Library Guides: SURF Guide to Bioscience Resources: Articles

Article databases

Databases grouped by subject:

GENERAL

Primary subjects: All. Broad in scope, each of these resources links to citing articles for every result.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search across many disciplines and sources including peer-reviewed articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Includes citing articles.
Lists journal articles, books, preprints, and technical reports in many subject areas (though more specialized article databases may cover any given field more completely). Can be used with "Get it at UC" to access the full text of many articles.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences and more. Includes citing articles.
Contains over 50 million records with more than half the content originating from outside North America. Indexes over 21,000 journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences, technology, medicine, arts, and humanities.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Indexes leading journals in the sciences, as well as the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Includes citing articles and cited reference searching. [1900 - present]
Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index (1990-present), Book Citation Index (2005-present), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present).

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Primary subjects: biochemistry, bioengineering, chemical biology, computational biology, genetics, immunology, integrative biology, microbial biology, molecular and cell biology, neuroscience, nutritional science, public and environmental health

PubMed This link opens in a new window
Citations and abstracts in the fields of biomedicine and health, as well as portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering.

PubMed includes MEDLINE, PubMed Central (PMC), other biomedical and life science journals, and the NCBI Bookshelf. PubMed also provides links to other NCBI molecular biology resources, including nucleotide sequences, protein sequences, 3-D protein structure data, population study data sets, and assemblies of complete genomes in an integrated system.
Note: The link above goes to a specially configured version of PubMed for UC Berkeley users that will display the Get It at UC button for full text article access. To use the free public version, please click here.

PubMed Quick Guide

Embase This link opens in a new window
Search for biomedical literature citations. Embase is a key resource for conducting systematic reviews and researching evidence-based medicine. [dates vary]
Indexes journals, including many not in Medline, from over 90 countries, and indexes conference abstracts from many conferences. Broad biomedical scope with strong coverage in drug, pharmaceutical, and toxicological research including economic evaluation.

Primary subjects: ecology, environmental sciences, evolutionary biology, integrative biology, organismal biology, plant biology

BIOSIS Previews This link opens in a new window
Citations for journal articles, conference papers, and books on a wide variety of biological and biomedical topics. [1926 - present]
Indexes journals, books, and conference proceedings are indexed on a wide variety of biological and biomedical topics. An electronic version to the print counterparts, Biological Abstracts and Biological Abstracts/RRM.

Primary subjects: ecology, environmental science and policy, plant biology

Agricultural & Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new window
Find citations for journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and government publications in the agricultural and environmental sciences. [1960 - present].
AES incorporates the formerly titled "Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management" database - which includes Environmental Impact Statements - plus the databases AGRICOLA (1970-current) and TOXLINE (1999-current).
CAB Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, monographs, conferences, books, annual reports, and other sources from the agricultural literature and from more than 100 countries. [1910 - present]
Access to this resource will be discontinued effective 12/31/2023 due to library budget cuts. Covers topics including biodiversity, biotechnology, pest control, environmental pollution, animal science, nutrition and food technology, crop production, natural resources, forestry, environmental policy, and rural development. Note: The header says "CABI: CAB Abstracts and Global Health"
Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
Citations to, plus some full text for, journal articles and books on a wide variety of environmental topics. [1888 - present]
Subjects include agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, environmental law, environmental technology, geography, marine & freshwater science, natural resources, pollution & waste management, public policy, renewable energy sources, social impacts, urban planning, and more. Contains millions of records from over 2,500 U.S. and international titles, plus full text of over 1,100 journals and nearly 200 monographs.

Primary subjects: neuroscience and psychology

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations, and technical reports. (Psychological Abstracts, Psychinfo) [1806 - current]
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations in psychology and enriched with literature from psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work.
MIT CogNet This link opens in a new window
A digital library covering the brain and cognitive sciences. Includes reference works, journals, books and conference proceedings. [dates vary]
Provides searchable electronic texts in cognitive and brain sciences. Contains work from both from the MIT Press, as well as links to resources from other publishers, professional associations, institutions, and individuals.

EARTH AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Primary subjects: bioengineering and mechanical engineering

INSPEC This link opens in a new window
Access to this resource will be discontinued effective 12/31/24 due to library budget cuts. Please use Scopus as an alternative resource. Search citations for research literature in the fields of electronics, computer science, physics, and electrical, control, production, and mechanical engineering. [1898 - present].
Indexes scholarly journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations in physics, electrical engineering and electronics, computers and control, and information technology.

