Collins Memorial Library: BIOL 112: Evolution and the Diversity of Life : Finding Articles

Searching for Articles in Databases

Search these key databases to find the primary sources you need for your writing assignments!

Biological Science Collection
Contains abstracts and citations from journals, as well as conference proceedings, technical reports, monographs and selected books and patents.
Academic Search Premier
This broad, multidisciplinary database contains many scholarly articles, but also many popular sources, so be sure to use the facets to limit your search only to scholarly peer-reviewed literature.
JSTOR
This database has some useful biology content, but does not contain the most recent (5 years) scholarship, so don't rely on JSTOR alone in your research!
Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
This database doesn't contain primary literature; only review articles, which are secondary sources. These secondary sources are a great way to get more background information on a topic, and learn about useful primary sources!
Google Scholar
Google Scholar can be a great resource, especially if you are trying to track down a particular article, or if you want to check for newer scholarship that has cited a particular article (see below).

Google Scholar Cited Reference Search

Another useful feature of Google Scholar is its ability to allow for easily finding articles which have cited an article that you have found.

Step 1: When looking at search results, check for the 'Cited by X' link underneath each result. That will tell you how many subsequent articles (that Google Scholar is aware of...it's not 100% comprehensive! This is a ballpark figure) have cited this particular article.

Step 2: Click that link, and you will be taken to a new set of results, all of which have cited the original article, which will still be listed at the top of the page.