LibGuides: Biology: Find Reference Sources

Reference Resources

In Reference you may find a source that contains the important facts or gives an overview of the subject you are researching. The Reference includes general encyclopedias and special subject encyclopedias and chronologies.

Browsing for Topic Ideas

One way to to get ideas for a research topic is to browse through lists of topics in reference books and databases.

The boxes in the right hand column on this page will let you do a quick search of the database. If you want to browse one of these databases, open it in a new tab by right clicking on the link below:

CQ Researcher

Opposing Viewpoints

Points of View Reference Center

Recommended Databases

General Science Collection

JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II, III & IV This link opens in a new window
Dates vary. Articles from scholarly journals in the arts, history, social sciences, multi-cultural studies, economics, education, and general science disciplines. Journal content is unique to this database. ARTStor images are now discoverable here as well.
GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
1990 - Present. Articles from journals, magazines, and government publications about human impact on the environment, such as global warming, green building, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy. Many Full-text. EBSCO
ScienceDirect Journals This link opens in a new window
1997 - Present. Articles in scholarly journals in accounting, biology, business, chemistry, computer sciences, economics, engineering, humanities, mathematics, physics, psychology, and social sciences. Full-text.
Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
1940 - Present. Articles from over 680 journals in agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, marine and freshwater science, geography, and public policy; as well as 120 books. Full-text. EBSCO
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online reference library containing the full text of hundreds of reference titles, including dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles, featuring in-depth articles, images, sound files, animations, and videos. Full-text.
eBooks (Gale- previously GVRL) This link opens in a new window
1998 - Present. Multidisciplinary specialized encyclopedias and reference sources. Full-text. Gale
Agriculture This link opens in a new window
1980 - Present. Articles from over 400 agricultural magazines and journals on topics such as pesticides, soil conservation, mammal physiology, agricultural economics, poultry science, and health foods. Also contains chapters from books related to study of agriculture. Full text. Gale OneFile