BIOLOGY 312 Writing In Biology - Joshua Lonthair

Your Biology Librarian

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Subjects: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Biology, Chemistry, Citation Managers, Microbiology, Molecular & Cellular Biology, Plant Biology, Psychology

Course Guide

Welcome to the Course Guide for Professor Joshua Lonthair's Writing in Biology junior year writing course. Your librarian, Melanie Radik, and your professor have put together these resources specifically for the assignments you'll be completing in this class.

If you have any questions about any of the resources here, or elsewhere in the Libraries, please don't hesitate to ask Melanie about them. Her contact information is in the lower left column.

If you have questions about your assignment requirements or instructions, please reach out to Professor Lonthair.

Databases

For your 'General Audience Article' assignment you will need to find a peer reviewed original research article. The best database to use to find research articles will depend on your topic, but here are some good places to start:

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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Index to articles from peer-reviewed journals in all disciplines.Search by cited reference, topic, author, and more. Arts and Humanities covers 1975-present; Social Sciences 1900-present; and Science 1900-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
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National Library of Medicine's comprehensive database of citations to medical journal articles, with links to UMass-subscribed full text, 1946-present. PubMed includes all MEDLINE content, plus content from additional journals and books in the life sciences.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Biological and Agricultural Index This link opens in a new window
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Index to articles from more than 300 scientific journals on agriculture, biology, food production, nutrition, forestry, marine biology, plant pathology and ecology. Indexed 1984-present. Full text 1994-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database This link opens in a new window
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Collection of databases that index journal articles, book chapters, reports, conference proceedings, news, some in full text, published in the fields related to aquatic science, oceanography, water resources. See note for more detail. Varying coverage dates.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Background Research

You might not be very familiar with your topic to start. Coming up with good keywords to use in a database can be challenging. Use reference sources like encyclopedias to investigate your topic. You can discover new keywords and form a more complete picture of your topic before diving into the journal literature.

AccessScience This link opens in a new window
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Covers all major scientific disciplines and offers links to primary research material, videos and exclusive animations, plus specially designed curriculum maps for teachers.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences This link opens in a new window
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Commissioned, peer-reviewed and citable articles in the life sciences.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
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Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Journals

If you are interested in browsing some of the peer-reviewed science journals, here are some suggested titles to start with.

NOTE: Not everything in these journals is peer-reviewed. Be sure to look for research articles (with Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References) to use in your assignments!