Reading & Writings - BI205
Library Research Lab - Fall 2007
Instructors: 
Hope, McCabe

Reference/Instruction Librarian: Steven Burks
Office: Library 210
Phone: ext 2354
Email: sburks@smcvt.edu
My Reference Hours: Variable, I  work Tuesday evenings this semester: 8-10pm
Appointments: Contact me via phone or email
General Reference Hours: Mon to Thurs (9 am -10 pm) Fri (9 am - 5 pm) Sunday (2 pm - 8 pm)
 
 

Access Science - Organic Evolution Fig. 5   Some members of an adaptive radiation, the Hawaiian honey-creepers. Although descended from finches, these birds have become adapted to a variety of ecological roles in the Hawaiian archipelago; some feed primarily on seeds (thick beaks), others on insects (short, thin beaks), others primarily on nectar (long, thin beaks). (After D. J. Futuyma, Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates, 1979)
Access Science - Organic Evolution
 
Library Research Coverage 

I: Finding Peer-Reviewed Primary Research Articles on
Topics in Evolutionary Biology & Ecology

 Find 2-4 journal primary research articles in this session

 A. Stating your research statement/question: ...Example Research Statement
    - Identify the main search concepts in your statement
    - Breakdown the search concepts into broader, narrower, synonymous terms

B. Browsing journals and Searching for journal articles

I. Browsing journals  and Access Science (encyclopedia)  for topic ideas
 - Set up MyEbscohost Alerts to notify you when new topic articles and tables of contents to journals you are interested in are available

II. Journal Databases for Biology  
    --Checklist: What are Peer Reviewed Research Journals

C. Refine your search to broaden or narrow your findings.  Try another database and see if you find different journal sources

D. Review your articles and determine their "ranking" by the following:
   1 - Rank the journals by "prestige"
   2 - What are the main authors institutional affiliation? 
   3 - How many times has the article been cited by other researchers?  Use Google Scholar. 
   (note: a recent article will be limited by the time other researchers could have accessed the article)
   4 - What core research is cited in your articles that supports the probable validity of the articles thesis?

Getting Started  - Research Statement

A. Example Research Statement  

The following simple search statement can be broken down to searchable terms.  Identify main concepts brake them down to synonymous, broader, or narrower terms.

1st version: Why are lions smaller than elephants? see New Scientist article


2nd version: Why haven't the largest mammalian carnivores never grow beyond a certain size?

Latest Version:

Predicting the effect of [climate change] on [large (terrestrial) mammalian] [carnivores]

Searchable Terms can be combined by the Boolean search term AND

climate change

Global Warming
Greenhouse effects
Climate modification
extinction
distribution
range

carnivores

carnvivora
carnivores
carnivory
meat eaters
predatory animals

large mammals

mammals
mammalian
polar bears
bears
 

Truncation symbols (?, *, !) will provide variant spelling after the root word. 
For Example: forest* = forest, forests, forestry
                     carniv* = carnivore, carnivory, carnivora, carnivores
 
B. Full text Databases and Science Indexes 

Academic Search Premier
Interdisciplinary full-text database containing articles from many major Life Science journals.

Example Searches: Account for different spelling and topic terminology in your searches.  Always try a number of different searches.  Note the different results below:

mammal* and "global warming" = 47 hits

mammals and "climat* change" = 138 hits

mammal* and "climat* change" = 207 hits

Why is there a difference in results of the search below?

mammal* and "global warming" and "climat* change" = 16 hits

mammal* and ("global warming" OR "climat* change*") = 249 hits
 

mammals and climatic change and carnivor* = 6

carnivor* and "climat* change" = 16

[your searches will often be too narrow and you will miss relevant articles OR your searches will be too broad and there is too much material to weed through.  Be comfortable strategizing ways to broaden and narrow your searches]

Other "hints"
- You may restrict your searches to Full text and Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals
- You may save or email your searches in your MyEbscohost
 

ProQuest Biology Journals
 Provides access to a wide range of biology topics. The database includes over 285 titles, with more than 250 available in full-text.  Journal Title List

BioOne.1

JSTOR 
Full-text archive of 100's of scholarly journals, including the following:
[To only search Biology Journals - Choose ADVANCE SEARCH, and select

ScienceDirect Health & Life Sciences College Edition (900 journals) and Behavioral & Social Sciences College Edition (350 journals) from Elsevier have been added to the library's ejournals a-to-z holdings. 
To view a list of titles available full text, go to http://www.sciencedirect.com.  Click Browse.  In the left column, de-select non-subscribed and click Apply.  Coverage dates are 1995-present. 
 

Google Scholar
Good source to use for finding research articles not found always found in library periodical databases.

AGRICOLA
Produced by the National Agricultural Library, this database indexes books, electronic media, and over 900 journal publications back to 1970. 

