Scientists have been publishing since the 1600s. That means there's a LOT of resources at your disposal. How do you sift through it all? Practice these tips to narrow down the number of results you get when researching.
identify the best database to use (OneSearch is a great place to start)
use appropriate language (look at subject words in article records for ideas)
scientific jargon produces more scientific results
common language produces mixed results with some social science flavor
combine subject and keywords using the "advanced search" feature in databases
select "peer review" or "scholarly" to limit results
add location, population, specific species, time period keywords to further narrow your results
WHAT are you looking for? If you need DNA evidence, make sure one of your keywords is "DNA." If you want to know how technology is involved, "technology" should be a keyword.
Indexes articles from periodicals in the life sciences and agriculture, including topics such as animal husbandry, botany, cytology, ecology, entomology, environmental science, fishery sciences, food science, forestry, genetics, horticulture, microbiology, plant pathology, soil science, veterinary medicine, and zoology. Contains some full-text articles.
Covers around one quarter of the worlds full-text scientific, technical and medical (STM) literature published in 24 fields of science, including full-text articles from peer-reviewed journals, books, e-books, and reference works.
Authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE allows users to search abstracts from current biomedical journals.
Science.gov searches over 40 databases and over 2000 selected websites, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information, including research and development results.
General science full text features bibliographic indexes (coverage starting 1984), full text (starting 1995), plus graphs, charts, diagrams, photos, and illustrations. Covers leading journals and magazines; biographical sketches; symposia; conferences; review articles; selected letters to the editor; and special issues of journals published as supplementary issues, review issues, or laboratory guides.
