Library Research in Microbiology

Prepared by Anne Turhollow for Biology 521 and Biology 596
Revised Fall 2003

Searching for Information

Journal articles serve as the main form of scientific communication. They can be produced more quickly than a book and cover very specific topics. You will usually need to search more than one index to find all the articles you need. The traditional indexes take you backwards in time. Citation indexes allow you to trace an article or book forward in time.

Indexes to Journal Articles

1. Biosis Previews
   • Off campus access requires current SDSU ID number
   • 1998-to date
   • Major index for the biological sciences
   • Covers over 8,000 journals as well as conference proceedings and books
   • Citations with abstracts
   • Open Link (SFX) provides easy links to fulltext, print and Interlibrary Loan
   • Search by author, taxonomic classification, scientific name, and keywords
   • Pre-1998 is found in print, Biological Abstracts, 1926-1997. (QH 301 B37, 1970-1997 Reference, 1926-1969 5th Floor Periodicals)
2. Medline
   • Off campus access requires current SDSU ID number
   • 1966-to date
   • Covers large number of references in medical microbiology with some general microbiology
   • Open Link (SFX) provides easy links to fulltext, print and Interlibrary Loan
3. PubMed
   • No access restrictions
   • Version of Medline from the National Center for Biotechnology Information
   • Includes links to electronic journal articles (if SDSU has license to access)
   • Includes links to DNA and protein sequences
4. ingenta
   • Off campus access requires current SDSU ID number
   • 1989 to date
   • Indexes the tables of content from over 14,000 journals in all disciplines

Using Citation Indexes

Web of Science is a unique tool that allows you to perform a "Cited Ref Search" and trace a key article or book forward in time. The SDSU version (running under the Web of Knowledge software) covers 1998 to the present. This means that while you can do a "Cited Ref Search" for material published at any time, the results will only show you citing articles published in 1999 or later.

For earlier years, you will need to use the print version. Each year or range of years consists of four sections:

1. Citation Index - the section where you look an older article and find the articles that have cited it during the year or years covered.
2. Source Index - the section that gives a complete citation for the new articles listed in the Citation Index.
3. Corporate Index - where the new articles are indexed by the primary author's institution.
4. Permuterm Subject Index - a keyword index of the titles of the new articles.

The title of interest for the sciences is:

Science Citation Index

Q 158.5 S34 Reference