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Biology
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Below are a few major, frequently used sources for the study of Biology. The literature is international in scope and organized into primary (the first public record of the research) and secondary (works derived from primary sources) publications, although this distinction is beginning to be blurred in some web resources. See also the research guide(s): Agriculture, Plant Sciences, and Botany; Environmental Science, Ecology & Biodiversity; Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics; and General Science. For additional information on sources please consult a librarian. Internet resources require a Tufts I.D. number for off-campus access (authorized users statement). |
Facts and Background Information [back to top]
Reference Resources
Classification
Synopsis & Classification of Living Organisms
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QH83 .S89 1982]
Covers systemic relationships of all living organisms for all
taxa down to the family level.
Dictionaries
BioTech
Life Sciences Dictionary
8300+ terms dealing with biochemistry, biotechnology, botany,
cell biology and genetics. Also some terms relating to ecology,
limnology, pharmacology, toxicology and medicine.
Chambers Biology Dictionary
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QH302.5 .C45 1989]
Defines 10,000 terms used in biology.
Henderson's Dictionary of Biological Terms
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QH302.5 .H65 1995]
An excellent dictionary for biological terms, their derivation
and pronunciation.
Index to
Organisms' Names. BIOSIS.
An aid for the general bioscience community giving basic nomenclature
and hierarchy information, Zoological Record volume occurrence
counts for animal names, and links to other organizations' data
for non-animal names.
Nomenclatural
Glossary for Zoology
Glossary used in the indexing of Zoological Record, includes terminology
from the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 4th ed,
1999.
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia
of Life Sciences
A reference work integrating current theory and practice of all
basic and applied aspects of the life sciences, with an emphasis
on cell and molecular biology.
Guides
Biologist's Guide
to Library Resources. Department of Biology and Tisch Library,
Tufts University.
A student's guide to biology resources.
Bio 14 Library
Research. Department of Biology and Tisch Library, Tufts University.
For the beginning student, a resource on how to find and use biology
resources.
Birds of North America. Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
A comprehensive resource for the 716 species of birds nesting in the USA and
Canada. Included are bird songs and calls, maps of breeding and wintering ranges,
routes of migration, video to illustrate key behaviors and an image gallery
focusing on plumage, habitat, eggs, nests and behaviors. Extensive references.
Internet
Resource Guide for Zoology
A guide for finding zoological information on the web. Information
now being updated on Biology
Browser.
Field Guide Series
There are numerous field guides to animals and plants, such as Audubon
and the Peterson series. Consult the library
catalog for specific titles.
Handbooks & Protocols
CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics
[PRINT. Tisch reference desk QD65 .H3 2002]
Classic source for reliable chemical, physical and engineering
data.
Current
Protocols Online
Laboratory manuals on methods giving step-by-step procedures.
Tufts subscribes to the following sections only: Cell Biology,
Human Genetics, Molecular Biology, Nucleic Acid Chemistry, and
Protein Science.
Methods
in Enzymology
A standard source for methods and protocols in molecular biology. Some topics
coverd are: guide to yeast genetics and molecular biology, branch chain amino
acids, recombinant DNA, molecular evolution .
Protocols-Online -
Your Lab's Reference Book
Covers a broad range of biological protocols, also includes research
tools, such as, Calculators & Converters, PRC related calculators,
and others.
Reviews
Annual
Reviews in Biomedical Sciences
Eighteen annual review titles covering the major areas in the
biomedical sciences. Search individual titles or across the suite
of titles.
Software
Review Archive. BIOSIS.
Links to over 150 non-critical reviews of biological software
packages.
Resources for Writing
RefWorks
A web-based reference/citation and bibliography manager. Allows
users to keep track of and download citations from our
internet databases/indexes and then use these references for
writing and automatically formatting papers and bibliographies.
This software works with EndNote too!
Style Manuals
Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information
[PRINT. Tisch reference desk PN171 .F56 L5 1996]
Guide for citing all types of electronic information.
Scientific Style & Format: The
CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers
[PRINT. Tisch Reference T11 .S386 1994]
The standard style guide for scientific writing. Covered are:
styles, mechanics, and special scientific conventions. The section
describing how to write and submit papers for journal publication
has been removed to allow for the inclusion of more disciplines.
A Short Guide to Writing About Biology
[PRINT. Tisch Book Stacks QH304 .P43 1997]
Style guide for college students; covers laboratory reports, term
papers, oral presentations and more.
