Before you start searching
Selecting a topic: To avoid searching in the databases aimlessly, if you don't have a specific topic in mind or research question, do a little background searching to clarify your topic.
Background research: Try searching an encyclopedia such as Access Science or the web or Ideas for research papers for some basic information and some ideas for search terms.
Brainstorming search terms: Once you have a topic in mind and some terms to use in your search you are better prepared to try one of the articles databases.
Choose An Appropriate Database For Your Topic
- GeoRef:
- 1785-present. Provides access to the geoscience literature of the world. GeoRef contains over 2 million references to geoscience journal articles, books, maps, conference papers,reports, theses and dissertations.
Coverage: Covers the geology of North America from 1785 to the present and the geology of the rest of the world from 1933 to the present.
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- GeoBase:
- 1980-present. GEOBASE contains citations and abstracts to worldwide literature on geography, geology, ecology, international development, energy, hydrology and related
disciplines.
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- Biological Abstracts:
- 1980-present. Biological Abstracts is the premier database for the biological sciences and includes information on biochemistry, microbiology, human biology, physiology, botany
and zoology.
- JSTOR
- JSTOR contains high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. Content goes back to late 1800's. Good resource for history of science, general science and biology, botany and geography.
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- Web of Science:
- Provides access to articles from over 3,200 journals in all areas of the sciences and technology. It also indexes the citations used in those articles, thus allowing the
user to see how many times a paper was cited in a given time period. Also includes reviews, letters, and other document types.
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If you get too many or too few results:
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How to Narrow Your Search
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How to Broaden Your Search
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Use AND to connect your search terms.
biodiversity and fossil record |
Use OR to connect your search terms.
niche or habitat |
Use more search terms.
ecology and
fossil and niche andevolution |
Use fewer search terms.
niche and evolution |
Use specific terms to describe your topic.
grazing niche
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Use broad, general terms to describe your topic.
habitat |
Tips To Remember When Searching:
- Use a wildcard to search for all forms of a word. In GeoRef and Biological Abstracts, fossil* will get fossils, fossilized, etc.
- Some databases require you to use a proximity operator to search for your words right next to each other. For example, in Geobase search for "fossil w record". Searching for phrases is another way to limit your search results.
- Use the language of the database.
- If the database contains popular literature then you would want to search for common, everyday words.
- If the articles are written by professionals they might use different words or more formal language to describe a topic.
- If you can't figure out what words to use to describe your topic, do a search using everyday words, find a good article that covers your topic and see what other words are used to describe your topic. Do a new search with these "other" terms.
- If you need help identifying search terms for your topic, stop by a reference desk and ask for some ideas.
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