BIOL 150: Intro to Science of Biology

Fall 2009

Warren Hauk; Lina Yoo

Moriana Garcia, Science Liaison Librarian

Information literacy

Information literacy is the ability to identify, locate and use information effectively.


Types of sources

Scholarly sources are texts written by experts in the field and intended for an academic audience. They provide the author’s qualifications and include a bibliography or citations. Articles are usually peer-reviewed. Popular sources, on the other hand, are written for the general public, usually by professional journalists with the purpose of entertainment.

Scholarly sources can be classified as primary, secondary or tertiary depending on the content and intended use. Primary literature in the sciences is sometimes called "research literature," and consists of reports of research performed by the authors.This includes experiments, original 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 commentaries, which are secondary literature. Secondary literature evaluates and discusses primary literature. Tertiary literature generally presents condensed versions of the other two. Some examples are encyclopedias and indexes. See the links below for more information and examples.


General Information Reference Materials

Baltic bog moss

Baltic bog moss (http://www.arkive.org/baltic-bog-moss/sphagnum-balticum /image-A2882.html)

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, the OhioLINK E-Book Center or the Biology Subject Guide.
Some examples:



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 within the databases, or the Electronic Journal Finder.  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

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. The most common criteria to evaluate sources are:

  • Authority: who is responsible for the page and author’s qualifications
  • Accuracy: documented sources and reputable links, comprehensive information free of errors
  • Currency: date the page was published and last revised
  • Objectivity: purpose clear with minimum bias, balanced information, criteria for inclusion

The following sites describe those criteria in detail and give additional information.


Citing sources and plagiarism

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 used sources constitutes plagiarism.  Plagiarism is a controversial topic; take a look at “Plagiarism sleuths”, a recent article in Science commenting on new online tools to detect plagiarism and publication standards in the sciences.

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 (check our Citation Help) and use it consistently throughout your paper.  The following sites and sources will help you refresh your memory on the exercises we went over on plagiarism in the classroom and will provide additional examples of citation styles.


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