NLM Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citations - Supplement: Internet Formats
A library’s catalog covers most aspects of a subject over centuries of publications in many languages. Catalogs can be searched by author, title, subject, and keyword. Tisch Library uses the Library of Congress (LC) classification scheme. LC classification brings similar books together on the shelves, which facilitates browsing. Books on Biology are classified in QH (Natural History); QK (Botany); QL (Zoology); QM (Human Anatomy); QP (Physiology); and QR (Microbiology).
The Catalogs
Boston Library Consortium Catalogs
Harvard University Library System Catalog (HOLLIS)
National Research
Council of Canada
Includes Canada Institute for Scientific & Technical Information
(CISTI).
WorldCat.
FirstSearch.
Click on WorldCat or select WorldCat database from the search
box.
Covers almost all of the catalogs of the major research libraries,
as well as public libraries.
Other Sources for Books
Books
in Print
Lists books currently in print and available on the market for
purchasing.
Document Delivery
Borrow from other libraries, both books and journal articles.
The
Online Books Page - Call Numbers QH-QR (Biological Sciences)
A listing of books freely readable online hosted by the University
of Pennsylvania Library
To locate articles or research papers within periodicals and journals, it is necessary to use specialized databases known as indexes. Database Searching Tips (also available in PDF) provides valuable information on how to construct a search for best results.
Indexes
AGRICOLA.
COS, 1979-
Comprehensive database of bibliographic records of journal articles,
theses, patents, software, and technical reports related to agriculture
from 1979 to the present.
Biology
Digest
Provides access to abstracts on non-technical information for
topics such as botany, life sciences, environmental science, medicine,
and zoology.
BIOSIS
Previews. ISI, 1980-
Supplies comprehensive coverage of nearly 5,500 life science journals
and 1,500 items from international meetings, review articles,
and books.
Cambridge
Scientific Abstracts - Aquatic Sciences. CSA/IDS.
Select Aquatic Sciences and click on quick search to retrieve
ASFA: Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts (1971-). This
category contains five subcategories, of particular relevance
to Biology is ASFA1: Biological Sciences & Living Resources.
Cambridge
Scientific Abstracts - Biological and Medical Sciences. CSA/IDS.
Select Biological and Medical Sciences and click on Quick Search
to retrieve the Biological and Medical Sciences category with
its seven indexes including Zoological Record Plus. Choose Biological
Sciences Search Subfiles to specifically search any of its twenty-three
indexes.
Please note: the National Biological Information Infrastructure
has recently published a thesaurus to a number of the CSA indexes
entitled NBII Biocomplexity
Thesaurus.
Current
Contents Connect. ISI.
An ISI current awareness database with an interdisciplinary focus;
covers science, social science and humanities; includes the latest
issue and table of contents from over 8,000 of the world's
research journals and some evaluated scholarly websites. Can
create auto alerts for e-mail updates. Has search and journal
browse functions. Updated daily. Holdings are for one year.
MEDLINE.
Ovid, 1966- Old
Medline, 1951-1965.
National Library of Medicine's bibliographic database covering
the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine,
the health care system, and pre-clinical sciences.
PubMED.
NLM.
A service of the National Library of Medicine, the site provides
access to over 12 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's
and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to
many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.
PrimateLit.
University of Wisconsin Primate Library.
Indexes articles, books, technical reports, dissertations, book
chapters form 1940 to the present.
Science
Citation Index Expanded. ISI, 1945-
Part of the ISI Web of Science, this index provides author, subject
and citation access to journal articles and book reviews in the
sciences, as well as citation values for particular papers, citation
tracking and related records. Updated weekly.
Scopus. Elsevier, 1966-
An index to the world's scientific, technical and medical literature (14,000 scholarly titles),
including 2,700 titles in Social Science, Psychology and Economics. Updated daily. Non-English
titles are covered as long as English abstracts are available. Full-text linking is available
wherever the technology and the access arrangements permit and continues to expand as such
arrangements allow. Integrated web searching and patent searching by Scirus.
Zoological
Record Plus. CSA/IDS, 1993-
Covers the world's zoological and animal scientific literature.
The "unofficial register" for taxonomy and systematics.
Electronic Journals
Periodicals are listed in the library catalog. Holdings in all formats are unified in one record, and most entries for journals held in electronic format contain a hyperlink to the source. Searches in the web-based catalog enable one to follow these links directly. A complete list of electronic journals is on the Tisch homepage under Electronic Journals.
