term for the same concept. Some databases or search engines may require quotes around phrases

1. research OR study
2. distraction OR "task interference" OR "divided attention"
3. concentration OR memory OR cognition

For more help on how to do search preparation, see Skyline Library's Planning a Search Page.

 

Article Databases (to access journal, magazine and reference articles):

PubMed Central: free digital archive of full-text biomedical and life sciences journal literature from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Full-text articles for some journals are not available until one year after publication.

  • Enter search terms for your research question in the search box
    - Put parentheses ( ) around terms for the same concept
    - Put ORs between terms for the same concept
    - Put ANDs between concepts
    - Put quotes ( “ ” ) around phrases
    - Use an asterisk ( * ) to search for multiple words from the same root, e.g. distract* will find articles with the words: distract, distracted or distracting
    Example:
    (distract* OR "task interference" OR "divided attention") AND (concentration OR memory OR cognit*)  
    [
    Note: the words AND and OR must be CAPITALIZED in this database]
  • To limit your search to research articles:
    - Click on the Limits tab
    - Scroll down to the “Limit by Article Type”, and click in the check box for “Research & Review Articles”
  • To search, click on the GO button or press Enter
  • To determine if articles are research studies:
    Look for articles in
    scholarly journals that include the following sections:
    • Literature review: unlabeled introductory section that discusses previous research on the same topic
    • Methods (may include "Procedure", "Participants", "Measures", etc.) - always labeled
    • Results - always labeled
    • Discussion - always labeled
  • Select articles you are interested in by clicking in the check box to the left of each article citation
  • You can organize all selected articles onto the Clipboard by clicking the “Send to” pull-down menu at the top of the results list and then select “Clipboard”
  • To email selected (checked) articles, click the “Send to” pull-down menu at the top of the results list and then select “E-mail”

 

ProQuest Biology Journals
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
An excellent database for full-text biology-related journal articles.

  • To search only for articles that include the full text (the whole article) in the database, check the "Full text articles only" box next to "Limit results to:" at the lower part of the search page.
  • To narrow searches, combine concepts with AND.


Health Source: Nursing/Academic
on or off campus w/ library card

Full-text medical journal articles; EbscoHost search help

Health Source - Consumer Edition
on or off campus w/ library card
Consumer health magazines & health info; EbscoHost search help

Alt HealthWatch
on or off campus w/ library card  
Articles on complementary and alternative medicine; EbscoHost search help


Gale Science in Context
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
An excellent general science database.  info

  • To search only for articles that include the full text (the whole article) in the database, check the "articles with text" box next to "Limit the current search"
  • To narrow searches, combine concepts with AND.
  • PLEASE NOTE: When search results are first displayed, only reference book & fact sheet articles are shown, if available for your search.
    Click on the "Magazinestab to display magazine articles on your topic; click on the "Academic Journalstab to display journal articles on your topic.


Gale Health and Wellness Resource Center
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
An excellent health-oriented database.

  • To search only for articles that include the full text (the whole article) in the database, check the "articles with text" box next to "Limit the current search"
  • To narrow searches, combine concepts with AND.
  • PLEASE NOTE: When search results are first displayed, only reference book & fact sheet articles are shown, if available for your search.
    Click on the "Magazines & Journalstab to display all magazine and journal articles on your topic.


ASM Microbiology Journals: The American Society for Microbiology provides a free database of articles from its 10 journals (listed below), including full text from January 1998 to the present and abstracts only from January 1992 to December 1997. Click here for instructions on how to use the ASM journals database

  • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
  • Applied and Environmental Microbiology
  • Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology
  • Clinical Microbiology Reviews
  • Infection and Immunity
  • Journal of Bacteriology
  • Journal of Clinical Microbiology
  • Journal of Virology
  • Molecular and Cellular Biology
  • Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews


Science Magazine
 on campus or off-campus w/ library card
One of the world's leading scientific journals, published weekly. Issues from 1997 to present.


JAMA Online – on campus
Journal of the American Medical Association.
 info

 


American Chemical Society (ACS) Journals:
Accounts of Chemical Research
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Chemical and Engineering News
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Environmental Science and Technology
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Journal of the American Chemical Society
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Journal of Chemical Education
on campus or off-campus w/ library card


Access Science encyclopedia
on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Online version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology


PubMed--Medline abstracts
: Summaries of medical journal articles.


