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Research

BIOL 150: Intro to Science of Biology

Spring 2008

Debby Andreadis: andreadisd@denison.edu

General Information Reference Materials

HIV T-cells Microscopic Image

HIV T-cells image from NIH Image Bank (http://media.nih.gov/imagebank/index.aspx)

Specialized encyclopedias and other reference books such as the ones listed below are a good place to begin your research.  In books such as these you will find basic material that will help you work on your case study.  This is also a good place to look for a bibliography with references to primary research articles and images to use in presentations. You can search for others that address your topic using CONSORT.
Some examples:


Primary literature....What does it mean?

Cover of Science

Primary literature in the sciences is sometimes called "research literature," and consists of reports of research performed by the authors.   This includes experiments, observations, and candidates for new scientific information (such as reports of a new species).  These normally appear as journal articles, but may also appear as chapters in an edited volume.  Not all articles in scholarly journals, however, are primary literature.  Scholarly journals may also contain reviews, editorials, and commentary, none of which are primary literature.


Books and Journal Articles

Search CONSORT and OhioLINK for books and other materials containing information about your topic.

The databases listed below will lead you to journal articles.  Once you have found a citation for an article, the next step is to determine whether or not Denison subscribes to that journal and, if so, where you can find it in the library.  Most periodicals for this class can be found on the second tier of the main Denison Library although a few may be located in another library such as the Chemistry Library.  Some articles are available online as full-text.  It is a good idea to check multiple sources to determine whether you have online access to the full text of articles.  Good starting points are the FIND A COPY or O-Links link within the databases, the Electronic Journal Finder, and the Biology Subject Guide.  Feel free to ask me or any reference librarian to help you.

Internet Sites

Please note that when using internet sites for research purposes, it is very important to evaluate the information on that site. See the following section on evaluation for more information.

Critical Evaluation and Citing Sources

It is essential to evaluate all sources you use to determine their appropriateness for your research project.  The use of web resources requires a bit more scrutiny than print sources, since it is not peer-reviewed literature, and it is often more difficult in the web environment to determine authors, publishers, and biases of sites.  Whether you are using print or online sources, citing your material appropriately is essential.  This gives credit for ideas to the originator, and failure to cite sources used constitutes plagiarism.  There are many different citation styles and, generally, your professor will let you know which style to use.  If you find your professor has no preference for a style, choose one yourself and use it consistently throughout your paper.  The following sites will help you refresh your memory on the exercises we went over on evaluation and citation in the classroom.

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