Biology 1110 Research
Melanie Robinson
Marge Peters . (630) 942-2337 . petersm@cod.edu
1: FIND YOUR TOPIC: Your teacher has suggested some environmental topics; here are databases to explore others:
Issues and Controversies on File
CQ Researcher
2: RESEARCH YOUR TOPIC IN JOURNALS
- Find articles in refereed journals (sometimes called peer- reviewed)
Click on the Biology database link under Databases by subject: http://www.cod.edu/library/resources/subjectdb/biology.htm
- Most allow you to limit to only scholarly journal articles or to full-text only:
- Let's try a search in Academic Search Premier. Choose Advanced Search if you are trying to link 2 or more terms: coal AND mountaintop removal or transportation AND green technology. If searching for a term that can have multiple endings -- environment, environmental -- use * after the root word: environment* and you will match all forms of the word. Be sure to check "Peer-reviewed."
- BE CAREFUL! Although the articles retrieved may be from scholarly journals, they may not be research articles. They could be editorials, bibliographies, and other less research-oriented publications.
- Articles may be full-text / PDF (digitized image) or may be abstract only. If the Library does not have holdings of the journal, be sure to get interlibrary loan of your article if it is abstract-only
Special help for other databases:
Academic OneFile : Checkmark "Peer-reviewed." Enter terms in find box and be sure to use Advanced Search if linking multiple terms in order to put "and" between separate concepts. Truncation sumbol is *.
ScienceDirect: We have subscribed to a subset of full-text journals from ScienceDirect. These are all peer-reviewed journals. Be sure to scroll down to Subscribed journals. Change radio button for Dates to "All years." The Basic Search allows two terms to be linked with AND. If you need to link more concepts, use the Advanced search. Singular form of word ordinarily searches all variations of it. Once in a while, if you click the PDF symbol to retrieve articles the database will give you a price to pay for access or ask for a login and password, you know that this is one of the journals we do not subscribe to. Order these articles on Interlibrary Loan
3: USE BOOKS
Click on COD Library Catalog (http://lrc.cod.edu) and choose Subject or Keyword to search for your topic.
Click Search.
4: CITING SOURCES: BioScience format
- BioScience
Use either the print journals on the shelf in the periodicals area or bring up an issue from our electronic version in Academic Search Premier. Be sure to look at the "References cited" section at the end of virtually all articles. Even more thorough is the guide "A Guide to BioScience Style." Look later in the document under References: In-text citations and References cited at http://www.aibs.org/bioscience/resources/BioScience_Style_Guide.pdf Somewhat similar to APA style without the italics and dates are not in parentheses.