Key Weekly Science Journals
Nature. Nature Publishing Group.
Current:
v387-, 1997-
Back volumes v. 54-84 (1896-1910) and v.132- (1937-): [PRINT.
Tisch Bound Periodicals Q1 .N2]
Back volumes v.112-131 (1923-1933): [MICROFORMS. R93]
Science. AAAS.
Current:
v270-, (1995-)
Back
volumes v.1-270, (1800-1995)
Collections of Electronic Journals
BioMedCentral
BioMedCentral is an independent publishing house committed to
providing immediate free access to peer-reviewed biomedical research
and has established 57 new titles in the biomedical sciences.
BioOne
A collection of research journals in the biological, ecological,
and environmental sciences published by small societies and non-commercial
publishers.
Blackwell
Synergy. Blackwell Publishing.
Provides full-text access to 600+ scholarly journals. To browse
Biology, select Life and Physical Sciences.
Directory of Open Access Journals
List of free, full-text open access and vetted scientific and
scholarly journals on a variety of subjects. Hosted by Lund University.
HighWire Press
Contains the full text of 335 leading biomedical journals available
primarily from professional societies. Archival backfiles are open
access. Subscriptions are need for the current year. Consult the
library
catalog to see if Tufts subscribes to the title.
ScienceDirect.
Elsevier.
A database of over 1,700 journal titles covering the life, physical,
technical and social sciences. Titles start with the initial volume
of publication; all titles have tables of contents and abstracts,
and most have full-text articles. Tufts has access to approximately
800 titles from 1995 to date. The titles formerly published by
Academic Press commence with 1993. Green boxes indicate subscribed
titles; white boxes are for non-subscribed titles. Please note:
ScienceDirect no longer provides access to non-subscribed titles.
Articles from non-subscribed titles must be obtained from Tisch
Document Delivery - Borrow from Other Libraries or purchased
directly from ScienceDirect. Users can browse the SD Agricultural
and Biological Sciences journals and the Biochemistry, Genetics,
and Molecular journals.
SpringerLink
Provides access to 460+ electronic journals with full-text and
some book series. The focus is on science and technology. Browse
Online Libraries for titles in the Life Sciences.
Wiley
InterScience
Provides full-text access to 300+ journals published by John
Wiley & Sons. To browse the Life and Medical Sciences journals
click on Journal Finder
Your
Journals @ Ovid. OVID, 1996-
From the menu, choose Your Journals at Ovid, this will limit the
search to only those journals to which Tufts subscribes. Note:
The Tufts collection is primarily biomedical in nature, with an
emphasis on clinical medicine. There is seamless linking connecting
the bibliographic databases with the full text of the journal
article. Coverage is from 1996 to present.
Other Sources for Research Papers
Pre-prints, conferences and proceedings, dissertations, and technical reports are other sources for original research.
ISI
Proceedings
An index to the published literature of significant conferences,
symposia, and seminars.
Conference
Papers Index. CSA/IDS, 1982-
Citation to papers presented at major science meetings worldwide;
focus is on life, environmental and aquatic sciences. To retrieve
Conference Papers select Biological & Medical Science and
click on Quick Search.
Dissertation
Abstracts. First Search. 1861-
Indexes dissertations accepted at accredited institutions; covers
all disciplines. Updated monthly.
Tufts University
Dissertations. ProQuest, 1996-
Tufts dissertations and theses published in Dissertation Abstracts
from 1996 to date. Provides full-text access.
GrayLit Network. U.S.
Government.
A science portal of technical reports from the Department of Energy,
Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA.
Patents Indexes
Derwent
Innovations Index. ISI.
A resource for patent literature from 40 patent issuing authorities.
Uses the ISI search interface and links forward in time to citing
patents and backwards in time to cited patents. Coverage for some
patents begins in 1963.
esp@cenet (Searchable Worldwide
Patents Database) EPO, 1920-
Free worldwide patent information with full-text patents from
the European Patent Office.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Website for the USPTO. Information on patenting an idea, doing
a patent search, and locating a patent depository library.
USPTO Patent
Classification Home Page
U.S. Manual on Patent Classification searchable website.
