LibGuides: BIO 415 Behavioral Ecology: Articles & More

Conducting a Behaviorally-Based Research Project

Effective Research Techniques Include:

Browsing the discipline's primary literature to get ideas
Keeping up with news of the field
Knowing how to find relevant books and articles on your topic
Organizing citations and texts
Scheduling a research consultation appointment

Find Articles on Biology Topics

These databases search the full scope of the biological sciences and other scientific literature. For the most comprehensive results, try more than one database. While each database offers different features, these search hints apply to most:

►Refine search results by adding other limits such as year, language, full text, etc.
►Sort by date, author, title, or relevance.
►Look for links to view full text of articles online.
►For articles that are not part of Memorial Library's collection, look for a link to request interlibrary loan. You can learn more about interlibrary loan here https://www.berry.edu/academics/library/interlibrary-loan

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search scientific literature 1996-present.
Advanced tools include the ability to limit by article type and to analyze search results to see the most important citations first.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
Citations may include links to full text content from Memorial Library, PubMed Central and publisher web sites. Set up a personal account to save searches & citations, create & share bibliographies and more.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search for scholarly content across academic disciplines, from all countries, and in all languages.

Set up Google Scholar for Off Campus Access to Berry Subscriptions
Because Google Scholar also extracts and presents citations, search results may include citations to older works that appear only in books or other offline publications.

Birds of the World

Birds of the World This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive life history information on birds.
Brings deep, scholarly content from four works of ornithology (Birds of North America, Handbook of The Birds of the World, Neotropical Birds & Bird Families of the World) into a single platform.

Finding Articles Once You Have a Citation

In many cases, the database will provide a link to full text. But when it doesn't, or if the link doesn't work, what do you do?

►Check the Journal Locator!

Enter the title of the journal (not the article information) in the search box. Look for Full Text Available listings that include the year you need & click on the journal title.

If there's no link to full text, look for Print copies at your library. Click on the journal title & look carefully at the holdings information to determine location.

Other Techniques

Use the bibliography/reference list of articles & other sources you find.
Check relevant articles in Web of Science or Google Scholar to see if they've been cited by other authors. Take a look at the relevant articles.
Look for review articles on your topic.
Make an appointment for a research consultation!