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Beginning
Your Research 
Taking a few minutes to read about your topic in a specialized
encyclopedia, dictionary or handbook may be one of
the most effective and time saving research tips. These
can help you define unfamiliar terms, understand the parameters of current
debate in a particular area and provide you with preliminary bibliography
on the subject. Here is a sample of what is available. For more, search CRUZCAT by keyword. See also Books and Field Guides.
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences [UCSC Only]
This is a good place to get oriented to biology subjects that are new to you, or to get an overview of a multidisciplinary subject.
Life on Earth: An Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution / edited by Niles Eldredge (2002) [UCSC Only]
Gale's Virtual Reference Library [UCSC Only]
Search many subject-specific encyclopedias at once, including Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia, Pollution A to Z, and various law sources, all from a single search box.
EnviroNetBase [UC only]
Search in several online handbooks at once and view the text online. Covers ecology, environmental sciences, geology, GIS and mapping and more.
NatureServe Explorer
Conservation information for the U.S. and Canada on 65,000 species. Searchable by plant/animal or ecological community.
Encyclopedia of biodiversity, edited by Simon Asher Levin
S&E Ref QH 541.15.B56.E53 2001 (5 volumes)
Encyclopedia of evolution, edited by Mark Pagel
Offers authoritative articles by such authors as Jane Goodall and Stephen
Jay Gould as well as signed articles that discuss the theories of evolution,
developmental biology, bioinformatics and genomics, and much more.
S&E Ref QH 360.2 O83 2002 (2 volumes)
Five kingdoms: an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth,
by Lynn Margulis and Karlene V. Schwartz
This illustrated guidebook to both microbes and macroscopic living organisms
and to their taxonomic classification offers current and comprehensive
information.
S&E Ref QH83.M36 1998
Not finding what you need? Email
a reference librarian.
Articles
See also Online Journals | ERes (Electronic Reserves) | Off Campus Access | Minimum Browser Recommendations
Use the databases below to search for articles via keyword, subject,
or author. Links to the electronic version of the article are often available.
If the article is only available in print, these databases will give you
the library's call number (location) for the journal. [more
info].
- BIOSIS Previews
[UC Only] Editor's
Choice!
1926-present. This is the big life sciences database. It is very interdisciplinary within biology, including biochemistry, ecology, genetics, microbiology, ocean sciences, plant biology and zoology. BIOSIS is a good place to start for topic exploration, or if your topic
is plant biology, laboratory studies, or genetics. Comprehensive searches
should always include BIOSIS.
You can search BIOSIS and Web of Science at the same time.
Zoological
Record Plus [UCSC Only]
1978-present. Best place to start for field zoology
or taxonomy questions. Half the articles in this database are not
in BIOSIS, but BIOSIS is a large database that should also be
consulted in addition to Zoological Record for comprehensive searches. You can also search ASFA, Zoological Record and Oceanic Abstracts at the same time.
Aquatic
Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) [UC Only]
1971-present. The focus here is on all things aquatic,
including non-living things. Good for all aquatic topics, including ocean technology policy, aquatic pollution and environmental quality. You can also search ASFA, Zoological Record and Oceanic Abstracts at the same time.
- Expanded
Academic ASAP from Infotrac/Gale [UC Only]
1980-present. Citations to articles from selected scholarly, scientific
and general interest journals, and popular magazines in all subject
areas. Good place to start for general multidisciplinary searches
or for more popular articles.
Web Of Science (Science
Citation Index) [UC Only]
1955-present. This is an index to scientific journal articles that also
allows you to search for citations to a particular article. You
look up the reference to an article that you know about to find more
recent journal articles that have cited it. Cited reference searching
is a unique way to trace ideas and subjects from past research into
the present day. Searchable by author, keyword, and cited reference.
Unfortunately this database does not cover conference literature. You can search BIOSIS and Web of Science at the same time.
PubMed,
UC version [UC Only]  What is RSS?
1950-present. For articles on medical topics or genetics, this is the place to go. Use this customized link for the UC version of PubMed which gives you access to additional full text journal articles licensed by UCSC, instead of using the public version of PubMed. If you don't see the  button in the Abstract display, you are not in the customized UC version!
PubMed: Creating Alerts  (2:04 min)
AGRICOLA
AGRICOLA serves as the catalog and index to the collections of the National Agricultural Library. There are no full text articles in this database, only citations and abstracts (and no UC eLinks either). This is a good place to discover articles on any agricultural topic, unfortunately,
we don't own very much that is referenced by this database, so you will
probably need to allow time to obtain the items you want via interlibrary
loan/document delivery.
