BIO 428: Mammalogy: Databases/Web

Information you find on Web sites are NOT primary sources UNLESS they are original notifications of scientific research studies and include a methodology for the experiment. Some government funded research may be published in a government report and distributed via the Internet. But usually you will find scientific research faster by searching the science databases first. Most science research is published in articles.

• Science Databases from the Indiana State University Library.
• Information about the databases.

Use the databases to search for journal articles, including primary research articles in the sciences. Some of the largest science databases do not include full-text so click the link in the record to Check for Full-Text. Or follow the instructions on the Tab for Finding Full-Text.

You can learn a lot about what is known about a species just by skimming the results of a search in a biology database. Published research will focus on knowledge gaps and areas people find interesting. If the results are sorted with most recent articles first, you can infer what is still not known and is, hence, being investigated. Some species are hard to find in the wild and, therefore, are hard to study.

As you research your contrast paper, perhaps one of your species will be well studied and understood and another will be still relatively unknown.