Primary subjects: earth sciences, geology, geophysics

GeoRef This link opens in a new window
Indexes scholarly journals, books, maps, US and Canadian dissertations, conference proceedings, reports, and government documents published worldwide on geology and other subjects within the geosciences. [1785 - present]
Includes all publications of the USGS. Database covers the geology of North America from 1693 to present and the geology of the rest of the world from 1933 to present.
GeoScienceWorld This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to core journals from a variety of geosciences publishers.
Also includes GeoRef for searching across citations and abstracts from additional journals and conferences in the geosciences.

Article discovery tips

Searching by topic
A Bio 1B tutorial on finding articles on a topic by identifying keywords, building a search strategy and broadening or narrowing a search.
Getting full text
A Bio 1B tutorial on getting the full text of articles and ebooks found in databases.
Types of scientific literature
A Bio 1B tutorial on the types of scientific literature (including primary research articles and secondary literature reviews) and peer review.

Citation linker

Citation search
Copy and paste the article or book title into the search box of UC Library Search. If the title is exact, place double quotes immediately before and after the title, and click Search.

Search and citation alerts

Search alerts are automatic notifications whenever a new article that matches the terms of a particular search is added to a database.

Citation alerts are automatic notifications whenever a new article that cites a specific original article is added to a database.

Many databases enable search alerts: on the results page look for a "create alert," "search alert" or an "alert" button or link. The databases listed below also enable citation alerts:

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Lists journal articles, books, preprints, and technical reports in many subject areas (though more specialized article databases may cover any given field more completely). Can be used with "Get it at UC" to access the full text of many articles.

A. Search alerts in Google Scholar:

From the results page click the Create alert icon in the left-hand menu:

On the next page provide your preferred e-mail address (it does not have to be your Berkeley e-mail), and then click the Create alert button:

B. Citation alerts in Google Scholar:

From the results page click the Cited by link for an article of interest:

From the page listing the citing articles, click the Create alert icon in the left-hand menu:

Follow the instructions in A. 2. above for setting up an alert.

Search and citation alerts can be set up similarly in the following databases:

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Creating alerts in Scopus
Contains over 50 million records with more than half the content originating from outside North America. Indexes over 21,000 journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences, technology, medicine, arts, and humanities.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Creating alerts in Web of Science
Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index (1990-present), Book Citation Index (2005-present), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present).

Review article sources

Annual Reviews Biomedical/Life Sciences Journals
Annual Reviews publishes more than 30 biomedical and life sciences journals. Articles survey the current understanding of a topic; set the work in historical context; highlight the major questions that remain to be addressed and the likely course of future research; and outline practical applications and general significance of the research.
Biological Reviews
Publishes unsolicited review articles covering the entire range of the biological sciences. Provides extensive introductions to research areas, defines the state of the art, and draws attention to gaps in knowledge.
Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology Subject Collections
Collections of articles from CSH Perspectives in Biology focussed on a single topic. Includes Cancer Biology, Careers, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Immunology, Molecular Biology, Neurobiology, and Plant Biology
Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine Subject Collections
Collections of articles from CSH Perspectives in Medicine focussed on a single topic. Includes Addiction, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Epilepsy, the Cochlea, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease and Retinal Disorders.

Colloquium Digital Library of Life Sciences This link opens in a new window
Summaries of developments in the biomedical and life sciences, written by prominent researchers and organized by topic. Includes topics in cell and molecular biology, genetics, integrative biology, neurology, and the neurosciences.
A collection of over 50 colloquia covering cell and molecular biology and biomedicine, including the neurosciences. Each colloquium is 50 to 100 pages long. Each synthesizes an important research or development topic, written by a prominent contributor to the field.
eLS : Citable Reviews in the Life Sciences This link opens in a new window
"eLS features over 5,000 commissioned, peer-reviewed, citable articles, written by leaders in the life sciences.
eLS is updated by approximately 400 articles per year, with new articles publishing on a monthly basis."(ELS: Citable Reviews)

Nature Reviews
Links to all of the currently subscribed Nature Reviews journals. Subjects include cancer, endocrinology, genetics, immunology, microbiology, molecular cell biology, neuroscience, and more.
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews
Links to all currently subscribed Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews journals (WIREs). Subjects include computational molecular science, data mining, developmental biology, RNA, disease mechansims, and more.

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SURF Guide to Bioscience Resources: Articles