LibGuides: Biology: Find articles

Searching for articles

This page includes links to the most important research databases used to find articles for Biology research, and to related resources.

Use of most of the sources listed on this page is restricted to Okanagan College students. If you are working from off-campus, you will be prompted to log in with your myOkanagan username and password.

OCtopus (Library Search Engine)

OCtopus article search tips

Too many results?

. Use the Peer Reviewed limiter on the left of your results screen.

. Choose the limiter of a specialised biology database on the bottom left of your results screen, [you may have to click Show more]

select Science Direct or GreenFile

. Add an extra term or phrase in the search box, to focus your search results further : to your professional area eg. add term "ecology" or to focus to a type of article eg. add term "review: "systematic review"

. Select the Advanced search option and search each concept on a separate line.

. Use the drop down 'select a field' limiter and search by Subject.

Doing in-depth research? Identify and search Biology specific article databases listed below

Best Bets

To find database(s) relevant to your topic(s) in biology, go the Library's suite of Biology databases by clicking this link A-Z Databases: Biology

Best bets (in alphabetical order)

Biological & Agricultural Index Plus This link opens in a new window
Includes core literature related to biology and agriculture. As well as literature related to the subjects of animal sciences, biology, botany, entomology, environmental science, food science, forestry, horticulture, wildlife management and more.

Coverage: Varies by journal; Indexing & Abstracting: 1983- ; Some Full-text: 1997-

Maximum of 20 simultaneous users across BC ELN partner libraries
Biomedical Reference Collection: Comprehensive Edition This link opens in a new window
900 full-text journals, including 850 peer-reviewed, in the field of Medicine. All articles in the database are indexed in Medline.

Date Coverage: 1960 to date
GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
GreenFILE covers all aspects of human impact on the environment, and includes scholarly, government and general-interest titles.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text collection of 400+ scholarly journals in all disciplines. For most journals, coverage begins with the first issue published (as far back as 1665) and ends 3 to 5 years back from the present. Searching JSTOR will often retrieve older articles not found by other sources.

Provides access to archival and current full-text issues of more than 1,400 scholarly journals across more than 50 academic disciplines.
Search tips!
To increase precision, use Advanced and/or Expert search modes
By default, JSTOR looks for your search terms in the entire article. To reduce results, restrict your search to words in the Title and/or Author and/or Abstract as appropriate.
To restrict your search to research articles, check the box next to "Article" in the list of types.
JSTOR supports the use of wildcards for several different types of truncation. ? (question mark) replaces a single character, * (asterisk) replaces any number of characters, and & (ampersand) searches for singular and plural forms of a word, regardless of the number of characters.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
A full-text database offering journal articles, e-journals, e-books and book chapters for the science, business, management, accounting, medical, and technical subject areas.

Other useful databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete is a multi-disciplinary full text database containing full text for more than 4,650 journals, including more than 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for over 8,450 journals. This scholarly collection offers information in nearly every area of academic study, including computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies, and more.

In some cases, certain publishers do not grant certain rights specific to their content. Check content for any restrictions.

License definitions & additional information

Permission to include content in coursepacks is NOT included under the terms of this license.

CREATE PERSISTENT LINKS to individual articles for access by Authorized Users for Permitted Uses under this Agreement, from within secure authentication environments. ELECTRONIC RESERVES / VIRTUAL LEARNING: Members and Authorized Users may incorporate parts of the Licensed Material in resource lists and in any other material (including but not limited to multi-media works) to be used in the course of instruction and/or in virtual and managed environments (including but not limited to virtual learning environments, managed learning environments, virtual research environments and library environments) hosted on a Secure Network (only accessible to Authorized Users by Secure Authentication). Each item shall carry appropriate acknowledgment of the source, listing title and copyright owner.

INTERLIBRARY LOAN by paper or electronic means, a single copy of an individual document within the guidelines of traditional interlibrary loan practices and applicable copyright laws.
Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database (CBCA) This link opens in a new window
Search Tips!
Check "Scholarly Journals" to eliminate popular magazines and newspapers from your search
Wildcards: Use * (asterisk) for truncation and ? (question mark) to replace a single character.
Click "Access OC" to locate articles that do not indicate full text availability.
MEDLINE (Ovid) This link opens in a new window
The U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains approximately 18 million references to journal articles in 5,500 life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. Articles cover topics in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more.

MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains approximately 18 million references to journal articles in 5,500 life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. Articles cover topics in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree, tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals. Included are citations from Index Medicus, International Nursing Index, Index to Dental Literature, HISTLINE, SPACELINE, PREMEDLINE, AIDSLINE, BIOETHICSLINE, and HealthSTAR. The majority of the publications covered in MEDLINE are scholarly journals; a small number of newspapers, magazines, and newsletters considered useful to particular segments of the broad medical community are also included.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive, bibliographic database covering sport, fitness and related disciplines.

E-journals

To see if the Library has a particular electronic journal, browse Biology e-journals available at OC Library,

or search the OC e-journals database linked as E-Journals and More from top menu bar of any OCtopus search result screen.