Complete
list of Science & Engineering Databases available to UCSC users.
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Online Journals
See also Articles | ERes (Electronic Reserves) | Off Campus Access | Minimum Browser Recommendations
List of Electronic
Full Text Journals
Use this database to search by journal title (not article title or subject) to obtain links to the electronic
version of the journal.
How To Determine
if UCSC Owns A Particular Journal
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Books
See also Field Guides
CRUZCAT
Catalog of what the UCSC Library owns. Includes our library locations for physical books,
journals, conference proceedings, maps, and videos as well as links to electronic journals and electronic books.
Flash movie tutorial: Searching
for a Known Journal Title (2:40
min)
Melvyl
Catalog
Catalog for the entire UC system. Includes location information for books,
journals, conference proceedings, maps, videos and more. You can REQUEST
items to be sent from other libraries. [more
info]
Getting
started with Melvyl
Books
and Other Materials on Reserve for Classes
Students -- Course reserves are listed in the CRUZCAT
online catalog. You can search by course
name or instructor
to find items on reserve for your class. More information about reserves
is also available.
Instructors -- Instructions
on how to place materials on reserve are available.
Interlibrary
Loan/Document Delivery
UCSC students, faculty, and staff can borrow items from other library
in the UC system.
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Field Guides
The Science & Engineering Library has an expansive print collection
field guides on plant and animals. Search CRUZCAT for locations within
the library. The following links are to field guides found online.
The Birds of North America Online [UCSC Only] Editor's Choice!
This database provides scientific information for each of the 716 species of birds nesting in the USA and Canada, with image and video galleries showing behaviors, habitat, nests, eggs and nestlings, and recordings of bird's songs and calls selected from the collection in Cornell's Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds.
Calflora
[UCSC Only] - Editor's Choice!
Calflora provides access to habitat descriptions,
photographs, observations, nomenclature, distribution maps, and other
data on California's wild plants. Some of it's key features include:
interactive maps, habitat and distribution information for native and introduced species;
information on relationships between old and new plant names, and photographs.
California
Wildlife Species Notes
Provides biological information for each regularly-occurring amphibian,
reptile, mammal and bird in California. Developed by the California
Wildlife Habitat Relationships (CWHR) Program with the California Department
of Fish and Game.
Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site - "Monitoring butterfly populations across Central California for more than 34 years."
This website describes 159 butterfly species and subspecies and provides access to population data for these species in Central California collected by Professor Shapiro from UC Davis over the last 34 years. The site also includes climate data from nearby weather stations, descriptions of study sites and habitats, and numerous photos.
eNature.com
Online Field Guides
An online resource from the National Wildlife Federation providing detailed
species descriptions on over 4,800 plants and animals.
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Comprehensive Websites
See also Health
Subject Guide
- BiologyBrowser
A database of biology websites brought to you by the publisher of Zoological Record and BIOSIS.
INFOMINE Biological
Resources
A virtual library of Internet resources containing useful links for
academic research to databases, electronic journals, electronic books,
bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles,
directories of researchers, and many other types of information pertaining
to the biological sciences.
Flora of North America
Provides information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide
distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants, native
and naturalized, found in North America (north of Mexico). This is a work in progress.
Barcode of Life Data Systems
"Advancing species identification and discovery through the analysis of short standardized gene regions." The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) is an online workbench that aids collection, management, analysis, and use of DNA barcodes. For more information see this article from Molecular Ecology Notes: BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System.
Tree of Life Web Project
Contains information about phylogeny and biodiversity from academic peer-reviewed
contributions by nationwide biologists.
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
U.S. Government Sources
see also Statistics
U.S. Endangered
Species Information - Editor's
Choice!
A great resource from the U.S. Department of Fish and Game. It provides
access to the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants,
with regulatory profiles on each listed species. It also provides information
about the Endangered Species Act and a description of the legal process
for listing new species. See California's
Threatened and Endangered Species for detailed information on local
species.
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Statistics
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Dissertations & Theses
- Proquest Dissertations and Theses [UC Only]
This database provides access to the full-text of all Ph.D. dissertations from University of California campuses since 1997. The first twenty-four pages of dissertations from many other universities is also available. UCSC master's theses are not in this database.
How to Find UCSC Dissertations and Theses
Use this guide to find dissertations and theses by UCSC students.
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Societies/Associations
Not finding what you need?
Email a reference
librarian.