MEDLINE (EbscoHost)
MEDLINE provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree numbers, tree hierarchy and explosion capabilities to search abstracts from

PubMed - Similar to Medline, the governments free version

 
Reference Materials

Print Reference Materials for the Sciences can be found in the section: Q.  Species can be found in QL.   Botany and Plant topics can be found in QK and SB-SD.  Medicine in the R's

  • Species Reference -  QL section for print

    Grizimeks Animal Encyclopedia
    QL 3 .g7813

Electronic and Print Science Reference Sources

Access Science 
Published by McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.  Excellent authoritative science articles authored by experts in their fields.  Includes dictionary and full length articles.

Biology

AccessScience
(Bioscience/Plant  Science/Zoology)

Credo Reference
Search Life Science encyclopedias and dictionaries

Biology  (4 vol encyclopedia)

Grzimek's animal life encyclopedia.(1-17 vol)
REF QL7 .G7813 2003

OMIM, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
 This database is a catalog of human genes and genetic disorders 
 Also in Print - REF QH442.4 .M35

Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America

Dictionary of scientific biography
REF Q141 .D5

Encyclopedia of animal behavior
REF QL750.3 .E53 2004

Medicine

AccessScience- Medicine

Encyclopedia of gerontology
REF RC952.5 .E58 2007

Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine
 Also in Print - REF RC41 .G35 2002

Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer
 Also in Print - REF RC254.5 .G353 2002

 

Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine
 Also in Print - REF R733 .G34 2000

 

Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders

 


OMIM, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
This database is a catalog of human genes and genetic disorders 

 Also in Print - REF QH442.4 .M35

 


Biology  (4 vol encyclopedia)

 


Medical Encyclopedia (from Medline)
 
Browsing Biology Journals - General / Evolution (Organic) / Ecology
You may browse the sampling of science journals from on and off-campus
  • General Biology Journals

Bioscience
 Academic Search Premier  1992 to present  

American Scientist
 Academic Search Premier  2002 to present  

American Scientist
 Academic Search Premier  1975 to present  
Environmental Science & Technology
 American Chemical Society Web Editions  1996 to present  

National Wildlife
 Academic Search Premier  1990 to present  

Nature 

New York Times - Science Desk

 *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: PNAS
 National Academy of Sciences  1915 to present 

Science

Science News
 Academic Search Premier  1975 to present  

Scientific American
 Academic Search Premier  1995 to present 

*Quarterly Review of Biology
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: March 2002 to present 

Annual review of ecology evolution and systematicsa
 Academic Search Premier  2003 - 2005   
Proquest Science Journals 997 - 2005

BMC evolutionary biology
 DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals  2001 to present 

Development Genes and Evolution
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: January 1997 to present

*Evolution: International Journal of Organic Evolution
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: February 2000 to present

Evolution & Development
 Academic Search Premier  1999 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

Journal of Evolutionary Biology
 Academic Search Premier  1999 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research = Zeitschrift für Zoologische Systematik und Evolutionsforschung
 Academic Search Premier  1998 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

*Molecular biology and evolution
 Free Access Journals (HighWire)  1983 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

Plant Systematics and Evolution
 Academic Search Premier  2003 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

Trends in ecology & evolution
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: February 2006 to present
 ScienceDirect Web Editions  2006 to present  

  • Ecology Journals

*American Midland Naturalist
 ProQuest Biology Journals  1997 to present

Animal Behaviour
 EBSCOhost EJS   Your Access: February 2006 to present  

American Naturalist
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: January 1999 to present 
 Academic Search Premier  1993 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

Ecological Applications
JSTOR Arts & Sciences I Collection  1991 - 2002 

Ecological Monographs 1931-2001  /  Print 1976-2004
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: February 1997 to present

Ecologist
 ProQuest Biology Journals  1999 to present  

Ecology
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: January 1997 to present 

Freshwater Biology
 Academic Search Premier  1998 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)
 EBSCOhost EJS  Your Access: January 2004 to present 

*Journal of Ecology
 Academic Search Premier  1977 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

Journal of Animal Ecology
 Academic Search Premier  1998 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

Oikos
 Academic Search Premier  2001 to present  (Embargo: 1 year)

 

Last update: 01/31/2008

 

 

 

 


 Write out a simple search statement in sentence form in the box below. 

 

 

 

Circle the two or three main concepts in your search statement and break them down into synonymous, narrower, or broader terms:

Term 1

1.

2.

3.

 

Term 2

1.

2.

3.

 

Term 3

1.

2.

3.

 

Combine terms in your database searches.

Try a variety of searches and keep track of them

Try more than one database and compare results

Review your articles and determine their "ranking" by the following:
   1 - Rank the journals by prestige
   2 - What are the main authors institutional affiliation? 
   3 - How many times has the article been cited by other researchers?  Use Google Scholar. 
   (note: a recent article will be limited by the time other researchers could have accessed the article)
   4 - What core research is cited in your articles that supports the probable validly of the articles thesis?

* - REVIEW THE ATTACHED CHECKLIST TO DETERMINE IF YOUR ARTICLE IS A PRIMARY RESEARCH ARTICLE
 

Top of Page