Jump to Content
CSUSM Computers/Websites Unavailable:
11/15, 6am-12noon

Guide to Biological Science Resources

The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in Biology. For further assistance, contact Pearl Ly, Natural Sciences Librarian.

Reference and web sites
Books
Journal articles
CBE style

Reference and web sites
These selected reference works and web sites will help you to quickly find a definition, explanation of a process, or a brief introduction to a concept.

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
This online encyclopedia has in-depth, peer reviewed articles with some cool multimedia entries.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia

Cooper's comprehensive environmental desk reference
GE123 .C64 1996 REFERENCE

Oxford dictionary of biochemistry and molecular biology
QD415.A25 O94 2000  REFERENCE 

Treatise on geochemistry
QE515 .T69 2004  REFERENCE
Table of Contents

A dictionary of biology
QH302.5 .D5 2000  REFERENCE

Magill's survey of science. Life science series
QH307.2 .M34 1991  REFERENCE
Table of Contents
This huge reference work focuses on processes rather than organisms. Each entry has bibliography for further reading.

Encyclopedia of the biosphere
QH343.4 .B5613 2000 REFERENCE
Table of Contents 

A dictionary of ecology
QH540.4 .C66 1998 REFERENCE

Encyclopedia of biodiversity
QH541.15 .B56 E53 2001 REFERENCE 

Encyclopedia of environmental microbiology
QR100 .B58 2002  REFERENCE

Encyclopedia of bioethics

World of microbiology and immunology
 

Using the biological literature : a practical guide
QH303.6 .D38 2002  REFERENCE
Provides an overview of biological literature, with chapters on information on biochemistry, molecular biology, ecology and other areas of biology.

Web sites

DMOZ Biology
DMOZ is a directory of web sites. Organized by area of study.

Yahoo! Directory: Biology
A remarkable collection of sites. Organized by area of study.

BioTech
A life science resource from the University of Texas. Includes some quality reference sources.

>

Books

Books will give you background information and an overview on what you are researching. You need this information in order to provide context.

Books at Cal State San Marcos

Library Catalog  
Search our local collection of about 250,000 books.

Other Options

Circuit (1-3 day delivery)
Search the collections of other San Diego area libraries -- about 3,000,000 books. Find and request books directly online; pick them up at our Library in 1-3 days.

WorldCat (5-10 day delivery)
Search the collections of libraries world-wide -- about 52,000,000 books. Find a book in this database, and fill-out an Interlibrary Loan delivery request. Book will be delivered to Library for pickup.

Journal Articles

Journal articles are where you will find empirical studies, literature reviews, meta-analysis, and other types of scholarly communication. In order to search through the scientific literature, databases have been created to be finding tools.

CSUSM science journals
For those who like to browse a list, this is an Excel spreadsheet of all CSUSM periodicals (print and electronic) in call number ranges GB, GC, GE, Q, , R, S, & T. Search the library catalog by Title if you do not find the title you are looking for.

Most Useful

Biological Abstracts
A complete collection of bibliographic references covering life science and biomedical research literature published from more than 4,000 journals internationally.
Coverage: 1969→current

BioOne
A collection of about 100 journals in the biosciences. All journals are also searchable via Biological Abstracts. NOTE: Full-text available only for "BioOne.1" and abstracts for other collections.
Coverage: 2000→current

PubMed @ CSUSM
The premier database of world biomedical literature on clinical medicine and preclinical research. Medline provides a more user-friendly interface, but less updated content.
Coverage: 1966→current

PubMed Central
This subset of PubMed consists solely of open access journals within PubMed, i.e. journals that do not require paid subscriptions. Many journals in this database are very technical and are for researchers in the field.
Coverage: 1966→current

ScienceDirect
Provides full text access to over 1,000 journals covering all fields of science.
Coverage: 1995→current

Wiley Interscience
Access to abstracts and full text from journals, reference works, databases, and books. Disciplines covered include the life sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics, psychology, earth sciences, education, social sciences, humanities, business, and m
Coverage: 1996→current

Also Useful

American Chemical Society
Access to full text articles from more than 30 journals of the American Chemical Society
Coverage: 1879→current

Agricola
The authoritative database on all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines; includes abstracts for books & journals.
Coverage: 1500→current

Proceedings
Abstracts from conference proceedings worldwide
Coverage: 1993→current

JSTOR
Contains (EXCEPT for the latest five years) core scholarly journals in sociology, history, economics, political science, mathematics, African-American & Asian studies, literature, humanities, music, and biological, health & general sciences.
Coverage: 1838→2004

 
 

CSE style (formerly CBE style)

The Council of Science Editors produces a guide to appropriate scientific style. If you are a Biology major, you ought to have your own copy of it:

  CSE Guide Book Cover CSE: Scientific style and format : the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers. 7th ed. Reston, VA : Council of Science Editors, 2006.

If you need some quick help, the following are web sites on CBE citation style: