Research Guides: Biology: Get Started

Key Resources

Welcome! This guide will get you started with library-based research in biology.

If you are new to conducting research consider reviewing our Video Tutorials to learn the research tools available at the library.

To find books or articles we own, or to see what we have on a particular topic, use Library Search on the Library's website.

Start your research and find articles with these key biology-focused databases:

Web of Science
Citations covering journals in the sciences (1900-present), social sciences (1956-present), and arts and humanities (1997-present). Forward and backward search capabilities make this a particularly strong database. Use the filters along the left of the page after searching to narrow your results.

Easily explore an article bibliography, as well as sources that have cited the article since its publication, via the Citation Network feature. Create a free personal account to keep a comprehensive search history, create search alerts and citation alerts. Additional features related to author and journal profiles are available.
Language: English, Russian, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, etc.
Text Mining: Allowed; only through Clarivate APIs
Keywords: Social Science Citation Index Science Citation Index Arts and Humanities Citation Index Conference Proceedings Citation Index Emerging Sources Citation Index WoS Knowledge
PubMed
Go-to source of articles in biomedicine, biochemistry, and related medical fields, run by the National Library of Medicine. Search Medline, life science journals, and online books through the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Many search results link to full-text articles in journals through library subscriptions.

Includes advanced search tools such as Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and the Clinical Queries feature. Personalized MyNCBI account features, such as email alerts, are only available by leaving the Library's instance of PubMed and accessing the resource through the open web site (pubmed.gov).
Language: English
Keywords: Pub Med
Academic Search Premier
A multidisciplinary database for peer-reviewed journals, newspapers and magazines, and some trade publications. Good for interdisciplinary research, particularly research that crosses between science and social science.

Language: English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, French, Chinese, Arabic etc.
Keywords: ASP

Find the complete list of biology databases at the Biology link in our database list.

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