CSA Biological Abstracts
Choose this database from the library's Website. To search, type in
synonyms across a row; narrow your search by adding a second concept.
For example:
- puma OR cougar OR felis concolor
- habitat OR environment
As you examine your results, tweak your search terms. Abstracts and
descriptors may suggest ways to narrow and focus your search. Scroll
down toward the bottom of your results page to make changes.
Click on "full record" to read the abstract (summary) of the article.
Click on "find it" to see if it's available either online or in print
(choosing the MnPALS option will let you search for print copies).
If the article is not in our library, interlibrary loan is an option.
- First,
search the title on Google to see if a
copy is available online for free
- If
not, use the barcode on your ID card and your
last name
- Toward
the bottom of the page, fill in the “not
needed after” date
- Click
on the copyright agreement
This process can take a week or
more; watch your e-mail for a URL and retrieval instructions.
Other ways to
find articles
Tracing cited
works
Find a good current article and track down the articles it cites. To
see if a particular
article is available in our library, click on the Journals link, type
in the
name of the journal the article was published in, and then see if the
issue you
want is available.
Full text journal collections:
JSTOR
A full-text periodical collection that presents .pdf file images of the
actual pages of journals. Unlike most electronic databases, this one
covers journals from their first issue on, but does not
include the most current two-five years coverage. The idea behind it is
to be an electronic archive for older issues, but one benefit is being
able to do full-text searches. There are several ecology journals in
this collection.
Databases:
Academic Search Premier
This database is cross-disciplinary and includes popular magazines,
some primary journals, and trade publications so search results tend to
be a very mixed bag of articles written for different audiences. Some,
but not all, of the articles included are in full text. Most of these
articles are not primary literature, though checking the "scholarly
(peer reviewed) journal" limiter helps exclude most of the secondary
articles.
Google Scholar
A free search engine that aggregates mostly scholarly publications,
including many that are references and abstracts, but not the actual
articles. When you're searching on campus, you may find some links have
a "find it!@gustavus" link - those should link you to the text itself.
(Off campus, it can't tell you are a Gustavus student entitled to
access the library's subscriptions - it just looks at the IP address of
the searcher.)
PubMed (Medline)
A free database of medical journal abstracts provided by the National
Library of Medicine. Many of the millions of articles listed here are
not in full text, but if you click on "limits" you can search for those
that have free full text access. Most are primary literature, but some
reviews and clinical case studies and the like are included as well.
Plant Science
Covers all aspects of plant science, especially
pathology, symbiosis, biochemistry, genetics, biotechnology, techniques
and environmental biology. Over 250 primary research journals are
indexed and abstracted, from 1996 on.
Web of Science
A database of articles in the social and pure sciences; does not
include full text but does offer a chance to see who is citing a given
work and will link to "related records" - those that cite many of the
same sources. This is a cool way to find out how different schools of
thought connect in primary literature.
Using RefWorks
You can store citations to
articles in RefWorks, then format them for your reference list.
When you find a reference
of interest in CSA Biological Sciences, click on RefWorks, an option at the top
of the page; or you can mark several references in a search and then click the
RefWorks icon at the top of the page. Create an account (you must be on campus
to do this), then export your marked records. In RefWorks you can create
folders and take notes on your sources. You may also add in sources by hand by
clicking on References – Add New Reference.
To create a bibliography
- select the references you’ve stored in RefWorks
that you want to cite
- click on “add to my list”
-
click on the Bibliography tab at the top
-
select Ecology for output style
-
choose a file type (such as Word)
-
select “my list”
-
click on “create bibliography”
- Be sure to proofread the
results!
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