Biological Sciences

• Resources
• Research strategies
• Writing and citing

Resources for Biological Sciences

• Definitions, overviews, facts and figures
• Books and more
• Subject readings
• Journal articles
• Internet sites

• Conferences and events
• Preprint servers
• Related Resources
  • Biomedical Science
  • Biological Sciences research resources

Biological Science definitions, facts, figures and overviews

• Dictionaries help you to define your keywords
• Encyclopedias help you to get an overview of your topic and provide more information than a dictionary
• Handbooks and manuals provide figures and facts

Online dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks

Print dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbook

To find additional reference items

1. Search the Library Catalogue
2. Select advanced keyword search
3. Combine a broad keyword AND the word dictionar**
   
   biology AND dictionar**
   
   botany AND encycloped**
   
   birds and field guide**
   
   
4. To retrieve variations of your keyword use the truncation symbol **
   
   e.g. gene** will retrieve gene, genes, genetic

Need help? Ask a question.

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Biological Science books and more

Search the Library Catalogue to find books, videos, CDs

If you know the exact title

1. Select title search
2. Type in the exact title
3. Check the location, call number and status boxes to find the item in the Library collection

If you don't have an exact title OR only have a topic area

1. Select advanced keyword search
2. Type in keywords from your topic
3. Combine your keywords with AND to find catalogue records that contain all of your keywords
   
   e.g. gene AND cloning
   
   
4. To retrieve variations of your keyword use the truncation symbol **
   
   e.g. gene** will retrieve gene, genes, genetic

Catalogue search tips:

• Too many hits? Add another keyword e.g. gene AND cloning AND human
  OR
  Use the limit functions in advanced keyword search e.g. limit by publication date, format, location
• Found a useful title? Click on the subject headings to find similar material
• Studying at a different UOW campus? Use an advanced keyword search and limit by location

Need help? Ask a question.

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Biological Science journal articles

Search a database to find journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and research reports

Try these first

Complete list of Science databases

Found a useful reference?

Some databases do not provide the fulltext of the article. To locate these articles, you will need to search the catalogue to determine if the Library holds the journal title(s) either in print or electronically on another database.

Database search tips:

• Break your topic into keywords and/or phrases. The search strategy worksheet will help you
• Consider alternative keywords or spelling variations
• To narrow your search combine your keywords with AND to find records that contain all your keywords 
  e.g. flora AND Australia
  
• To broaden your search combine your keywords with OR to find records that contain either of your keywords
  e.g. forest OR bush
  
• Use truncation to retrieve variations of your keyword
  e.g. clon* retrieves clone, clones, cloning
  
• Found a useful reference? Use the subject headings to find similar material
• Use library database tips or the database help screens for tips on how to search

More information: Finding Journal Articles Tutorial

Need help? Ask a question.

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Biological Science Internet sites

It is important to critically evaluate all information found on the Web.

Australian flora and fauna

• Atlas of NSW wildlife - NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service
• Forest flora of New South Wales by Joseph Henry Maiden (1859-1925)
• Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales

Organisations and departments

Australia

• Biotechnology Australia
• Food Standards Australia and New Zealand
• NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service
• World Wildlife Fund Australia

International

• American Society of Plant Biologists
• IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Red list of threatened species
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
• Mammal Species of the World

Search engines

Search engines create databases using computer programs called 'spiders', 'robots' or 'crawlers' that trawl the web and other Internet sites and return results to the database.

Try these first:

• Scirus - scientific search engine
• Google Scholar
• Other search engines and directories

Directories

Directories organise Internet resources by subject. The information provided in directories is created, arranged and maintained by people rather than machines.

UOW sites

• School of Biological Sciences

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Last reviewed: 22 April, 2008