Some Recent Faculty Publications

William Cliff (2006). Case Study Analysis and the Remediation of Misconceptions About Respiratory Physiology. Advances in Physiology Education, vol. 30, no. 1, p. 215-223.

Walter Steiner and Gerald Smith (2005). Natural Meiotic Recombination Hot Spots in the Schizosaccharomyces Pombe Genome Successfully Predicted from the Simple Sequence Motif M26. Molecular & Cellular Biology , vol. 25, no. 20, p. 9054-9062.

William Cliff and Ann Wright (2005). A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed: A Case Study on Human Respiratory Physiology. Journal of College Science Teaching, vol. 35, no. 2, p. 37-39.

Walter Steiner, Gerald Smith, and A Nicolas (2005). Optimizing the Nucleotide Sequence of a Meiotic Recombination Hotspot in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Genetics, vol. 169, no. 4, p. 1973-1983.

William J. Edwards, et. al. (2005). The impact of a benthic filter feeder: limitations imposed by physical transport of algae to the benthos. Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences, vol. 62, no. 1, p. 205-214.

Joseph Conroy, William J. Edwards, et. al. (2005). Soluble Nitrogen and Phosphorus Excretion of Exotic Freshwater Mussels (Dreissena spp.): Potential Impacts for Nutrient Remineralization in Western Lake Erie. Freshwater Biology, vol. 50, no. 7, p. 1146.

To learn more about the research interests of Biology Department faculty, visit the department's web site.


Niagara University Library
Guide to Biology Research

Need Help?

Contact the Library subject specialist for biology:

Jonathan Coe
716-286-8005
jcoe@niagara.edu


Finding Journal Articles

Biology research is usually disseminated through journal articles, so this is almost always what you will focus on when doing biology research.

Start with either or both of the following databases:

ScienceDirect
More than 1,500 full-text scientific journals are available through ScienceDirect, including several hundred directly relevant to biology.

Academic Search Complete
This is a multidisciplinary database that contains quite a bit of full text.

Depending upon your exact topic, the following databases can help you do more comprehensive research:

MEDLINE via PubMed
MEDLINE contains bibliographic citations and author abstracts from more than 4,800 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 other countries. The database contains over 12 million citations dating back to the mid-1960's. Coverage is worldwide, but most records are from English language sources or have English abstracts.

AGRICOLA via FirstSearch
Provides references to books and journal articles encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines,including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences. Please note: This database is only available for searching within the Library. Please visit the Reference Desk and ask the Reference Librarian on duty for the login information.

SciFinder Scholar
This is primarily thought of as a chemistry database, but SciFinder also covers biochemistry, biology, pharmacology and medicine. You can learn more about SciFinder by visiting http://www.cas.org/support/academic/index.html. Please note: SciFinder is not accessible via a web browser. You will need to use the SciFinder software located on two computers in the Library's Reference Department or in the Chemistry Library on the second floor of DePaul Hall.

The following databases can be useful but are not publicly accessible at Niagara University. However, you can make an appointment with Jonathan Coe (jcoe@niagara.edu or 716-286-8005), the subject specialist in biology, to arrange for a search.

BIOSIS
Provides comprehensive worldwide coverage of research in the biological and biomedical sciences.

Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts
Provides references as far back as 1971, covering aquaculture, aquatic organisms, aquatic pollution, brackish water environments, conservation, environmental quality, fisheries, fresh water environments limnology, marine biotechnology, marine environments, meteorology, oceanography, policy and legislation and wildlife management.

Zoological Record
Provide references in every area of animal biology, from biodiversity and the environment to taxonomy and veterinary sciences.

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Finding Books

Books are not as important an aspect of the literature review in biology, though they can be helpful if you are looking for overviews or are doing research on the history of biologists or famous biologists.

Use Niagara University's Library Catalog to locate books owned by the Library.

If you want to search for books owned by other libraries, too, then try searching WorldCat, a catalog that contains references to more than 57 million items owned by 9,000 libraries worldwide. Don't worry - if you need a book owned by another library, you can request it. To learn how, jump to the section called Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own.

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Finding Facts and Web Sites

It has become nearly impossible to link to all the useful biology and life sciences reference databases in one place. The Internet Public Library has pointed to some of the better ones on its web site.

The Reference Collection on the first floor of the main Library contains some biology reference books. Look for call numbers Ref QH through Ref QL. The Biology Department also maintains a small reference Library in DePaul Hall.

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Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own

If you need an article or a book that NU Library does not own, you can make use of Interlibrary Loan to obtain it.

Tip: In a hurry? If the article or book you need is owned by another library in Western New York, you can visit that library and use their resources on site (view a list of Western New York library web sites).

Please note: If you wish to borrow a book from another Western New York library, you can get an Infopass Card at the Reference Desk.

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How to Cite Your Sources

The Biology Department does not require the use of a particular style manual, so check with your professor.

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