Biology 301: Finding Journal Articles

A list of databases that will assist you in your research

Web of Science

Web of Science Core Collection
Collection of citation databases, providing abstracts and indexing and cited reference searching to over 10,000 high impact scholarly research journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 110,000 conference proceedings, and covering topics in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

See more databases relevant to biology topics in the last box below. Try out a few! Each has somewhat different topic coverage.

Web of Science Search Tips

See more Web of Science training tutorials.

Database Search Tips: Boolean Operators

Search for Articles in Databases

The University Library subscribes to many article indexing databases in all disciplines. The following are those which are most useful in finding articles on topics in biology. For a complete list of all databases provided by the library, visit the A-Z List of electronic resources.

A-Z List of electronic resources
(Note: Databases index thousands of journals, the library does not subscribe to every title that the database indexes - click on the FindIt button beside each article to check if we have access).

Best Databases for Biology:

Web of Science Core Collection
Collection of citation databases, providing abstracts and indexing and cited reference searching to over 10,000 high impact scholarly research journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 110,000 conference proceedings, and covering topics in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Scopus
A very large abstract and index database of research literature and quality web sources covering the science, technology, and medicine (STM), and social sciences.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Zoological Record
The world's leading taxonomic reference and oldest continuing database of animal biology, considered the world's unofficial register of animal names. Coverage extends back to 1864. Part of the Web of Knowledge.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Other Relevant Databases:

PubMed
Index and abstract database covering the fields of "medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences. It includes access to MEDLINE and to citations for selected articles in life science journals not included in MEDLINE. ..[It] also provides access to additional relevant Web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources."
Access Note: As of July 2021, in order to access your personal MyNCBI account for saved search strategies, etc. you must authenticate via third-party Multi-Factor-Authentication. Please use the link below to choose which third-party option is best for you.
https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/my-ncbi-login-transition-tips/#choosing. If you just wish to search PubMed for locating resources then no further login is required.
This is an Open Access resource freely available on the Internet. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.To access full text, you must authenticate with your NSID.
AGRICOLA
A bibliographic database covering agriculture and life sciences, primarily in English, but with some content in other languages. Includes citations for journal articles, theses, translations, monographs, proceedings, and technical reports. Content is updated monthly.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
CABI: CAB Abstracts & CAB Abstracts Archive
Index and abstract database to agriculture, forestry, and biosciences literature, including: journals, books, conference proceedings, reports, and patents. Includes literature from over 140 countries in more than 40 languages. Part of the Web of Knowledge.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Journal Info

Journal Citation Reports
Comprehensive resource that allows you to evaluate and compare journals using citation data drawn from over 11,000 scholarly and technical journals and more than 3,300 publishers in 80 countries. Part of the Web of Knowledge.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Ulrichsweb.com: Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
An authoritative knowledgebase of information about more than 300,000 serials of all types from around the world from academic and scholarly journals, peer-reviewed titles, open access journals, online publications, newspapers and other resources. Bibliographic records provide details including ISSN and title, publisher, online availability, language, subject area, abstracting & indexing coverage, searchable tables of contents, and full-text reviews.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Research Metrics Guide

Research metrics measure the impact of scholarly works. Various metrics have been developed to track the impact of individual articles, authors, and journals.

This guide will introduce you to many of these measures and how to apply them to your work:

Research Metrics Guide