Library Research for Marine Invertebrates

Prepared by Anne Turhollow for Biology 515
Fall 2002, revised and corrected Fall 2005

Before you start your library research, know your instructor's requirements for your paper or assignment. Remember that library research takes time, even with computers! So try and give yourself at least two to three weeks to gather all the articles and books you may need. And then schedule time as well to read the material.

Library research is multi-step process. It consists of:

Step 1: Selecting a topic to research

Current journals and background resources can help you select a topic and provide you with starting points into the research literature.

Step 2: Identifying information about the topic

There are many computer databases available to help you find material that has been published about your topic. In addition to describing the best tools to use for marine biology research, this section also deals with locating that material either here in this library or elsewhere.

Step 3: Evaluating the information that you find

Information varies in quality and reliability. This section lists some of the questions you need to ask in evaluating your material.

And lastly Step 4: Presenting your results, either orally or written, and giving credit where credit is due

This section lists some books you can use to help in the writing process as well the basic style manuals for the field of biology.

Where you start your library search depends on what you already know and what you've chosen to research:

• If you have a "classic" article or book and want to update it, start with the citation indexes.
  
  
• If you've been given a topic and a list of references to find, go to the sections on locating journals or locating books.
  
  
• If you don't have a list of references, but you do have a good sense of your topic, start with the section on searching for information in journals to select the best indexes for finding journal articles.
  
  
• If you have a topic, but don't know much about it, start with the background resources to learn more about it.
  
  
• If you don't have a clue about what you are going to research, than skim some recent journal issues. Current issues of journals in marine ecology and invertebrate zoology can be found in the Current Periodicals area on the 1st floor of Love Library. Most electronic versions of the journals will requires the use of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Some of the major titles are listed below:
  
  

  Biological Bulletin

  QH 301 B38 Periodicals

  Online full text is available.

  Journal of Coastal Research: JCR

  QH 541.5 C65 J62 Periodicals

  Online tables of contents and abstracts are available.

  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

  QH 91 J6 Periodicals

  Online full text is available.

  Marine and Freshwater Research

  GC 1 A85 Periodicals

  Online full text is available.

  Marine Biology

  QH 91 M27 Periodicals

  Online full text is available.