BIO 209W: Fundamentals of Ecology: Home
Finding research for your science news assignment
This guide provides some resources and other information that will help you find good articles for your writing assignments. This page has direct links to databases and journals that cover ecology and similar topics. If you are having trouble coming up with relevant search terms, take a look at the Video Tutorials page of this guide, and if you want more information about how to properly cite the information you find, take a look at the Citations and References page.
Don't hesitate to reach out to me, your subject librarian, if you get stuck or have questions that aren't answered in this guide. Happy searching!
Best bets for finding research
Just want to browse through some journals? The link below will take you to a list of lots of peer-reviewed ecology journals we have online access to here at Miami. This may be a good place to start for those of you having trouble finding an article you can use as the focus of your science news assignment. Not all of the articles in these journals fit the criteria for primary, peer-reviewed research, so you'll have to do a little bit of legwork to evaluate whether you can use it. If you're not sure, ask me or Dr. González!
Looking for related research? The databases listed below are some recommended options for tracking down resources to use in your analysis. If you need a refresher on how to best use them, contact me!
- Web of Science (Core Collection) This link opens in a new window
NOTE: If prompted, please enter your MU credentials. Do not select “Institutional Sign In.” Clearing web browser cookies and cache may also fix access issues.
Use Web of Science to perform a cited reference search, where you can look up an article and see how many times it has been cited. The Web of Science Core Collection includes the following databases: Science Citation Index (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index (1990-present), Book Citation Index (2005-present), Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present), Current Chemical Reactions (1985-present), Index Chemicus (1993-present). Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.
- BIOSIS Citation IndexBIOSIS Citation Index covers all major areas in the life sciences, with broad coverage in molecular and cell biology, pharmacology, endocrinology, genetics, neurosciences, infectious diseases, ecology and organismal biology. This is very useful database for tracking down related research.
Get to Full Text with Find It!
Most literature indexes do not have the actual journal articles included within them. Instead, these indexes just contain information about the article, e.g. titles, authors, abstract.
When you find an article of interest in an index, click the "Find It" button by that entry to get to the full text. If we have a subscription, "Find It" will provide a link to the journal article. (Or if we have the print, it will provide a link to the catalog with the location and call number.)
(A few databases, like Academic Search Complete, include full text for some articles. These databases may allow you to search only for articles available in full text, but be aware that you are only searching a small portion of the articles we actually subscribe to.)
In-class library presentation
Here is a powerpoint of the slides I presented in class on Thursday, February 2, for those who would like it. I've also included a PDF version as an alternative.
