CSA Biology
Plant Science

You can search these databases separately or choose both of these databases at the same time.

• An Advanced Search provides an easy way to put together synonymns and combine with other concepts.
• You may want to OR together several synonyms - e.g. the common name of a plant and the Latin genus and species across the top of search. Then AND together additional concepts you want to include
• Examine descriptors (on the right-hand side) for alternate search terms.

• "view record" simply shows the full database record, including the abstract (summary) - not the article
• a full text link sometimes is included, but not often.
• the yellow "find it" button searches to see if we have this article in electronic form or in print downstairs (by searching our catalog, MnPALS). If we don't have an article in full test or print, click on ILL to request it from another library.

• mark citations you want to track as you go along by clicking on the box beside the number of the citation
• use the print/download/e-mail button at the top of the page to export
• use RefWorks if you want to save and reformat citations. (This requires setting up an account and learning how the software works.)
• you can save searches if you want to run them again

You also can do a "related records" search which looks for articles that share the most cited references. This is another powerful way to tap into related research.

Locating articles in the library or online

From databases, click on "find it" to see if our library has a particular journal. Another option (useful if you're not in one of these databases) is to click on our journal locator. This should indicate whether the journal you're interested in is in our library in print or available in full text in one of our databases. Finally, you can always browse the print journals downstairs, shelved alphabetically by title.

Interlibrary loan

If we don't have the journal you need in print or electronic format, submit an interlibrary loan request for it. From databases, you can click on ILL and a form pops up, already largely filled in. Otherwise, simply put the information about the article you want in our blank form. It takes several days for these to be processed, so plan ahead. In most cases you will get an e-mail with a link to a scanned-in version of the article. Check your borrowing record to see how these requests are proceeding.

Copyright law limitations: our library is allowed to request no more than five articles from any one journal published within the past five years. If anyone asks for a sixth article, we can order it, but will have to pay a copyright fee. Because those fees can be quite high - $30 is not unusual - we will double check with you to see if it's something you really need. Be aware that could slow the process down. (One journal that is already maxed out is Oecologia - so if an article you need is from that publication, we'll have to pay the copyright fee for it.)

Using RefWorks to compile and format your citations

You might notice that in the CSA databases there's an option to export your references to RefWorks. This is a citation management program you can use to store and reformat references. For example, you can select references in CSA Biological Sciences, send them to your RefWorks account, and then later have them printed out in the format used by the journal Ecology. These references will be stored as long as you like.

First, you need to set up a personal account from a computer on the campus network.
Later, log in and use the system to sort out your references, import or add references, add notes if you want, and then export in whatever citation format you prefer.

• To send references to your RefWorks account from a CSA database, mark the references you want to save, then click on "save to RefWorks."
• To send references from Web of Science, mark those you want to save, then click on "marked list" then "export to reference software." Save that file, then open Refworks, click on "import," browse to find the file you saved and click "import" at the bottom of the screen.

To print out references -

• click on "bibliography" and choose a citation style.
• choose whether to create a text, html, or Word document, then cut and paste into your paper.
• "write 'n cite" is a plug-in program for use with Word - not necessary, but an option.
• NOTE: When you import from different databases, you'll need to do some editing. Web of Science, for example, gives titles of journals in all caps. Genus and species are often not italicized or properly capitalized.
  You need to edit your final works cited list to make sure the entries are all complete and consistent.