MCB 15: Current Topics in the Biological Sciences

• Finding Books
• Finding Articles
• Managing Your References/Evaluating Your Sources

Finding Books

Use a library catalog such as OskiCat or Melvyl to find books, journals, magazines, government reports, maps, and other materials owned by the UCB libraries.
The Electronic Books page has links to Google Books, Open Library, and other electronic book resources categorized by subject.

Resource	Coverage	Unique Features
OskiCat OskiCat Quick Guide (PDF)	Most UCB libraries (more information)	Renew your books online Find course reserves Request checked out or offsite items Restrict your search to a specific library, online items, or available items only.
Melvyl Melvyl Guide	Most UCB libraries and many libraries worldwide, plus citations to selected articles (more information)	Search libraries worldwide Request items UCB doesn't own Create and save lists and add tags to items Automatically format citations
Electronic Books	Links to Google Books, Open Library, and other electronic book resources categorized by subject.	Search the full text of relevant materials Full text may be available online

Finding Articles

Search article databases to find journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. These databases index articles published in selected journals and magazines, papers presented at conferences, and other sources. Most records include citations and abstracts with links to the full text of articles (when available). To access the full text, use the button. (What's this?)

Links to additional biological science article databases can be found here.

Core Life Science/Environmental Science Article Databases	Years Covered	Peer-reviewed Content?
BIOSIS The most comprehensive biological sciences article database; indexes over 6000 peer-reviewed journals. (Guide: HTML | PDF)	1926-present	Most
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND POLLUTION MANAGEMENT All aspects of environmental issues, including air, land, and water pollution, bacteriology, waste management, water resources and environmental biotechnology.	1981-present	Some
PUBMED The National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database, indexing articles from more than 4500 journals in biology and biomedicine. (Guide: HTML | PDF)	1947-present	Most
WEB OF SCIENCE Indexes core journals in all scientific fields. Allows cited reference searching, which allows you to identify later articles which cite a given author or article.	1900-present	Most

Managing Your References and Evaluating Your Sources

• RefWorks The UCB Libraries have purchased a site license to RefWorks. Sign up for a free account, and manage your references and format bibliographies with just a few clicks. (Tutorials and Guides)
• Citing Your Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism [UC Berkeley Libraries] Quick guides to APA, MLA, and Chicago-Turabian styles.
• Critical Evaluation of Resources [UC Berkeley Libraries] Questions to ask when evaluating the suitability of a book, article, website, or other material.
• Evaluating Web Pages [UC Berkeley Libraries]