Home || Library Info || Services || Research

Etox 80E: Aquatic Toxicology

Library Research for your ETOX 80E Paper.

This web site is designed to help you write your paper for ETOX 80E.This is not to replace going to librarians and instructors for help, but to offer some guidance when you are working independently. If you have any questions or suggestions about the Web Site please feel free to let your instructors or me (Catherine Soehner) know. The Reference Desk at the Science & Engineering Library is open 9:00 a.m. -9 p.m. Monday -Thursday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. on Friday, and 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m on Saturday and Sunday.

Below is the description of what librarian's call the "Search Strategy".

I. Choosing your topic.

II. Finding Background information.

III. Finding Books on your topic.

IV. Finding Journal Articles on your topic.

I. Choosing your topic.

This could be the hardest part of the the Search Strategy. Many students begin their library research having defined areas of research, not topics. The trick is to pick a topic that has enough information in the S&E Library to support your paper, but not so much you are totally overwhelmed. Too much information is as deadly as too little. It is difficult to define a good topic until after you have done some library research, yet, it is difficult to do library research without a topic. Most of the search strategy pages on this web site are about areas of research.

There are some techniques to picking a good topic for your paper.

• Find books in the area you are interested in. Use the Table of Contents and back of the book index to discover sub-topics. Use the amount of information in the book on a sub-topic (one sentence, one page, 20 pages) as one indicator as to how much information is on this sub-topic relative to the area. Look for sub-topics with significant information (a page or more) but not with whole chapters for your final topic. (Help on finding books on aquatic toxicology)
• Look for controversy, conflicting research, or outstanding questions. Answering definite questions (What is the evidence that nickel will have a negative effect on fresh water fish?) can bring a great deal of structure and focus to your paper.

Here are some web sites that might help you explore various marine and toxicological topics, helping you define your area and/or topic of interest.

ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) - a fantastic listing of information on toxic substances as they relate to and impact human health.

US Geological Survey (USGS)

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

National Institutes of Health

Tox Town - an excellent collection of Web sites on toxic substances commonly found in our environment such as arsenic, lead, mercury, asbestos, carbon monoxide, and ozone, to name a few. Additional links based on location of toxic substances include sites with information on methyl bromide, molds, household chemicals, and parasitic diseases.

MEDLINEPlus - gathers info from various goverment sources about chemicals, drugs and health effects of toxic substances.

Environmental Health Information Services

Applied Marine Sciences- San Francisco Bay data

San Francisco Estuary Institute - for monitoring in San Francisco Bay

SeaWeb which gives you recent news concerning the ocean.

UCSC Environmental Health & Safety

UC Toxic Substances Teaching and Research Program

US Fish and Wildlife Service - facts about federal wildlife laws

The National Biological Information Infrastructure

WhaleNet Interet Resources: Marine Mammal Links and Information -an extensive list of marine mammal links. Good place to start.

MCBI (Marine Conservation Biology Institute)

Ocean Planet/Smithsonian - Actually a site for teachers looking for educational materials but can be a good source of topics and background information. Select a topic along left side, then check "Resources."

The Marine Biology Page of SciCentral's Oceanography Page.

In general, the hints from above can be used in Step II as you find background on your topic.

II. Finding Background Information.

This is the step that a lot of students try to skip but it almost always saves time to do it at the beginning. One of the ironies of library research is that you go to the library to get information, but you can't really do high quality library searching until you know a lot of information on your topic. While this web site will help you learn how to find this information on your own, this is where your instructors and librarians can help out a lot.

Types of Background Information
Vocabulary Definitions of terms/concepts Synonyms Popular vs. Scholarly Language Different uses of language in different fields	History Important Dates Timelines
Important Research and Research Centers	Current Questions and Controversies

Typical Sources for Background Information
Encyclopedias Encyclopedia of Water Science Environmental Encyclopedia Pollution A-Z Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia	Instructors
Text Books	Books
Review Articles	Web Pages (Web sites for specific information on specific topics such as marine mammals)

 III. Finding Books on Your Topic.

To find books on your topic in the Science Library, use Cruzcat. You can get to Cruzcat from the S&E Library home page. If you don't remember how, this would be a good time to review Cruzcat in Nettrail or view the short (approx. 2 minutes) movie tutorials.

One of the most efficient ways to search for books using Cruzcat is by using a Keyword search:

IV. Finding Journal Articles.

There are several databases available to you that will be useful in identifying journal articles. Scientific research articles tend to be on a very specific and particular aspect of a topic, and somewhat difficult to read. (One exception to this is the review article). Therefore, generally it is helpful to research a lot of the background material and really narrow down your topic before jumping into the databases.

Six databases which could be very useful to you are available through the S&E Library's Science Article Databases link. Once you've identified articles of interest, you must then click on UC-eLinks to see if we own the material.

Expanded Academic Index, which contains records for articles from popular magazines, general interest journals, and scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and general sciences. Covers 1980 to the present. Phrase searching available. Truncation symbol is the "*". A guide to help you use Expanded Academic Index is available in .pdf format.

Web of Science contains citations from over 6500 scholarly journals in all disciplines from 1975 to the present. Particularly good for finding recently published articles. Phrase searching is available. Truncation symbol is the "*".

BIOSIS is a very academic, comprehensive biological database which may be helpful, but is really best searched once you understand your topic. (Be sure to use the scientific phrases and language when searching BIOSIS). Covers 1969 to the present. Phrase searching is available. Truncation symbol is the "$". A guide to help you use BIOSIS is available in .pdf format.

Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts contains articles specifically about water toxicology. A guide to help you use ASFA is available in .pdf format. Covers 1971 to the present. Phrase searching is available. Truncation symbol is the "*".

Environmental Science and Pollution Management, covers all areas of toxicology in the environment. A guide to help you use the Environmental database is available in .pdf format. Covers 1981 to the present. Phrase searching is available. Truncation symbol is the "*".

AGRICOLA is useful for those who are interested in agricultural pesticides. AGRICOLA is a free database available on the Web, so our resources are not linked through UC-eLinks. Instead, mark the items you want, print out a list and search Cruzcat or MELVYL to determine if we own the materials you want.

Search S&E Pages