Biology: Find Journal Articles

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 This link opens in a new window
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.
License Information: This license was negotiated by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network. There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and to "walk-in" users of the University of Saskatchewan Library for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. It is accessible in the library, on campus, and remotely. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content, including the downloading of a full issue, is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
A very large abstract and index database of research literature and quality web sources covering the science, technolgy, and medicine (STM), and social sciences.
License Information: This license was negotiated by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network. There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. Access is restricted to current students, faculty, staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and to "walk-in" users of the University of Saskatchewan Library for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. It is accessible in the library, on campus, and remotely. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content, including the downloading of a full issue, is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.
Zoological Record This link opens in a new window
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.
License Information: This license was negotiated by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN). There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and to "walk-in" users of the University of Saskatchewan Library for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. It is accessible in the library, on campus, and remotely. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.

Other Relevant Databases:

PubMed This link opens in a new window
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.
License Information: There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. This is an Open Access resource freely available on the Internet. However, the University of Saskatchewan site requires authentication for the convenience of faculty and student access to full text link out. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content, including the downloading of a full issue, is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.
AGRICOLA This link opens in a new window
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.
License Information: There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and to walk-in users of the University of Saskatchewan Library for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. It is accessible in the library, on campus, and remotely. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.
CABI: CAB Abstracts & CAB Abstracts Archive This link opens in a new window
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.
License Information: There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and to "walk-in" users of the University of Saskatchewan Library for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. It is accessible in the library, on campus, and remotely. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.

Do we subscribe to the journal you need?

To search by journal title:

change the first drop-down box to "Title"
change the second drop-down box to "All Journal Titles"
enter the full journal title in the search box
Hit the green search button.

**This search will bring up all print and electronic journal titles. If we don't subscribe to the title you need, you can request a copy of the article needed through Interlibrary Loan (it's free!).

Google Scholar

Google Scholar can be a good place to do a quick and general search of the literature in an unfamiliar area. It is also a useful tool to look up full citations of known articles.

Notices will appear on the right of the search results with links to the UofS FindIt and FullText. For instructions for enabling FindIt, click here.

Google Scholar Search Tips

Off-Campus Proxy Bookmarklet

To connect to any website through the USask proxy, install the USask proxy bookmarklet in your browser for quick access.

For most browsers, click, drag and drop the blue button below to your bookmarks bar.

USask Proxy Bookmarklet

Bookmarks/Favourites bar instructions for:

That's it! Now, when you hit a paywall while researching online simply click on the USask Proxy link in your bookmarks bar and the page will automatically reload to give you access to the full-text version if the library subscribes to it. You will be prompted to login with your NSID and password if you are not already logged in.

Below is a video tutorial of setting up the Proxy Bookmarklet:

Journal Abbreviations

Science and Engineering Journal Abbreviations
Search or browse the alphabetical list of journal title abbreviations for the sciences. Very useful tool provided by UBC Library!

Journal Info

Journal Citation Reports This link opens in a new window
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.
License Information: This license was negotiated by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN). There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and to "walk-in" users of the University of Saskatchewan Library for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. It is accessible in the library, on campus, and remotely. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.
Ulrichsweb.com: Ulrich's Periodicals Directory This link opens in a new window
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.
License Information: There are no restrictions to the number of simultaneous users. Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and to "walk-in" users of the University of Saskatchewan Library for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. It is accessible in the library, on campus, and remotely. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and International Copyright law.