Biological Sciences Senior Seminar |
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For Help
Contact liaison librarian Qinghua Xu
Go to AskUs! for a live chat with a librarian, to send us your question via email, or to call us at the Reference Desk.
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| Learning Outcomes |
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After this session, you will be able to:
1. Navigate the library web page; identify and obtain resources.
2. Differentiate between primary and secondary sources; limit searches to scholarly/peer reviewed journals
3. Construct a search strategy and conduct an effective search in most appropriate database(s).
4. Properly cite materials using CBE(CSE) style.
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| Choosing a topic |
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Brainstorm:
- Which biology classes have interested you the most?
- Which specific topics did you study in those classes?
- Does one of your professors have an area of study that interests you? Ask for his/her advice.
- What unanswered questions do you have? This is an opportunity to explore those questions!
Browse:
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| Identifying sources |
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What type of information will you need?
- Primary sources (Journal articles)
- Scholary/Peer-reviewed journals
Primary vs secondary
- Primary literature: publications that report the results of original scientific research constitute the "primary" literature and include journal papers, conference papers, monographic series, technical reports, and theses and dissertations.
- Secondary literature: the "primary" literature is eventually compacted into "secondary" sources which synthesize and condense what is known on specific topics. These include reviews, monographs, textbooks, treatises, handbooks, and manuals.
Scholarly journals / Peer reviewed journals
Scholarly journals:
- contain articles written by experts and scholars in a discipline
- purpose of the article is to publish the results of original research
- the language of scholarly journals reflects the discipline covered
- always have an extensive bibliography of works cited page
- many scholarly journals are published by professional organizations, research institution
- contain none or minimum advertising
Most scholarly journals are peer-reviewed (or refereed) publications. However, articles in some scholarly and professional journals are not peer-reviewed, but are selected by an editor or board. Standards of scholarship in such journals are often equal or comparable to those of peer-reviewed publications
Peer-reviewed journals:
Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed journals) are scholarly journals that contain articles that have been evaluated by a panel of experts in the field before publication. The review process helps ensure that the published
articles reflect solid scholarship in their fields.
Popular magazines are those types of publications that can be found in a bookstore or grocery store. Articles in popular magazines
- are not necessarily written by experts in their fieldscover very current popular topicsmay contain opinions that are not reinforced by rigorous research
- often do not include bibliographies or works cited pages.
Check out more differences between scholarly and popular journals
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/course/periodical.html
A chart to help you to dertermine the characteristics of different types of periodicals. Remember to consult with your instructor about the type of sources appropriate for your assignment.
Finding Peer-Reviewed Journals and Journal Articles
There is no comprehensive source for identifying all peer-reviewed journals. To help determine if a particular journal is peer-reviewed:
1. Refer to the journal itself (either to an individual issue of the journal or to the publisher's web site)
PLoS biology
2. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (volume 4: Locate
the title in the alphabetical list. If it is a peer-reviewed/refereed periodical, a right arrow icon will appear left to the title). The Directory is available at the Reference Desk.
3. Some online databases to which the Library subscribes have begun to flag the peer-reviewed journals so they can be searched in the database. A selected list of databases offering peer-reviewed journal searching can be found here. Also check here for indexes with ALL scholarly or peer reviewed articles.
Creating a Search Strategy
1. State your topic idea as a question
2. Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question
Click here for information about creating a sound search strategy and a search preparation worksheet.
Search builder from University of Arizona Library
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| Finding books |
Books in UWP library
Use the Library Catalog to find books owned by the UWP library. Use one of the catalog's keyword search options. Then look at the subject headings used in the records you retrieve. Is there one that describes what you're looking for? If so, click on it to find other books on your topic.
Books are arranged on the shelf by broad subject categories.
Call numbers in Biological Sciences
Suggested keyword for monongraphic series: Bulletin, special report, special paper, technical report, and technical paper.
E-book:
netLibrary
Knovel Scientific and Engineering Databases (Science/Engineering E-books)
Books in other libraries : To find books and other materials from public, school, and academic libraries across Wisconsin, search BadgerCat.
UW System Search: UW System Search/Universal Borrowing (UB) allows you make arrangements yourself to borrow materials from other UW libraries. All of the 13 UW libraries participate in this program. UB is built on the idea that the UW System libraries together are now one virtual library.
