Biology

Reference Sources (Background) Locating Books Locating Articles (Databases & Indexes) Websites Evaluating Sources Citing Sources

Reference Sources (Background)

Oxford Reference Online - Biological Sciences (full text; current)
Search biology-related dictionaries and reference books published by Oxford University Press. Includes Dictionary of Biology, Oxford Companion to the Body, Dictionary of Ecology, Encyclopedia of Evolution, Dictionary of Plant Sciences, and Dictionary of Zoology.

Oxford Reference Online - Medicine (full text; current)
Search medicine-related dictionaries and reference books published by Oxford University Press. IncludesOxford Companion to the Body, Concise Medical Dictionary, A-Z of Medicinal Drugs, Oxford Companion to Medicine, andOxford Dictionary of Sports Science and Medicine.

Gale Virtual Reference Library (full text; current)
15 key reference encyclopedias in biology and medicine, literature, and the social sciences. Includes Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America, Biology, World of Earth Science, Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer, and Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health.

Dictionary of Biology.
Ref. QH 302.5 .D5 2000

Encyclopedia of Environmental Pollution and Cleanup.
Ref. TD 173 .E53 1999

Encyclopedia of Human Biology.
Ref. QP 11 .E53 1997

Magill's Survey of Science. Life Science Series.
Ref. QH 307.2 .M34 1991
Covers life sciences issues and phenomena are covered in a brief overview.

Finding Books

These are the main call number areas for books in Biology:

MaconCat
The library's online catalog, providing access to books, journals, music, and movies in the library.

WorldCat
A catalog of books and other materials in libraries worldwide.

Books and articles not owned by our library can be obtained from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan. Allow sufficient time for processing.  Average turnaround time is 3-5 days for articles and 3-14 days for books, excluding holidays and weekends. Submit ILL requests well in advance of deadlines.

Locating Articles (Databases & Indexes)

Biological and Medical Sciences ( Dates vary; most 1980s to present; citations & abstracts)

Environmental Science and Pollution Management (1967 to present; citations & abstracts)

BioOne (Dates vary, most 2000 to present; full text)
A collection of over 80 electronic journals from scholarly associations and societies in the biological, ecological and environmental sciences.

JSTOR (full text; dates vary by journal)
An archive of back issues of over 400 journals in many disciplines.

Medline/PubMed (1966 to present; abstracts)

Expanded Academic ASAP/Academic OneFile (1980-present; some full text)
General database, with many full text journals articles, from both popular (including newspapers) and scholarly sources.

OmniFile Full Text Mega (some full text; 1994 to present)
Articles from scholarly and popular sources in all disciplines. Select a subject area at the bottom of the search screen to get the most relevant results.

Websites 

General Biology Sites:

WWW Virtual Library Biosciences (WWW Virtual Library)

BiologyBrowser (BIOSIS)

National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) (Center for Biological Informatics of the U.S.G.S.)

SciWeb (SciWeb, Inc.)

BioNetbook (Institut Pasteur)

Microbiology:

Microbiology Network (WWW Virtual Library)

Microbes.info (Al Chan)

Parasitology:

Parasites and Parasitological Resources (Ohio State University)

David Gibson's Parasitological URLs (WWWVL: Parasitology) (WWW Virtual Library)

Botany (plants) :

Internet Directory for Botany (Anthony Brach, et al.)

Scott's Botanical Links (Scott Russell, Univ. of OK)

TreeBASE (University at Buffalo)

Hort.net (Mallorn Computing)

Zoology (animals):

Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan Museum of Zoology)

Ornithology (birds):

Avibase (Bird Studies Canada / Bird Life International)

Onithological Literature Worldwide (OWL) (American Ornithologists' Union, British Ornithologists' Union, and Birds Australia)

SORA: Searchable Ornithological Research Archive (American Ornithologists Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, Association of Field Ornithologists, Wilson Ornithological Society and the University of New Mexico)

Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Cornell University)
Includes "All About Birds"

BirdNet (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution)

Entomology (insects):

Beetle Science (Cornell University)

Iowa State Entomology Index of Internet Resources (Iowa State University)

NMNH Entomology Database Library (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution)

Herpetology (reptiles):

CNAH: The Academic Portal to North American Herpetology (Center for North American Herpetology)
Includes HerpLit database, which contains over 50,000 citations dated from 1586 to the present

Frogs: A Chorus of Colors (American Museum of Natural History)

AmphibiaWeb (University of California, Berkeley)

Ichthyology (fishes):

FishBase (Worldfish Center)

Evaluating Sources

Evaluating Sources (R-MC)

Is it POPULAR or is it SCHOLARLY? (R-MC)

Critical Evaluation of Resources on the Internet (University of Alberta Libraries)

Citing Sources

Scientific Style and Format
Ref QH304 .S3 1994
By the Council of Biology Editors (CBE). A new edition of this book is expected in June 2006 from the Council of Science Editors (formerly the CBE). For citing online sources, see the entry below.

Citing the Internet: Formats for Bibliographic Citation (Council of Science Editors)