Subject guide: biology

articles | books | websites

Find articles via library databases

• PubMed/Medline
  The premier index for research in biomedical science. Medline help is available online and in print. Use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings Thesaurus from the U.S. National Library of Medicine) to find the best search terms.
• SCOPUS
  An excellent tool that provides science and engineering abstracts. Use the interactive tutorials to learn time-saving tips and tricks. Scopus provides citation tracking, thus allowing you to view the abstracts for all articles cited in a given paper, as well as abstracts for all the articles citing a given paper.
• Agricola
  Index to the U.S. National Agricultural Library. Links to full-text where available. Coverage includes animal, plant, and veterinary sciences; forestry; aquaculture and farming; agricultural economics; cooperative extensions; nutrition; and earth and environmental sciences.
• JSTOR
  Full-text historical archive of important scholarly science journals. Lacks the most recent 2-5 years’ worth of content depending on the journal.

Find articles via open access archives

• BioMed Central
  Independent publishing house committed to providing immediate open access to peer-reviewed biomedical research.
• Directory of Open Access Journals
  Free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. Aims to cover all subjects and languages .
• HighWire Press
  Stanford University Libraries maintains this online repository of peer-reviewed journals and scholarly content. Not all of the HighWire journals are free, but many are.
• Public Library of Science
  The Public Library of Science makes scientific and medical literature freely available. Publishes PLoS Biology, PLoS Clinical Trials, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, PLoS Medicine, and PLoS Pathogens.
• PubMed Central
  U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.

  Find review articles

  Review articles summarize current research in a given topic and are a good place to begin a literature review.
  
  Find reviews in Medline by using Review [pt] as a search term.
  Find reviews in SCOPUS by using DOCTYPE (re) as a search term.

Off-campus access to these databases is easy. When prompted, sign in with your SMU network/email user name and password. For problems, call 360.486.8803 or email us.

 

articles | books | websites

Find books

• Use the O'Grady Library catalog to find books.
• Use Summit to find books that the O'Grady Library doesn't own.
• Use ILLiad to request books that neither O'Grady Library or Summit owns.

 

articles | books | websites

Background information

A Short Guide to Writing About Biology (Pechenik)

• General
• Health sciences
  
  • General
  • Sports medicine
  • Nutrition
  • Forensices
• Behavioral & mental health sciences
• Ecology & environmental sciences
• Animal science
• Plant science

• General
  
  • Access Science
  • American Men & Women of Science
  • Encyclopedia of Scientific Principles, Laws, and Theories
  • A Dictionary of Biology
  • A Dictionary of Geneticists
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Science
  • Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Health sciences: general
  
  • An A-Z of Medicinal Drugs
  • A-Z of Plastic Surgery
  • Concise Medical Dictionary
  • A Dictionary of Nursing
  • A Dictionary of Public Health
  • Encyclopedia of Stem Cell Research
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine
  • Health Care Policy and Politics A to Z
  • The Oxford Companion to Medicine
  • The Oxford Companion to the Body
• Health sciences: sports medicine
  
  • World of Sports Science
  • The Oxford Comapnion to the Body
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine
• Health sciences: nutrition
  
  • An A-Z of Food and Drink
  • A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition
  • Encyclopedia of Obesity
  • Food and Fitness: a Dictionary of Diet and Exercise
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets: a Guide to Health and Nutrition
  • The Oxford Book of Health Foods
• Health sciences: forensics
  
  • Body Farms
  • Forensic Biology
• Behavioral & mental health sciences
  
  • A Dictionary of Psychology
  • Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addictive Behavior
  • Encyclopedia of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders
• Ecology & environmental sciences
  
  • A Dictionary of Earth Sciences
  • A Dictionary of Ecology
  • A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation
  • A Dictionary of Geography
  • A Dictionary of Weather
  • Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change
  • The Encyclopedia of Underwater Life
  • The Oxford Companion to Global Change
  • The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
  • The Oxford Companion to the Earth
• Animal sciences
  
  • A Dictionary of Animal Behaviour
  • A Dictionary of Zoology
  • The Encyclopedia of Mammals
  • The Encyclopedia of Underwater Life
  • The New Encyclopedia of Insects and Their Allies
  • The New Encyclopedia of Birds
  • The New Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians
• Plant sciences
  
  • A Dictionary of Plant Sciences
  • The Oxford Companion to the Garden

Websites

The Boston University Science and Engineering Library has an excellent introduction to scientific literature and provides lists of the most highly regarded journals in the fields of molecular biology, microbiology and genetics and environmental sciences and plant biology.