Biology 1017 (FR) Guide Ask Us

This guide is designed to help you successfully complete both your Reading, Researching, and Referencing Scientific Literature (RRR) assignment and your Primary Literature assignment. This guide will by connect you with the most fitting research tools, tips, and resources accessible through UNB Libraries. Use the tabs above to guide you as you complete this assignment. If you have any questions along the way please do not hesitate to reach out to Emily Connor Dafoe, your subject librarian - happy researching! 

There are many different types of searches you will need to conduct for your assignments in this course, visit the BIO1017 Video Tutorials playlist for guidance. 

Key Resources

Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Publications:

• Scholarly publications, often referred to as academic articles, scientific literature, or peer-reviewed articles, are written by experts in a particular field. The intended audience is often researchers in the same field, academics, and students. These publications undergo a rigorous peer-review process, during which other experts evaluate the content for its accuracy, validity, and contribution to the field before publication.
  • Author(s): Credentials given, usually a scholar with subject expertise
  • Purpose: Disseminate original research and/or analysis within a specific academic field. 
  • Audience: Scholars, researchers, students
  • Format: Scholarly publications typically follow a structured format including abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, and references. 
  • Examples: Peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly books
• Non-scholarly publications are generally aimed at a general audience and are not necessarily written by experts in the field they discuss. They do not undergo a peer-review process and are often used to inform, entertain, or persuade a wide readership.
  • Author(s): Journalists, freelance writers, general public
  • Purpose: Inform, entertain, or persuade the general population.
  • Audience: General public
  • Format: Varies greatly depending on the source
  • Examples: News articles, blogs, websites, and social media content. 

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Literature

• Primary Literature sources are original studies based on direct evidence. It is where new findings and data are first reported. These original materials often authored by researchers and published in peer-reviewed journals.
  • Examples of primary literature include research articles, theses and dissertations, and conference proceedings. 
• Secondary Literature sources review articles and synthesize and summarize existing research rather than present new findings. 
  • Examples of secondary literature include systematic review articles and textbooks.  
• Tertiary Literature sources aim to provide the distilled essence of knowledge. These sources typically lack a specific author because their primary mission is to compile and present existing ideas and information. 
  • Examples of tertiary literature include textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and manuals.

Grey Literature

Grey literature refers to materials that are not published through traditional channels, such as academic journals or commercial publishers. This category includes a wide range of documents, such as government reports, policy statements, early versions of research articles (pre-prints), finalized research papers that haven't been published yet (post-prints), geological and geophysical surveys, conference materials, maps, newsletters, bulletins, and fact sheets.

To learn more about grey literature, view our What is Grey Literature video tutorial. 

The first step to completing a successful research assignment is selecting the right database. The key to selecting the right database is knowing what is in each database. You can think of academic databases like file folders, one folder might have articles within that cover certain subject areas better than others. 

There are several questions you want to ask yourself when selecting an academic database: 

• What subject areas does the database cover? 
  • Certain database are highly specialized and specific to certain subject areas. For instance, searching for biology resources within a psychology database won't get you very far!
• What date range does the database cover? 
  • Most databases only cover materials published within a certain date range If you're looking for articles or research from before, or after, that date then you'll need to use a different database.  
• What material types are located within the database? 
  • Most academic databases index scholarly articles. However, if you are seeking a specific resource type, like patents, you may need to look into specialized databases. 

To view all UNB Libraries databases, visit this link

For the assignments in this course, we recommend starting with BIOSIS Citation index

Hosted on Web of Science, BIOSIS Citation index contains all materials located within both Biological Abstracts and BOISIS Previews databases, while also going a step further by including cited references. 

The BIOSIS database family covers various facets of biology, such as traditional subjects like plants and animals, as well as interdisciplinary fields such as Clinical Medicine, Genetics, and Pharmacology. 

Key Resources

Within the BIOSIS family, there are three databases: 

This page will guide you to successfully complete your Reading, Researching, and Referencing Scientific Literature (RRR) assignment. 

Key Resources

Exercise 1: 

In exercise 1 of the RRR assignment, you will need to locate three primary articles: one by an author search, one by author keywords, and one by cited references.