Find Web Resources on the Internet
In the 1980s the World Wide Web emerged and spawned publications of its own, independent of the print traditions. Information retrieved from the open web must be reviewed for authority, accuracy and authenticity. Keeping these limitations in mind, there are some excellent information resources available from the open web, especially those associated with government agencies and universities. See how to evaluate web resources.
General Web Search Engines
Google
A top ranked web search engine, with good relevancy. Uses tabs
at the top of the search box. The tab titled Groups (a Usenet
news database) will retrieve the category sci.
with .bio as a subcategory. The Directory tab is a Page Rank
version of the Open Directory and includes a category for Science
with Biology as a subcategory. There is also a tab for Images
and News.
Alltheweb.com
Good web search engine. Indexes full webpage, PDF files, Microsoft
Word files, and text within Flash files. Also includes tabs for
databases of news, pictures, videos, audio and FTP files.
Science Web Search Engines
Scirus
A comprehensive science-specific search engine. Locates peer-reviewed
articles.
Biology Web Search Engines
BioBot. NBII.
Biological search engine for the internet.
Biology Browser. BIOSIS.
National Environmental Data Index
(NEDI)
Provides full-text search of environmental information compiled
by agencies of the federal government.
Tufts University Biology
Department
Information on education programs, faculty and research, admissions,
resources, and seminars.
Communication Forums
BIOSCI
A set of electronic communication forums for biological scientists
worldwide. Hosted at the U.K. Medical Research Council's Human
Genome Mapping Project Resource Center.
Databases
All Species Toolkit Search Engine.
All Species Foundation.
Index to animal & plant species, common names, and synonyms
from twelve different databases.
Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification
(ETI)
ETI is a non-profit foundation dedicated to improve on a global
scale the quantity, quality and accessibility of taxonomic information,
based on an initiative of UNESCO.
FishBase
Species, synonyms, common names, pictures and references is the
focus of this database. Biodiversity maps and country data are
also included.
Integrated Taxonomic Information
System
Database of species names and their hierarchical classification.
Interactive
Fly
Guide to Drosophila genes and their role in development.
Museum of Comparative Zoology. Harvard University.
MCZ
Bird Collection
Index to the Museum of Comparative Zoology Department of Ornithology
Bird Collection.
MCZ
Entomology Primary Type Specimen Database
This online database contains records for primary types in the
entomology collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the
database includes high resolution images of the type specimens.
MCZ
Invertebrate Collection
Searchable database for the Museum of Comparative Zoology Invertebrate
Collection.
Species 2000 Catalog of Life
Species 2000 has the objective of enumerating all known species
of organisms on Earth as the baseline dataset for studies of global
biodiversity. The Dynamic
Checklist provides real time access to the Species 2000 array
of taxonomic databases.
Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is a collaborative web project, produced by biologists
from around the world. On more than 2600 webpages,
the Tree of Life provides information about the diversity of organisms
on Earth, their history, and characteristics.
University of
Michigan Museum of Zoology's Animal Diversity Web
Animal natural history, distribution, classification and conservation
biology is the content of this database.
Evolution
Biology
Links - Evolution. Harvard University.
A list of web resources including sites on general and molecular
evolution.
Charles
Darwin. Online Literature Library - Knowledge Matters.
Online text of Voyage of the Beagle, Origin of Species, and Descent
of Man are the classic title included in this site.
The
Darwin-Wallace 1858 Evolution Paper
A paper on the history and background pertaining to the publication
of the joint paper by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace that first
outlined the hypothesis of natural selection.
National Center
for Science Education
A nonprofit membership organization working to defend the teaching
of evolution. Site includes web links on evolution and current
news summaries on debates occurring nationwide.
Gateways & Portals (Web libraries)
Biodiversity and Biological
Collections
Metadata web server listing internet resource links on a variety
of topics dealing with biodiversity and biology. Site is currently
under construction.
Biology
Servers on the Web. ABIM.
A reference page to help biologists find information available
from W3 servers, includes: bibliographies, databases, online tools
and tutorials.
Biota.org - The Digital Biology
Project
Group that promotes and assists in the engineering of complete,
biologically inspired, synthetic ecosystems and organisms.
Model Organisms - The WWW Virtual
Library
A catalog of internet resources relating to biological model organisms.
Yahoo! Science: Animal Behavior
Government Resources
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services:
Bioethics
Resources on the Web. National Institutes of Health.
An annotated list of websites related to bioethics issues such
as stem cell research, genetic testing, access to health care,
and use of animals in research.