Using the UWP library catalog, you can simultaneously search other UW libraries to determine if the item you want is available. Simply select the "Multi Library Search" link at the top of our library's catalog and conduct your search. If the item is available from another UW library, you can complete an online request form, which will be transmitted directly to the owning library. The owning library will retrieve the material and send it to the UWP library. A courier service runs between the UW libraries five days a week and delivers the requested materials. You can use the UB service to request books and A/V materials, however, requests for periodical articles should still go through the regular interlibrary loan process.
Tutorial:
http://www.uwp.edu/departments/library/guides/guides/uw_systemsearch/index.htm
Interlibrary loan
Before placing an interlibrary loan request, you should:
- Check the UW-Parkside library catalog to be sure the materials are not owned by the university
- Check that the books, DVDs, CDs and videos are NOT available through UW System Search
Tutorial:
http://www.uwp.edu/departments/library/guides/guides/illiad/index.htm
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| Locating articles |
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UWP Periodicals List
Tells you what journals the UW-Parkside library has access to and whether access is avaialbe in print or electronic for (or both).
Tutorial: using the UW-P periodicals list
Google Scholar
Type your queries in Google Scholar search box and click on FindIt!@UWParkside and you will be directed to full-text articles we own.
If you are off campus, go to "Scholar Preferences", and type library "UW-Parkside Library" as follow:  and then 
Biosciences Best Indexes
- Biological Abstracts is an essential resource for research on life science topics from botany to microbiology to pharmacology, serving to connect researchers with critical journal coverage. It enables librarians, faculty and students to easily retrieve references to research reported in life science journals. More than 5,000 international journals are monitored to ensure that virtually every life science topic is covered, including agriculture, biochemistry, biotechnology, botany, ecology, the environment, microbiology, neurology, pharmacology, public health and toxicology.
Indexing presents key terms in the same context used by the original author. This allows searching of the database for items, such as organisms or biochemicals, taking into account the relationship between them in the source literature. Click here for an online tutorial.
 
Truncation symbols Boolean Operator
- Science Citation Index provides researchers, administrators,
faculty, and students with quick, powerful access to the bibliographic and
citation information they need to find relevant, comprehensive research
data. Overcome information overload and focus on essential data from over
3,700 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals across 100
disciplines.
Cited Reference Searching allows searching for articles that cite a known author or work because the information stored about each article includes the article's cited reference list (often called its bibliography). Because this type of search differs from keyword or subject searching, you may want to review this recorded tutorial on how to search SCI. Click here for information about Journal Citation Reports and using ISI's Journal Impact Factor to evaluate journals.
Cited Reference Search:
Step 1 - Cited reference lookup
- Cited Author: Enter the name of he first author of the article. Enter the last name first, followed by a space and, if known, up to 3 initials. Unless you know all the initials in an author's name, put an asterisk after the intitial(s) you have entered.
- Cited Work: Enter the abbreviated title of the journal (not the article title) using the available list - click on journal abbreviation list below the Cited Work search box or the first significant words of book title.
- Cited Year: Enter the four digit year. You can enter mutiple year by putting or between them. (e.g. 2005 or 2006 or 2007), or a range of years (e.g. 2006-2009).
Step 2 - Cited reference selection
- Choose from the list of articles that match your searh by clicking in the box next to the references(s). If you watn to look for citations to all of the listed articles.
- Click on Finish Search button to view articles that cite the selected article(s).
- The abstract with addtional details for each article listed in the search results can be viewed by clicking on the article title. Also provided is the number of times the article has been cited as well as the number of references included in the article.
- PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources. You may also search Medline via Ebsco .
Pubmed
Central : a free archive of biomedical and life science journals.
PubMed Tutorial
- BioOne is a unique aggregation of high-impact, bioscience research journals. BioOne provides integrated access to interrelated journals focused on the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. Currently, there are more than 150 full-text journals in the BioOne collection; additional publishers and journals will be added over time.
Usage Notes: Click "Search" on the masthead for a form that allows you to search by author, institution, journal title(s), and by words appearing anywhere in an article, in the abstract, or in the references. You can choose to search "All Publications" or you can select one or more individual journal titles to search. Use Ctrl+click to select multiple journal titles.
Click "Browse" on the masthead to browse current or archived journals, or to search BioOne Abstracts and Indexes.
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Specialized Indexes
- Agricola (AGRICultural OnLine Access) is a bibliographic database of citations to the agricultural literature created by the National Agricultural Library (NAL) and its cooperators. Production of these records in electronic form began in 1970, but the database covers materials in all formats, including printed works from the 15th century. The records describe publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines, including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences. Although the AGRICOLA database does not contain the materials, thousands of AGRICOLA records are linked to full-text documents online, with new links added daily. AGRICOLA is searchable on the World Wide Web. For information on how to obtain library materials, see How to request materials from NAL.
