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Researching for Biology Labs: Suggested Databases

A lab guide for scientific writing and research.

Suggested Databases

Database

Content

Suggestions
Summon
  • Indexes everything the Library collections
  • Doesn’t contain full-text but links to it
  • A good place to start to identify different resources relating to your topic
  • Use your filters and limiters in order to avoid a large and unmanageable results list
Web of Science
  • A collection of different databases including Biosis Citation Index and Zoological Record
  • Doesn’t contain full-text but will link to other databases that contain full-text.
  • Useful when you want to:
    • Follow the evolution of an idea in time
    • Find key authors in your research area
    • Find UNKNOWN information based upon old KNOWN information
  • Advanced search allows you to search deeper and more efficiently
  • Use the “Find Full text” to locate full-text articles through the library’s other subscriptions
Google Scholar
  • Contains article citations, and links to full-text articles when these are freely available
  • Very intuitive and easy to use
  • Allows for basic citation searching
  • Lacks advanced search options
  • Access Google Scholar through the Library’s homepage. This ensures you have the most access to articles.

 

Search Comparison

 
Web of Science Google Scholar

 

While Web of Science offers more search options on the main page, Google Scholar defaults to a basic keyword search. To access the advanced search in Google Scholar click on the menu in the upper left corner. For advanced search in Web of Science, you can switch from basic search to advanced.

Search tip: Capitalizing AND will ensure the search engine recognizes a boolean operator and will connect the two concepts. For more information on these check out the Boolean Operators page. 

 

Results

Google Scholar returns a greater number of results than Web of Science as it crawls more databases, repositories, blogs or other sites.

However, a greater number doesn't always mean more relevant or accessible results. With fewer filter options Google Scholar results are more difficult to refine than Web of Science.

Web of Science makes it easy to sort your results by publication date, times cited, or usage count. Filter options on the side also allow you to sort by institution, subject area, or suggested key words. 

Search tip: Become familiar with the filters in your database. They will make finding a relevant article faster and easier.

 

 Citation Count

While searching by date or relevance can be helpful, one way to determine a particularly important paper in the field is to search by citation count.

Web of Science allows you to sort results by times cited, while Google Scholar provides this information with no option to sort by times citation.

Citation counts can be a very valuable tool that allows you to follow ideas forward in time or backwards.

Web of Science will also highlight highly cited papers related to the search topic and is a very valuable tool for citation mining.

Search tip: Citation mining is an important search skill – check the references of a relevant article to find additional relevant articles.