National Biological Information
Infrastructure (NBII)
NBII is a program to provide access to data and information on
the nation's biological resources. Some topics covered are: biodiversity,
invasive species, systematics, and biological metadata. Has extensive
resource links to other websites of interest arranged by topic.
National Center for Research
Resources. NIH.
Organization charged with the task of providing the critical research
resources and research tools that underpin all areas of scientific
inquiry supported by NIH.
U.S. Department of the Interior:
Biological Resources. U.S.
Geological Survey.
Mission, programs, and publications of USGS Biological Resources
Division.
Images/Pictures
BIODIDAC - A Bank of
Digital Resources for Teaching Biology. University of Ottawa.
Contains over 6000 images (diagrams and photos) designed for biology
teachers. Can search by grouping: histology, zoology, or botany;
by keyword; or by taxon.
BIOSIS
Resource Guide - Images and Sound
List of links to images and sounds of the world's plants, animals,
and insects.
Environmental
Image Collection. CDL.
From the Donald R. Dickey Collections at UCLA digitized photographs
of birds, mammals and geographic environment.
Nanoworld
Image Gallery
Searchable/browsable database of electron microscope images of
various subjects.
News
The Scientist
An international science news magazine that reports on and analyzes
the issues and events that impact the life sciences.
Research Tools
BioJava.org
An open-source project dedicated to providing Java tools for processing
biological data.
Biota - The Biodiversity
Database Manager
Biological data and collections management software that helps
manage specimen-based biodiversity and collections data by providing
an easy-to-use graphical interface to a fully relational database
structure. Created by Robert Colwell, University of Connecticut.
Societies & Associations
American Institute of Biological
Sciences (AIBS)
A non-profit scientific organization to advance research and education
in the biological sciences.
Animal Behavior Society
ABS focus is to promote and encourage the biological study of
animal behavior.
Association for
the Study of Animal Behaviour
ASAB was founded in 1936 to promote the study of animal behavior.
Federation of American Societies
for Experimental Biology
A coalition of independent member societies that serve the interests
of biomedical and life scientists, particularly those related
to public policy issues.
Society for Conservation Biology
An international professional organization dedicated to promoting
the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance,
loss, and restoration of biological diversity.
The Society for Integrative and
Comparative Biology
Focus of the society is to integrate the many fields of specialization
in the broad field of biology. The SICB is organized around eleven
divisions, each relevant to a major segment of biology
The Society for Mathematical Biology
A forum for discussion of research in biology, mathematical-biology,
and mathematics applied to or motivated by biology.
The Society of Systematic Biologists
Promotes the advancement of the science of systematic biology
in all its aspects of theory, principles, methodology, and practice,
for both living and fossil organisms.
Study & Teaching Resources
Beyond Bio 101: The
Transformation of Undergraduate Biology Education
Online publication discusses the current status of undergraduate
biology education in the United States. Sponsored by the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, a non-profit medical research organization
that provides grants for biological sciences education.
The Biology Project.
University of Arizona.
Program aimed at improving the teaching of biology at the undergraduate
level by offering free access to high quality web-based learning
materials.
BioTech. University
of Texas, Austin.
A website for biology/chemistry educational resource and research
tools.
Coalition for Education
in the Life Sciences (CELS)
A national coalition of professional societies in the biological
sciences that have joined together to improve undergraduate education
in the life sciences. Website has links to educational resources
and other professional organizations.
Guide
to the Animal Kingdom for Students and Educators. BIOSIS.
A simplified classification scheme for the whole animal kingdom
giving a hierarchical listing of the major groups of animals,
short notes, representative taxa, and links to sites with further
information.
Suppliers
American Type Culture Collection
A global nonprofit bioresource center that provides biological
products, technical services, and educational programs to private
industry, government, and academic organizations.
BioSpace. BioSpace.
Commercial site that provides news, information products and services
for industry research and development.
BioSupplyNet
Commercial site with links to biomedical research supplies and
services.
Fisher Scientific
Commercial manufacturer and distributor of scientific instruments,
equipment, supplies, workstations and chemicals.
SciQuest
Commercial provider of technology, services and domain expertise
for procurement and materials management in support of the life
sciences, higher education and industrial research markets.
Contact a Librarian [back to top]
Miriam Allman.
Contact for questions about library collections.
Regina Raboin. Contact for reference questions and instruction requests.
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