Library Guides: Biology: Start here!

Top Recommended Databases

Web of Science Core Collection
Search scholarly journals, books, and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities and navigate the full citation network. Search across all author and author affiliations, track citation activity with Citation Alerts, and see citation activity and trends with Citation Report.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect publications cover a wide range of subjects in engineering, physical sciences, life sciences, health sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
Note: Boise State does not subscribe to all content.
Albertsons Library currently has a Read and Publish agreement in three journals with Company of Biologists. Review the Read and Publish section of the Author Rights and Open Access LibGuide to learn how you can publish your research with this agreement.
BioOne Complete
Browse more than 200 subscribed and open-access resources in biological, ecological, and environmental sciences.
Access: Includes journals only. eBooks are not included in Boise State University's subscription.

Coverage: 1965-current
Academic Search Premier
A leading multidisciplinary research database. Includes full-text peer-reviewed journals, magazines, newspapers, and other valuable resources.
PubMed
Search millions of citations and abstracts for biomedical and life sciences literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books with PubMed. Full text links may be present for some materials when available from PubMed Central or the publisher's website.
JSTOR
Browse scholarly journals, books, and primary sources in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. JSTOR now includes Artstor, collections of high-quality images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences disciplines, curated from leading museums and archives around the world.
Google Scholar
Search scholarly literature across a wide variety of disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites. Visit the Electronic Resources LibGuide-Google Scholar page to learn more about adding Find it at Boise State! library links to your Google Scholar search.
Films on Demand
Films on Demand is a digital video streaming service that offers access to educational videos from a variety of producers including A & E, PBS, the BBC, National Geographic, HBO Documentary Films, Films for the Humanities & Sciences, and more.
Biological and Agricultural Index Plus
A database of full-text articles, indexing and abstracts from essential biology and agricultural research journals. Topics include botany, ecology, environmental science, food sciences, forestry, genetics, microbiology, soil science, zoology, and more.
Coverage: 1997-current
Gale eBooks
A collection of encyclopedias and reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
Oxford Reference Online Premium
Online reference resources spanning 25 different subject areas.

Search for Library Materials

Use the Find It button

Use the Find It Button to Find Full Text

Article indexes and databases don't always provide easy access to the full-text of articles you need. if Albertsons Library has purchased content, you may be able to find it relatively easily.

Watch for buttons or links that say Full Text, PDF, or HTML. And most importantly, watch for the Find It button within your search results. The Find It button will link you to the full text of the article in other indexes or databases, within online journal subscriptions, or will tell you if the Library has the print journal (i.e. in paper).

Here's an example of the Find It button in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications database

Here's an example of the Find It button in the Compendex engineering database

CAUTION: In some databases, the Full Text button (like the one shown above in Compendex) may link to the publisher's version of a full text article, which may require you to pay for access. The Library's Find It button will always send you to resources that are free to you or will give you an option to borrow them from another library without charge.

When you click the Find It button, you will see options for how you might get access to the full article

"View Full Text" button, will take you a page where you can find the complete article

There may be more than one source to get the full article. Check the "Coverage" note to see what journal publication years are covered by each source

You may also see a DOI link, which means "digital object identifier", a persistent identifier used to uniquely identify an object. This link may or may not take you to the full article.

"Available from Albertsons Library..." link means the Library has a paper copy of the journal. The link will take you to the Library's catalog record where you can find the journal call number, the address of the item in Albertsons Library.

Stop at the ASK Desk on the Library's first floor for help figuring out where to find the call number in the Library

"Request Through InterLibrary Loan" button means the Library doesn't have the article electronically or in paper, but you can borrow a copy from another library.

When you click the "Request through Interlibrary Loan" button, you will go to an "Article Request" form that, when submitted, will ask the Library to retrieve the article for you from another library.

You may be prompted to log in using your Boise State email and password
You'll notice that the computer has already started to fill in the Article Request form for you. Before you hit the "Submit Request" button, verify that the information for the citation is correct! It doesn't always come out right

NOTE: Want to know more about Interlibrary Loan (ILL)? Go to the Library's Interlibrary Loan page to learn how the Library can borrow materials from other libraries for you