The AGRICOLA database is organized into two bibliographic data sets. Each data set may be searched separately, or they may both be searched together. One data set is the NAL Online Public Access Catalog, known as "NAL Catalog", containing citations to books, audiovisual materials, serial publications, and other materials in the NAL collection. AGRICOLA also contains some bibliographic records for items cataloged by other libraries but not held in NAL's collection.
The second database is NAL's Article Citation Database, also known as: "Journal Articles". It includes citations, many with abstracts, to journal articles (see Journals Indexed in AGRICOLA), book chapters, reports, and reprints, selected primarily from the materials found in the NAL Catalog. Both data sets are updated daily with newly cataloged and indexed materials.
- Applied Science and Technology Full Text indexes and abstracts articles of at least one column in length. Full Text coverage for selected periodicals is also included. English-language periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere are covered; non-English language articles are included if English abstracts are provided. Periodical coverage includes trade and industrial publications, journals issued by professional and technical societies, and specialized subject periodicals, as well as special issues such as buyers' guides, directories, and conference proceedings. Abstracting coverage begins with periodicals published in March 1993. The abstracts range from 50 to 300 words and describe he content and scope of the source articles. Full Text coverage begins in 1997.
Subjects covered include: Acoustics, Aeronautics, Applied Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, Atmospheric Sciences, Automatic Control, Automotive Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Communication & Information Technology, Computer Databases & Software, Construction, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Engineering & Biomedical Materials, Energy Resources & Research, Environmental Engineering, Fire & Fire Prevention, Food & Food Industry, Geology, Industrial Engineering, Machine Learning, Machinery, Marine Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgy, Mineralogy, Mining Engineering, Neural Networks, Nuclear Engineering, Oceanography, Optical & Neural Computing, Petroleum & Gas, Physics, Plastics, Robotics, Solid State Technology, Space Science, Textile Industry & Fabrics, Transportation, Waste Management and Other Industrial & Mechanical Arts
Databases with peer-reviewed search options enabled
Academic Search Complete
Choose Advanced search, under Limit Your Results, check the "Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journals" box on the main search screen
Biological and Agricultural Index
Under"limite to", check the "peer-revieweded" box.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text
Under Limit Your Results, check the "Peer-Reviewed" box on the main search screen
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| Evaluating Sources |
Evaluating the sources you find is a crucial step in the process of library research. You will need to determine whether or not a particular resource fits the requirements of your assignment.
How current is the information?
/When was the site last updated?
Is it scholarly?
Is this information from a reputable source?
Who is the author? What's his/her credentials? /Is contact information, i.e. an email, given for the author?
How objective is the information?
/Is there a commercial or organizational interest associated with the site?
How accurate or truthful?
How authoritative?
These sorts of questions help to establish a source's credibility, reliability, and usefulness.
Critically analyzing information sources from Cornell University Library, lists some of the critical questions you should ask when you consider the appropriateness of sources for your research.
The A B C Ds ofEvaluating Internet Resources from Binghamton University Library, lists criteria one uses to evaluate Internet Resources.
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| Citing Sources |
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It is important to give credit where credit is due. If an idea, fact, or concept within your lab report or paper is not yours, make an acknowledgement using a citation.
The Council of Science Editors scientific style of documentation is used in the biological sciences and many other fields of scientific study as well. It offers two approaches for documenting sources: 1) a citation/sequence system and, 2) a name/year system.
These resources can help you with your citations and references:
Scientific style and format : the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers (Reference Desk T11 .S386 2006) Published by the Council of Biology Editors.
CBE Documentation from the University of Wisconsin, which describes two systems of documentation, the citation-sequence system and the name-year system.
Council of Biology Editors (CBE) Style of Documentation in Science and Mathematics Guide prepared by Monroe Community College.
A tutorial from University of North Carolina University Library
EndNoteWeb is a Web-based research and writing tool that allows you to store citations, insert footnotes and create bibliographies. It is available through Web of Science. View oline tutorial
***Note that journal titles must be abbreviated in citations in CSE style. A list of journals and their abbreviations may be found at the PubMed's Journal Browser -- Journals indexed in Medline (PubMed). or Web of science.
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UW-Parkside Library • P.O. Box 2000 • Kenosha, WI 53141 • (262)595-2360
Created 08/2004 by Qinghua Xu, liasion to Biological Sciences Department
Last Update: 08/26/08
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