Molecular & Cellular Biology

• Medline (EBSCOhost)
  topics covered include clinical and experimental medicine; microbiology; pathology; pharmacology; physiology; reproductive biology; toxicology; and veterinary medicine (virtually identical to PubMed).
  Coverage Dates: 1950 - present
• Web of Science
  topics include all science disciplines, includes cited reference searching
  Coverage Dates: 1970 - present

• SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts)
  covers all aspects of chemistry, try the Web version, otherwise requires installation of search software.
  Coverage Dates: 1907 - present
• AGRICOLA (EBSCOhost)
  covers agricultural topics.
  Coverage Dates: 1970
• ArticleFirst
  topics covered include science, technology, medicine, social science, business, humanities and popular culture.
  Coverage Dates: 1990 - present
• Dissertation Abstracts
  includes the complete range of academic subjects appearing in dissertations accepted at accredited institutions.
  Coverage Dates: 1861 - present

Entrez PubMed - Access to databases which index nucleotide sequences, protein sequences, macromolecular structures, whole genomes, and MedLine.

NIH Computational Molecular Biology: Databases

OSU catalog find books, journals (not journal articles), videos, maps at OSU.

Find books at academic libraries throughout Oregon and Washington.  Links from the OSU Libraries Online Catalog allow you to duplicate a search in Summit, and if the item is available at another library, you can request it and it will be delivered within three days to the Valley Library circulation desk.

To search for a topic you will need to use an article database (not the e-journals list - more about using e-journals below).  

Find a good database.  Each database focuses on a particular subject. 

• If you know the name of a good database for your project already, use the alphabet key on the databases page to navigate to your database. 
• If you don't know the database name, use the subject pull down menu at the top of the databases page to choose your subject area.  Click on the red "I" to get more information about each database.  

Break your topic down.  Article databases often work best when you put a single idea in each search box.  For example, the research topic "what is the best plant spacing for soybeans in Oregon" could be broken down into three main ideas - Soybean, plant density, and Oregon.  Each of these ideas would go in their own search box or be separated by "and."

Use Synonyms.  Scientists often refer to words in a variety of different terms than you may be used to.  Try different search words to come up with the best results.  For example, plant spacing could also be called plant density, crop density, or intraplant competition.

Find the article.  Not all databases have full-text articles, and sometimes we have the article available electronically, but it is not immediately available from the database with one click. If you do not see a PDF icon for the article within the database, you have 3 options -

• you can click on the "360 Link to Full Text" button which will help you discover whether or not our library has the article,
• copy the name of the journal title, open another tab or window to the library's homepage, click on the e-journals link and paste the name of the journal in the search box,  once you have opened the journal, find the right volume, issue and page number for your article,
• if the journal title is not in the ejournals list, paste the title into the OSU Libraries Catalog (use the title search) to see if we have it (either electronically or in print). 

Step 1: Identify specific articles of interest using the article database directions above.
Step 2:

• Click on the E-Journals list to see if the journal you need is available online (use the link above or go to e-journals in the center of the library's homepage under "quicklinks." 
• Enter the journal title (not the article title) in the search box at the top of the page. 
• If you get multiple results, choose the journal listing that has the date range that includes the time frame when your article was published. 
• Click on the blue publisher's link to get to the e-journal.
• Navigate to the correct volume, issue and page number for your article by using either the date links, the previous issues link, or the volume links (each e-journal interface looks a little different).

Step 3: If the journal is not online, find the call number for the journal(s) in which the article is found. (Use the OSU Libraries Catalog for this step.) Find the article in the library and make a photocopy.

The following websites give some tips on how to read scientific journal articles:

Reading a scientific article

How to Read a Journal Article 

My brief advice for reading journal articles is to keep a pen handy to write notes to yourself in the margins, and always write a summary of what you learned from the paper at the top of the paper or on a post-it note immediately after you finish reading the paper.

• Worksheet for Evaluating a Journal Article
  You can use this worksheet to guide you through the process of reading a scientific article.

The Writing Center - at OSU

Library Research Tutorial

Research and Documentation Online

 

A Writer's Reference

Scientific style and format : the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers / Style Manual Committee, Council of Science Editors. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006. 7th ed.
Valley Reference T11 .S386 2006

OWL Help for ESL Instructors and Students  - Resources for both ESL instructors and students

Identify the main concepts within your topic.

• What are they?
• What are other words that might be used to express each one?
• How can you combine them to get the most relevant results? Use terms for the most important concepts alone or in combination with each other.

 

Finding useful sources is highly dependent upon the words you choose to use in your searching.

• Try encyclopedias, handbooks, or read some journal articles on your topic to get a better grounding in the vocabulary of the field.
• Use the subject(s) listed in the library catalog and/or database entries you find that are relevant to your topic. These "subject headings" will almost always bring up more sources that are relevant.

• Does the source have a bibliography? This can lead you to other sources.
• Is there an author listed as part of the citation? Judging authority can be difficult without an author.
• Is the journal refereed (peer reviewed)?
• How old is the source? Will this matter for your topic? Currency of information can be important. Some aspects of a topic may need currency more than others.
• What other terminology is being used either by the author or by the database? Keep an eye out for other words you can use in your search statements.
• Does The Valley Library own the journal (either in print or electronically)? If we don't own it, it will take more time to get your hands on the source.

Citation styles vary widely by journal.  Check the journal's website to see if they provide citation instructions under a section typically called "instructions for authors."  If you can't find this information on the website, use the references section of the journal article you want to model your references after as an example.   Pay particular attention to the order they place the information in, whether or not they use italics or bold, how they abbreviate journal titles, and how they use punctuation.

For some examples of some common citation styles preferred in the sciences see the CSE style guide or the APA style guide .

If you are not sure that an article you would like to use as a reference for your project is from a peer-reviewed journal, you can

• Ask an expert in the field (e.g. your instructor).
• Look inside an issue of the journal to see if it describes the kind of material published in the journal.
• Look at the journal's web site for the above information. Try a search in Google for the journal title and then look in their "about" section or their homepage for this information.
• Ask a librarian at the Reference Desk or email Hannah Rempel .