Biology 35 – Animal Physiology

Spring 2008

Databases that will be useful for your class.

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts: Biological and Medical Sciences.

· Remember you can limit by publication type.

· Remember you can limit databases you search to cut down on the amount of human and plant physiology you will retrieve. Do this first my eliminating the databases on plants and those very human oriented. As last resource only search Medline and use Animals as a descriptor.

· Remember you can limit by date.

Scopus

· Remember that there is indexing by citation.

· Remember that you can search by article type.

· Remember you can limit by date.

Medline- When you search either Scopus or Cambridge, Medline is included. Medline is the excellent medical database produced by the National Library of Medicine. If you are getting too many articles on plants and humans you can limit your Cambridge search to Medline and search on Animals as a descriptor.

Tips for finding articles for your class.

· Your assignment is a fairly straightforward and simple one. However, physiology can be a little tricky to find the *right* search. The best way around this is to give yourself time to focus on your search when you can focus on the results. Allowing yourself time also leads to the other most important tip…

· Use your librarian!!! You can ask for assistance from any librarian and at the reference desk anytime it is open. If you want to talk to me specifically, Victoria Welborn, x2342, victoria.welborn@furman.edu. Feel free to ask anything, anytime. That’s why they pay me.

· Be sure you understand the difference between a primary and secondary resource; be sure you understand what a research article is. It is NOT an opinion or an editorial.

· Work to make your search as specific as possible. This is the best way to get precise results.

· It is better to reduce your search “positively”. Instead of eliminating things, be more precise in your request. For example, if you are getting too many hits and you don’t want mammals included, add “reptile”” to your search.