Original research in the biological sciences typically gets published in the form of articles in journals. These journals are often referred to as scholarly, peer-reviewed, or academic journals. Scientists may view these articles as primary literature when they report out for the first time research findings conducted by the author(s). These articles typically have these distinct sections:
One Search makes it easy to explore everything the library has to offer—all in one place.
Research in biomedicine, biotechnology, zoology, ecology, and some aspects of agriculture and veterinary science.
Journal Search is a fantastic tool for locating specific journals (magazines and newspapers too!) at Phoenix College Library. Select Journal Search from the Library's homepage and search with the journal name, such as Nature Cell Biology. Search by the title of the journal, not the article title.
Pay particular attention to the date ranges for the journal so that you're selecting the right database. Click on the database name to browse issues of the journal. Oftentimes, you're also able to search by keyword within the journal.
While you can write an entire sentence in Google and get relevant search results, databases aren't quite as friendly. Using keywords, or the main words that are related to your research question, helps you search smarter and get better results.
As you begin to develop your topic, start making a list of keywords that you can use in your search (there are many different ways to say the same thing, so you might need a lot of them). Once you come up with a list of words, don't be afraid to try them all! Trying different combinations can give you different results each time you search, so keep playing around and see what you come up with.
Learn more about using keywords from California State University, San Bernardino:
Use connector terms, called Boolean Operators, when you want to combine search terms. There are three main Boolean operators: AND, OR, and NOT. Very briefly, here's how they work:
You'll probably find yourself using AND or OR the most when searching the databases, but it's helpful to know how all three work in case you ever need to create a more complex search.
Use quotation marks to help you search for an exact phrase. This technique narrows your search. For example, using the phrase "sleep disorders" (with quotation marks) makes sure your search results will have that exact phrase somewhere in your results. Other examples:
"virtual environment" "cost benefit analysis" "social media"
Use truncation to search for different endings of the same root word, or to replace letters. To search for all alternate endings of a word, search with the root of the word and then an asterisk*.
Pollut* - This search will find all variations of the word, including pollute, pollutes, polluted, pollution.
Using the truncation strategy can help speed up your searching.