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NRC 100 Environment and Society

Fish ecology and conservation assignment

Types of sources you need to learn about the life cycle of the fish species and the conservation challenges:

  • at least one popular or news article 
  • at least one scientific journal article and
  • at least one other type of source
    (this could be a government report, an NGO or non-profit report, encyclopedia, trade journal, or a book)

Best article databases for fish assignment

The first three resources will help you find popular articles as well as other content.

Tips for effective searching

1. Search both common and scientific names. Scientific articles may use one, the other, or both.
    Be aware that sometimes the scientific name changes over time!

    Connect them with OR - for example:

      Brook trout or Salvelinus fontinalis

Using  OR  makes the results set bigger.

2. To find habitat or life history info, link species name with those terms using AND:

      (Brook trout or Salvelinus fontinalis) and
          (habitat or life history)

Using  AND  makes the results set smaller.

The parentheses  ( )  make the logic work.  

3. Use a wildcard, e.g. the asterisk (*),  question mark (?) or dollar sign ($) to widen your search. Each platform has its own rules. 

     In EBSCO databases, searching the term fish* will find anything starting with F-I-S-H
      including fish, fished, fishing, fisher, fisheries, etc.

Some platforms, including Google/Google Scholar, do this automatically (without a symbol).

4. Use the database tools to narrow a search with many hits - narrow by date, or type of publication (source type), language, or geographic area.

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