LibraryGuides: BIO 205: Databases

What is a Database?

Research tools that help you find articles in journals, magazines, or newspapers, or other information sources like books, videos, and maps.
Some focus on a kind of source (like newspaper articles); most of ours focus on scholarly research in a specific academic field.

(Ruth Szpunar at DePauw University)

Scientific Journals

The best sources to cite are scholarly, scientific journal articles that are "peer-reviewed" (screened for publication by the author's peers).

Primary Article - First report of new research that includes actual data and describes experimental methods

Review Article - Secondary report that summarizes and discusses previous research findings

The databases below can help you to locate scholarly, scientific, and/or peer-reviewed articles relevant to the biological sciences.

Recommended Databases

Scopus
An abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources, including journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, abstracts, and patent records from the humanities, sciences and social sciences. Allows users to locate the most highly cited items and the articles that cite them.
BioOne Complete
A collection of over 200 peer-reviewed journals in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences (1990s-present).
PubMed.gov
Indexes biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. From off campus, enter PubMed via the library website for Creighton linkouts.
Academic Search Premier
This multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 3,100 journals, including active full text for nearly 2,750 peer-reviewed journals.
EBSCOhost
An interface that allows users to search over 40 EBSCO databases across several disciplines at once. Includes full-text access to thousands of journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.
ScienceDirect
Search through journals, books, reference works, and images for the physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences, social sciences and humanities.
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (eLS)
An online encyclopedia with peer-reviewed entries covering a wide variety of topics in the biological sciences.

Other Sources

Some sources can be consulted for ideas or background, but cannot take the place of peer-reviewed journals. For example:

Websites - Avoid citing personal websites (even those of scientists) unless they are hosted by a scientific research institution.

Encyclopedias - Avoid citing encyclopedias unless they are science-specific and peer-reviewed, e.g. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (eLS).

Magazines - Avoid citing general magazines (even science magazines like Discover or Science News).

Books - Avoid citing books unless they are written by and for scientists, and published by a scientific or university press. Books are usually secondary sources.