JYW: Writing in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Research Roadmap 

Types of Information

• Finding Authoritative Information (WCC Library)
• Scholarly vs Popular (GRU Library)
• Developing a Search Strategy - S.Lucchesi - (Mich Tech) 

Choosing a Topic

• Brainstorming:
  - Explore current topics in The Scientist  or Nature: Biological Sciences
  - Research what your professors are working on BMB Faculty Link
  - Explore topics in a general online encyclopedia such as Access Science or the Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry
  - Explore a more discipline specific topic using the online encyclopedias
  - Use Google to explore topics

Accessing Information

• Where to look to be most effective / Discipline Specific Databases
• Develop a Search Strategy
• Writing to your audience / Searching for popular or trade magazine articles - Academic Search Premier , Scientific American, or New Scientist. 
• Use magazine articles to scaffold information or to get a sense of how information is communicated to a non-science audience; use the database Academic Search Premier and limit to magazines.
• Searching for academic peer-reviewed journal articles - Science Databases - Web of Science, PubMed, Annual Reviews or Uniprot.

As you search, make note of the various keywords encountered to describe aspects of your topic.
If you are not finding what you need, put in an InterLibrary Loan Request for the item.
To find information specific to a certain discipline, search the Database by Subject section.
To find a certain type of information, search the Database by Format section.

Scaffolding to What You Need to Know - Encyclopedias are a great resource for gathering background information.  They act as good primers and are more authoritative than Wikipedia.

• Access Science - AccessScience is an authoritative and dynamic online resource that contains incisively written, high-quality reference material that covers all major scientific disciplines.
• eLS Wiley Life Sciences Online - 

  eLS features over 5,000 specially commissioned, peer-reviewed and citable articles in the life sciences and is an essential resource for students. 

  eLS articles are written by leaders in the field to provide comprehensive and authoritative coverage of each subject area. eLS is updated by approximately 400 articles per year, with new articles publishing on a monthly basis.

• Encyclopedia of Chemical Biology  Chemical biology is a cross-disciplinary science at the interface of chemistry, biology, and medicine emphasizing rigorous application of the principles, tools, and language of chemistry to important topics in biology.
• Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry The breadth of content of this encyclopedia aims to cover major topics of modern biochemistry, each authored by an expert in the area. We feel that the coverage is broad and we have been inclusive in choice of topics. The encyclopedia is a reference work containing over 500 articles with nearly 900 authors and coauthors.

Citing Information

Use a Citation Manager to collect & organize citations and articles, and create a bibliography.

• Zotero

What do you know about plagarism and how to avoid it? (WCC Library)

Try Zotero, it is free and open source!  Has the functionality to be able to share libraries with colleagues, can be used as a citation manager, organizer of research materials, generate bibliographic text, and more.                            

Doing a group project?  Share folders in Zotero to make group work easier.

Use the Zotero plug-in for Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice to write your paper, insert references, and create a bibliography at the end of the paper.