Research Resources: Class Guides

GEO115/STS115 - Evolution: Patterns and Processes of Change in Nature

Contents

• Basic Information
  • Definitions, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias
  • Books
• Find an Article
  • What to look for ... Scientific Literature
  • How to look ... Search Strategies
  • Where to look ... Indexes and Abstract Databases
  • Get Full-Text
• More Resources and Websites
• Newspapers & Popular Science Journals
• Websites
• Citations and How to Cite

Basic Information

Definitions, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Searches work on the F&M network. Use VPN to connect from off-campus

Oxford Reference Online

Books

Books are a great place to start your research. They are usually more broad and comprehensive than journal articles and can help you understand your topic before further searching. For more books, search the Library Catalog. Start with a subject or keyword search on a broad subject.

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Visit the Reference section (1st floor) or Stacks (2nd, 3rd floor) of Martin Library of the Sciences and Shadek-Fackenthal Library. Books are shelved by Library of Congress call numbers:

CB	History of Civilization
G	Anthropology
GN 357-369	Culture & cultural processes
QB	Astronomy
QE	Geology
QH	Natural History (including evolution)

If you cannot find enough on your topic, try searching WorldCat, a worldwide catalog of library books. You can then use EZ-Borrow or Interlibrary Loan to get the book.

Find an Article

What to look for ... Scientific Literature

Scientists communicate and document their research in a very specific way. The scientific journal article (peer-reviewed article, primary literature) is designed to allow each reader to critically evaluate the content.

Articles written by scientists, for scientists usually have the following:

Standard for Comparison

How to look ... Search Strategies

STEP 1 State your research topic or question in one or two sentences.
STEP 2 Break your sentence into key ideas or concepts.
STEP 3 List other words to describe your concepts.
STEP 4 Translate into boolean.

Group similar words with () and connect them with OR.
Connect different concepts with AND.

STEP 5 Enter your terms into the database. Refine for the specific database (below).

Where to look ... Indexes and Abstract Databases

The library provides two types of databases. Citation databases (or indexes) allow you to search many, many articles by different publishers, in different journals, in one place. Full-text databases allow you to read the articles, but usually only search one publisher or a few journal titles.

For best results, search a citation database for a topic, then go to the Journal Finder to find the full-text article. If you can't find it through the library, go to Interlibrary Loan.

Searches work on the F&M network. Use VPN to connect from off-campus

Web of Knowledge (ISI): Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Index

The Institute of Scientific Information's premier citation databases in the physical, life, and social sciences. Web of Knowledge searches science, social sciences, and humanities articles. Search for articles that cite a known author or work or by standard search queries.

Web of Knowledge is a citation index. After you find an article, you can look up the references cited by that article or more recent articles based on the original article. Covers 1965 to the present.

Search Web of KnowledgeSM     Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters

ADS Abstract Service

SAO/NASA gateway to online Astronomy and Physics literature.

GeoScience World

A comprehensive internet resource for research and communications in the geosciences, built on a core database aggregation of peer-reviewed journals indexed, linked, and inter-operable with GeoRef.

Get Full-Text

The Library provides access to many journal titles. For best results, after you find a citation, go to Journal Finder and search for the Journal Title in the E-Journal Portal. Journal Finder is a searchable list of journal titles held at Franklin & Marshall libraries. From the Journal Title, you can navigate to the year, volume, issue, and page number of the article.

If the Library does not subscribe to the journal, you may be able to get it through Interlibrary Loan.

More Resources and Websites

Newspapers & Popular Science Journals

General Science Full Text

Journals and magazines from the U.S. and Great Britain, covering all major scientific fields. Indexing from 1984 to present, abstracting from 1993 to present.

Lexis Nexis Academic

Connections to newspaper articles (including New York Times and Washington Post), business information (including SEC filings), and legal resources (including state and federal case law). For Mac Users - Please use Safari or Google Chrome as your browser.

NewsBank

Full-text access to major U.S. and international newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, and local Lancaster newspapers. Coverage varies, 5 to 20 years.

Websites

Google Scholar

Search for articles, theses, books, and abstracts from publishers, professional societies, institutional repositories, and the web.
Note: If you follow a link and are asked to pay to access the article, consider accessing (for free) through the library website or Interlibrary Loan instead.

Science.gov

Search science information and research from the federal government.

Citations and How to Cite

Each citation contains the information needed to identify a journal article (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, page numbers). Many different styles are used. For more information go to the Citation Guide.

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