Entrez, The Life Sciences Search Engine: Cross-database searching for life sciences, including PubMed and PubMed Central


Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 17th edition (1999): Commonly referred to as "The Merck Manual", this is "the textbook of medicine most widely used by health care professionals in the U.S. and worldwide".


Merck Manual of Medical Information--Home Edition (2000): Based on The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, the Home Edition "transforms the language of the professionals' version into commonly used English while retaining the vital information about diseases, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment."


Merck Veterinary Manual: This online version of the 8th edition (1998) of the Merck Veterinary Manual claims to be the "most comprehensive electronic reference for animal care information" and "includes over 12,000 indexed topics and over 1200 illustrations."


Gale PowerSearch databases

on campus or off-campus w/ library card
An excellent set of general magazine, journal, news & reference databases that covers all subject areas.

Google Scholar: Google’s academic search engine accesses a wide range of academic articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, and universities. Articles that are accessible in full-text include a link to the right side of the article title.  The majority of sources are usually abstracts (summaries) of articles, which do not provide the full-text of the article (or a significant charge is required for the full article). In many cases, you may be able to retrieve the full-text of these articles by using the Skyline College Library Article Delivery Service.

·         Put ORs between terms for the same concept

·         Put quotes ( “ ” ) around phrases

·         Example:
distraction OR "task interference" OR "divided attention"  concentration OR memory OR cognition  
[
Note: the words AND and OR must be CAPITALIZED in this search engine]


 

 

 

Books:

The PLS Online Catalog is the online catalog to find books in Skyline Library and in all libraries in the Peninsula Library System.

After clicking on the link above to access the catalog, follow the steps below:

·         Type search words (title, author and/or subject) in the first search box & click Submit.*
The search results will show books and other materials in all libraries in the PLS system. *

*  To Limit your results to books at Skyline College Library:

  • scroll down to the Location pull-down menu (2nd box under Limit to: below the search boxes),
  • in the Location pull-down menu, select Skyline College
  • then click the Submit button.



Selected Web Sites:
- General Science Topics
-
Zoology-related Sites
- Microbiology/Life Sciences-related Sites
- Marine Animals Sites
- Researching Diseases

General Science Topics

Science Magazine  on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Online version of the leading weekly scientific news journal, Science. Back issues from 1997 to the present.

Gale Science in Context  on campus or off-campus w/ library card
An excellent general science article database.  info

NewScientist: Extensive science and technology website from New Scientist magazine. The Hot Topics page features links to many current hot issues in science and technology.

Science Online: Extensive science and technology website produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Scientific American: Online version of the weekly scientific news magazine, Scientific American.

IPL Life Sciences:  High quality links to a wide range of life science-related topics. From Internet Public Library.

IPL Health and Medical Sciences:  High quality links to a wide range of health and medical-related topics. From Internet Public Library.



Zoology/Life Sciences-related Sites:

BiologyBrowser- This Web site is an index and guide to Internet resources in zoology and other related life sciences. It is a reference tool for information regarding systematics, taxonomy, and nomenclature. It contains a guide by subject categories; an index, sorted taxonomically, of animal groups; a guide to conferences; and an index search of the entire site. Maintained by the compilers of the Zoological Record.

North American Mammals - database of all living mammals of North America. Based on the Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals and Mammals of North America

Biosciences - Meta-Index to resources on, among others - biotechnology, botany, entomology, genetics, medicine, mycology, neurobiology, physiology, and whale watching (under zoology).

Life Science Dictionary - This dictionary contains over "8300 terms which deal with biochemistry, biotechnology, botany, cell biology, and genetics."

Arkive - Archive of resources on endangered species around the world --including images & multimedia files.

PLOS Biology Journal - open-access (free) academic biology journal published by the Public Library of Science.

California's Natural Resources - A variety of links are provided to sites that have information on California local, state, and national parks, forests, and other recreation areas; plants, animals, environmental organizations, and recycling tips.

Natural History Portal - Searchable, annotated directory of Internet resources in the following categories: Reference, Natural History, Mineralogy, Paleontology, Botany, Entomology, and Zoology. From the Natural History Museum, London.

Bio Links (Biozone) - This site contains over five hundred links covering such topics as biology, biotechnology, diseases, evolution, and microbiology.

