Research Starter: Biology

Access the world’s leading scholarly literature in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities and examine proceedings of international conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions.

BIOSIS Previews (includes Biological Abstracts) collects abstracts and bibliographic references to worldwide biological and medical literature. Biological Abstracts contains references to journal items focusing on vital biological and medical research findings, pharmacological studies, and discoveries of new organisms. Approximately 5,500 international journals are monitored, representing virtually every life science discipline. BIOSIS Previews also covers international meetings, review articles, books, and monographs.

AGRICOLA provides citations to journal articles, monographs, theses, patents, software, audio-visual materials, and technical reports. The records describe publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines including plant and animal sciences, forestry, entomology, soil and water resources, agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, agricultural products, alternative farming practices, and food and nutrition. Auxiliary subjects that support the U.S. National Agricultural Library's Information Center activities, such as agricultural trade and marketing, rural information, and animal welfare are also included in the database.

AccessScience is an online encyclopedia of science and technology. AccessScience contains encyclopedia articles, dictionary terms, biographies, research updates, and science news.

Subject keywords: Agriculture, Forestry and Soils. Anthropology and Archaeology. Astronomy and Space Science. Biological and Biomedical Science. Chemistry. Computing and Information Technology. Data, Tables, and Tools. Earth Science. Engineering and Materials. Environmental Science. Food Science and Technology. General Science and Technology. Mathematics. Medicine. Military Science. Navigation. Paleontology. Physics. Psychiatry and Psychology. Veterinary Medicine.

Springer Protocols is a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed life sciences protocols, based on the research protocols and methodologies in the critically acclaimed Methods in Molecular Biology series by Dr. John M. Walker. Other book series included in the protocols are: Methods in Molecular Biology, Neuromethods, Methods in Molecular Medicine, Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Methods in Biotechnology, More than 22,000 protocols are available with an additional 2000 added each year. Subjects included: Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Cell Biology, Imaging/Radiology, Infectious Diseases, Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology/Toxicology, Protein Science, Bioinformatics, Cancer Research, Genetics/Genomics, Immunology, Microbiology, Neuroscience, and Plant Sciences

The reviews are highly structured and systematic, with evidence included or excluded on the basis of explicit quality criteria, to minimize bias. Data is evidence-based medicine and is often combined statistically (with meta-analysis) to increase the power of the findings of numerous studies, each too small to produce reliable results individually. This database is updated quarterly.