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BY 429/491/629: Evolutionary Biology Find Articles on Topic

Library Databases

Library databases may be used to find articles in scientific journals.  Use the subject category to view recommended Biology databases.

Web of Science

Web of Science is a collection of databases which includes Science Citation Index Expanded covering scholarly literature in the sciences from 1990 to the present.

Screenshot Tutorial

  • Perform a documents search (see tips in next tab).

Topic field searches for the term(s) in the title, abstract, author keywords, and keywords plus.

  • Refine the results using the options in the left column.

Document types may be used to find research and review articles.

  • Sort the results by relevance, date (newest or oldest), citations (highest or lowest), usage (all time or last 180 days), recently added, first author name (A-Z or Z-A), or publication title (A-Z or Z-A).

Citations highest first may be used to find seminal and important articles on the topic.

  • Click on the article title on the results page to view the record.

  • Read the abstract to help determine if the article could be useful.

  • Use the full text links to check if the article is available through the UAB Libraries.

Export button may be used to send the result(s) to a citation manager.

  • Review the cited references (backward in time), citing references (forward in time), and related documents to find more results.

Video Tutorial

Below are search tips for Web of Science.

  • Boolean Operators – enter in lowercase or uppercase letters
AND
Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results   [default operator]
OR
Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
NOT
Use to find the first term but not the second term

 

  • Truncation
*
Use to replace multiple characters in the term
?
Use to replace a single character in the term
$
Use to replace zero or one character in the term

 

  • Proximity
" "
Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
NEAR/x
Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (x)   [default is 15 words]

Scopus

Scopus is a database covering scholarly literature in the life, health, physical, and social sciences from 1960 to the present.

Screenshot Tutorial

  • Perform a documents search (see tips in next tab).

  • Refine the results using the options in the left column.

Document type may be used to find research and review articles.

  • Sort the results by date (newest or oldest), cited by (highest or lowest), relevance, author (A-Z or Z-A), or source title (A-Z or Z-A).

Cited by highest may be used to find seminal and important articles on the topic.

  • Click on the article title on the results page to view the record.

  • Read the abstract to help determine if the article could be useful.

  • Use the full text links to check if the article is available through the UAB Libraries.

Export button may be used to send the result(s) to a citation manager.

  • Review the cited references (backward in time), citing references (forward in time), and related documents to find more results.

Video Tutorial

Below are search tips for Scopus.

  • Boolean Operators – enter in lowercase or uppercase letters
AND
Use to find all of the terms and to get fewer results   [default operator]
OR
Use to find any of the terms and to get more results
AND NOT
Use to find the first term but not the second term

 

  • Truncation
*
Use to replace multiple characters in the term
?
Use to replace a single character in the term

 

  • Proximity
" "
Use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
PRE/n
Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in order given
W/n
Use to find the terms within a specified number of terms (n) in any order