Searching BIOSIS Citation Index by Author (video tutorial):

1. Visit BIOSIS Citation Index
2. Click on the Researchers tab
3. Search by researcher's name
   • Note: if there are multiple researchers indexed with the same name, use the filters to locate the correct researcher. If there is only one researcher indexed under the name, their record page will immediately come up. 
4. From the author record page, scroll down to locate their publications
5. Click on a title to open a specific publication

Locating an article in BIOSIS Citation Index by Author Keyword (video tutorial):

1. Begin on an article record page (located in step 1) 
2. Scroll down to the keywords section of the page
3. Click on a keyword link
4. Narrow your results down to articles along the left side of the page
5. Select the title of an article
   • Be sure to select an article with several cited references - this will be important during step 3. 

Locating an article in BIOSIS Citation Index by Cited References (video tutorial):

1. Begin on an article record page (located in step 1)
2. Locate the citation network part of the page
3. Click on the number above Cited References
4. Select the title of an article

Exercise 2 (video tutorial): 

In exercise 2 of the RRR assignment you will need to create citations for the three articles found in exercise 1. 

For this, you will need to locate the author, date of publication, article title, journal title, volume number, page number, and DOI number (if article was accessed online). 

You citation will follow this format: 

Mayer, A.E., T.J. McGreevy, C. Brown, L.S. Ganoe, and B.D. Gerber. 2022. Transient persistence of bobcat (Lynx Rufus) occurance throughout a human-dominated landscape. Population Ecology 64: 323-335. doi: 10.1002/1438-390x.12123

For more details, visit the Citing Scientific Literature tab of this guide.

Exercise 3: 

To complete exercise 3, you will need to locate 3 primary scientific articles relevant to your Biosphere Report, and format references for them. 

Searching BIOSIS Citation Index by keyword:

1. Start a new search on the BIOSIS Citation Index home page
2. Place relevant keywords into the search bar
3. Click on the article title from your search results 
4. Use the links above the title on the article record page to open the full-text of the article 

Reading a scientific article transcript.pdf

In your annotated bibliography assignment, you will need for write annotations (summaries) and format citations. You will likely also need to locate and read a scientific article to complete your annotation Use BIOSIS Citation Index to locate supporting materials. 

Formatting an Annotated Bibliography 

An annotated bibliography consists of two parts: your formatted citation(s) and your annotation(s). See the video below for details on creating your annotated bibliography: 

Annotated Bibliography Transcript.pdf

Reading Scientific Articles

Scientific articles often form the backbone of academic and professional research, yet many find them daunting and hard to read. However, there's a systematic approach to breaking down these articles into digestible pieces. In the following video, I will introduce some practical strategies and steps to make sense of these articles.

Reading a scientific article transcript.pdf

Elements of a Citation

For assignments in this course you are required to provide references following the Biology 1017 Referencing Guide. It is essential to understand the key elements of a citation to format them correctly. 

Here are the key elements of a citation: 

• Author(s): Who wrote the source? In some cases you may have editors instead of, or in addition to, authors. 
• Date of Publication: When was the source published? 
• Title: What is the title of the source? If citing a scientific article you will use both journal and article titles:
  • Journal Title: The name of the publication that your article was published within. 
  • Article Title: The name of the specific article you are citing. 
• Volume: Common with scientific articles and typically references how many years that journal has been publishing. 
• Page numbers: Include the page range of the full article, not just the page(s) you obtained information from. 
• URL/DOI: When citing scientific articles include a DOI, not URL. 

Citation Format

Format

Author1 Last Name, Initial(s), Author2 Initial(s) Last Name, Author3 Initial(s) Last Name, and Author4 Initial(s) Last Name. Year of Publication. Article Title. Journal Title volume number: #-#. doi: ######

Example

Mayer, A.E., T.J. McGreevy, C. Brown, L.S. Ganoe, and B.D. Gerber. 2022. Transient persistence of bobcat (Lynx Rufus) occurance throughout a human-dominated landscape. Population Ecology 64: 323-335. doi: 10.1002/1438-390x.12123

Elements of a citation transcript.pdf 

Citation Help

If you have any questions about formatting your citations, please reach out to your subject Librarian (Emily Connor Dafoe). 

There are also free software available to help you with citation. At UNB, librarians can help you with Zotero.