Finding Information for Bio 200 Labs

Assignment: In this course you will be able to design your own lab experiments, working in pairs. As part of this, you will seek related information in the library, and write a lab report that includes citation to at least one original research paper, and some discussion of this paper in relation to your own findings.

What do we mean by "original research paper"? We mean an article published in a scholarly scientific journal, reporting on a series of experiments done in the laboratory or field. The authors present their work in the standard scientific format (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Literature Cited) and try to show how these new results relate to the work of other investigators. This is exactly what you will try to do in your lab report.

Background: We expect that you have (in previous courses) used the Library, read some scientific articles, perhaps used a biological dictionary, used at least one periodical index or database for finding articles by topic, and written lab reports and a research paper with cited references. For Bio 200 you will be repeating many of the same steps, but this time seeking information about fertilization processes in sea urchins, or other Bio 200 topics.

The tools we have to use:

• There is plenty of literature available on most of the topics you will be pursuing, and MHC owns much of it, in our library and our electronic resources.
• We have plenty of biology databases, making it relatively simple to find an article related to your lab experiment. You can find a selection of Biology databases on the Biology Research Guide. JSTOR is a general database with a good biology section.
• We have a system called MH Links that will lead you directly from (most) library databases to our electronic subscriptions or to an appropriate search in the 5 College Catalog.

The problems you’ll need to solve:

• You do not have enough time for Interlibrary Loan. Your lab report is due very soon so you must find something at MHC, or at least at a 5 College library. Access to journals in the 5 Colleges isn’t the same as for books: we can ship books to you in about 2 business days from the other schools, but we don’t have logins for their electronic subscriptions, or a delivery system for photocopies from their print journals (other than Interlibrary Loan).
• You are doing classic experiments, so the research similar to your experiments was probably done many years ago. You will have to watch for hints in the materials you already have, to tell you how far back to search.
• Each database covers a different range of years: BasicBIOSIS covers only the most recent 4 years but covers biology very thoroughly, General Science Abstracts covers 1983-present, Science Direct indexes some older stuff but only has documents from 1995-present, and Web of Science has science articles from 1945-present. JSTOR covers some very old journals going back into the 1800s.
• Vocabulary: what are the words that describe your topic? Better yet, are there old terms and alternative terms other researchers may have used in their research instead of the terms you use? You need to know the right vocabulary to get the documents you need from the databases.
• Who did the research? Do you know their names? Can you find mention of them, so that you can look for their work?

Now that you’re thinking about all of those questions, here are some tips to get you going, and save you time, not just with this assignment, but with all of the research you will do in the future.

Tips for finding information for Bio 200:

1. Set aside a notebook or folder for your sources, and write down where you have searched, and what words and names you have tried. This will save you from retracing your steps as you work on your research.
2. Start with your textbook. Read the chapter related to your topic. Where did the ideas in the textbook come from? What lab experiments were conducted to learn these "facts"? Who did this research? When and where was it published? Write down citations and names and dates and vocabulary words that you can search for.
3. Search by author, using the name of a researcher mentioned or referenced in your textbook. What else has this person published on the subject? Keep your eye on the dates involved, and try to pick an appropriate database with the date ranges listed above. Remember, try JSTOR and Web of Science for the oldest topics, then try the more recent databases.
4. You might want to find a review article. Reviews are secondary sources with extensive bibliographies, but you should not cite them in your work, as they are secondary sources. Use them instead to find primary sources to read and cite. (Here’s a guide from UC, Santa Cruz on the difference between primary and secondary sources if you need a refresher.) Some of the databases are better at finding reviews: in BasicBIOSIS add the keyword "review" to your search strategy: sea urchin and fertilization and review. In Web of Science, at the bottom of the General Search page, change the box at the bottom from “All document types” to “Review” and then do your search.
5. Follow reference links in Web of Science. Web of Science lists the references from each article in over 5000 science journals lets you move forward and backward in a chain of citations. Click on “Cited References” to see earlier papers that this paper cites. Click on “Times Cited” to see papers that cite the one you are looking at. Another option is the "Find Related Records" button, which takes you to a list of papers that share some of the same references.
6. Important journals for the topic of sea urchin fertilization include Biological Bulletin, Development, and Developmental Biology. These three journals are indexed in Web of Science (with many years of backfile) and in BasicBIOSIS (only recent 4 years). General Science Index (1978- ) covers Biological Bulletin, and started including Developmental Biology in mid-1992.
7. Use the Internet, but with caution. Go to the website for your textbook, or other websites mentioned in class. Follow links on the Internet section of the Biology Research Guide. You can also use Google, or try Google Scholar. Remember that most webpages do not count as original research papers, though you may find copies of some published original papers, which are acceptable. Use webpages to find out about scholarly sources to read, or basic facts about your topic.
8. Take your time; relax, and be thoughtful about what you are finding. You are only required to find and use one original research article. It does not need to focus on your topic exactly, just be related in some way.
9. Still having trouble? Contact Sarah Oelker, Science Librarian, or try Ask a Librarian. You can find additional resources on the library's Biology Research Guide.