Career Information/Jobs
BioJobs
Links to job hunting resources maintained by Harvard Department of
MCB.
Chronicle of Higher Education
- Career Network
Jobs in academia plus career guidance. For the most current job listings,
users must be Chronicle subscribers, however, the previous weeks' listings
are viewable by anyone.
SciJobs.org
Indexes biology jobs, chemistry jobs, biochemistry jobs, biotechnology
jobs, and a range of related science jobs. Can search by region, employer
type, and degree required. Includes university, nonprofit, and industrial
employers.
Occupational Outlook Handbook
Published every two years by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This
is a standard career guidance source that offers general job descriptions,
starting salaries, and job outlook for a wide range of professions.
Writing Aids
see also Style Guides
Oxford Reference Online Premium [UCSC Only]
A very useful collection of dictionaries, thesauruses, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, grammar and other language reference sources.
Books
about technical writing available at the Science Library
Here is a list (from CRUZCAT) of recent books on technical writing
(i.e., how to write lab reports and scientific articles) that you can
checkout at the Science Library. Check the list to see what's available.
Faculty
Guide to Cyber-Plagiarism
A site primarily focused on information for faculty regarding the
recognition and prevention of plagiarism. A helpful section on writing
tips for students is also available.
Copyright
Law & Graduate Research: New Media, New Rights and Your New Dissertation
by Kenneth D. Crews
UC Copyright
Education Web Site
The site provides information on copyright policies and laws, and how
to apply them to academic and scholarly work . Also provides access
to a variety of clearly written resources about copyright in general
and its importance to higher education.
EndNote
EndNote (available for purchase at an academic discount at the UCSC
Bay Tree Bookstore) is a database manager that allows you to create
your own personal library to store and manage references to documents.
It works with Word and WordPerfect, and with other common word processors,
to insert citations into papers and to format bibliographies in any
of hundreds of styles. EndNote can import search results from many
bibliographic files, such as BIOSIS, PubMed,
and Web of Science.
Style Guides
Council of Biology Editors Style Manual.
The book recommends both general and scientific publication style
and formats for journals, books, and other types of publications. The
section "Special Scientific Conventions" covers every major scientific
discipline from the electromagnetic spectrum to viruses to astronomy.
Distributed by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, Fourth ed.
Arlington, VA c1978.
S&E Stacks QH304.C68 1978
Using CBE Style to Cite and Document Sources - Online guide
Online:
A Reference Guide to Using Online Resources By Andrew Harnack
and Eugene Kepplinger
You won't find the entire book here, but several chapters on specific
citation styles are available online, including one from the Council
of Biology Editors (CBE).
Teaching Resources
Teaching Support - From the UCSC Libraries - Editor's Choice!
Learn about the wealth of services the library can offer in support of teaching. You can request instruction sessions and materials tailored for your class, put materials online or on reserve, borrow maps, videos, slides, or books for your classes, and more.
NetTrail Online Literacy Course (University of California, Santa Cruz) -
Editor's Choice!
Here your students will learn the information skills that will help them succeed academically. NetTrail contains six modules, each covering an important area of information use: Types of Information, Choosing a Topic, Library & Web, CRUZCAT, Find Articles, and Info Ethics (including plagiarism). It is possible for an instructor to assign the online course to students through successful completion of the Quiz.
Instruction/Classes/Workshops
at the UCSC Science Library
Find out how the library can help you and your students become
more efficient researchers.
TILT (University
of Texas, Austin)
This is a great place to start. A fun, interactive library
tutorial that will prepare your students to explore and do research in
an online world.
Case
Study Teaching in Science
A refereed national clearinghouse for case studies in teaching science
courses, including many in chemistry, environmental sciences, and biology.
The use of case studies develops students' skills in group learning, speaking,
and critical thinking.
Graduate Programs
Biology Graduate Programs
Search Peterson's Guide for graduate programs in the biological sciences
throughout the United States.
UCSC Department
of Biological Sciences
The Biology
Librarian
Christy Hightower is the Biology Librarian at UCSC. She can help you
with:
- Suggestions for biology books or journals for the library to purchase
- Questions or comments about the books or journals in the library
- Questions or concerns about library policies
- Library instruction in your classes, ranging from basic computer searching
to the use of specialized resources in biology
- Provide a refresher on how to use the California Digital Library Databases,
MELVYL or CRUZCAT
Christy can be reached at christyh@ucsc.edu,
phone 459-4708 or mail Christy Hightower, Science & Engineering Library.
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