CalPhotos: Animals - A database containing over 5,600 images of over 400 species of amphibians, birds, fish, invertebrates, mammals, and reptiles of California. The site is chiefly photographs, most of which are in the public domain and are made available for non-commercial use through the Digital Library Project, University of California, Berkeley.

BIODIDAC - Database of over 5,000 line drawings, photographs, videos, and animations that can be used and adapted for teaching biology. Users can browse the index by eubacteria, protista, fungi, plantae, animalia, human biology, and histology.

ITIS Data Access - The ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System) database of biological names focuses on the plants and animals of North America searchable by full or partial Scientific Name, Vernacular (Common) Name, or TSN (Taxonomic Serial Number).

Animal Diversity Web: The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology provides the searchable Animal Diversity Web database, with species accounts (images and text) of some of the world's mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, sharks, bony fishes, mollusks, arthropods and echinoderms. The database is searchable by common or scientific name. For each species account, information includes scientific and common name, classification (Phylum through Genus), and color photographs (many beauties). Some accounts supply additional information, such as geographic range, physical characteristics, natural history (food habits, reproduction, behavior, conservation, and habitat), other comments, and references.

AmphibiaWeb - This Web site on amphibian biology and conservation contains information on over 130 species. It provides species descriptions, life history information, conservation status, photos, and literature references. There are photos of over 140 species, range maps of over 300 species, and over 500 bibliographic references; linked to the specimen collections at the American Museum of Natural History, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and the California Academy of Sciences.

ZooWeb: Excellent links to zoos, aquariums and other animal-related sites

Electronic Zoo Animal Resources: Links to animal web pages.

Animal Topics: web page links from Librarians' Internet Index



Marine Animals Sites:

OceanLink Marine Animal Links - Links to information sites on marine animal and plant groups.

National Marine Mammal Laboratory - Basic information about a representative sample of marine mammal species arranged along taxonomic lines from order to species.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Living Species List - Basic information (e.g. size, range, diet) on a many marine species.

NOAA Fisheries: National Marine Fisheries Service - Fish information



California -- Ecology and Natural History

Ecological Subregions of California: Section and Subsection Descriptions – Basic descriptions of each of California’s ecosystems by region and sub-region, organized by maps and by list of ecological sections.  Produced by the USDA, Forest Service.

California Information Node – access to data and information about California’s environment, part of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)

California Environment - Excellent links to websites on California’s natural history, natural resources, pollution, environmental organizations, natural hazards and environmental ethics.  From Palomar College.

A Manual of California Vegetation – produced by the California Native Plant Society

Images of the California Environment – listed by name, subject, geographic region and clickable map

 

Microbiology-related Sites:

All the Virology on the WWW: Information about viruses (both animal and plant) and vaccines as well as links to information on specific viruses and images of viruses according to their classification. Specific viruses such as ebola, influenza, are covered with annotated links to other Web sites. Also included is a section of microbe and virus news, syllabi and notes from microbiology courses, and much more.

Bio Links (Biozone): This site contains over five hundred links covering such topics as biology, biotechnology, diseases, evolution, and microbiology.

Entrez (National Center for Biotechnology Information) - This site allows you to search a "genetics" subset of MEDLINE as well as the NCBI protein, nucleotide, and genome and the MMDB 3-D protein structures databases. A full range of genetic codes are presented, and you can also browse or search the NCBI/GenBank taxonomy database.

NCBI Taxonomy Homepage - The National Center for Biotechnology Information provides this quick and easy tool for finding the complete lineage for the close to 80,000 species whose sequences have been made public by the collaborating sequence databases. Searches can be made by common name as well as scientific name.

Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms & Natural Toxins: Known as the Bad Bug Book, this handbook contains information on foodborne pathogenic microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and parasites) and natural toxins. Provides basic facts including their characteristics, habitat or source, associated foods, infective dose, characteristic disease symptoms, complications, recent and major outbreaks, and any susceptible populations.



Chemistry:

American Chemical Society (ACS) Journals:
Accounts of Chemical Research
Chemical and Engineering News
Environmental Science and Technology
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Journal of Chemical Education


PubChem Project
: Search tool for chemical information, divided into 3 areas: compounds, substances, and BioAssays.

ChemBioFinder Gateway: A name-, formula-, MW-, CAS RN-, and *substructure*-searchable chemical database, indexes over 150 chemical information sites

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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last revised: 11-29-11
by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA