BIO
103; Carlos Ramirez
Rebecca Hedreen, Biology Librarian
(203)
392-5753
hedreenr1@southernct.edu
http://home.southernct.edu/~hedreenr1/BIO103.html
Secondary - These people did this, and those people did that, and this is what we think it means. (Journal articles, most scholarly books, news reporting)
Tertiary - This is a summary of what happened; this is what it's thought to mean. (Dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, news opinions/editorials)
For academic work, you should generally go to the most-primary source you can find. In other words, don't settle for an encyclopedia if you can find a scholarly book, and don't settle for a scholarly book if you can find the original research articles.
Peer reviewed is a separate category—these are articles that have been examined by experts in the particular field before publication. Primary, secondary, and tertiary literature can all be peer-reviewed.
Tertiary Literature:
Encyclopedia
Britannica--great
for finding background information:
Search for “fern” -- the article has sections on leaf, stem, and root anatomy with linked definitions for major anatomical terms.
The library has lots of subject specific encyclopedias in the Reference Collection, like Magill's encyclopedia of science: plant life, and online, like Collins Dictionary of Biology (in the Credo database).
You may not be able to cite tertiary literature as a source, depending on your professor's preferences, but it can help you with vocabulary, concepts, and organization.
Secondary and Primary Literature: Journal Databases
Annual Review of Plant Biology (1950-2003)--primary and secondary scholarly articles from an excellent scholarly journal. Use the simple search for basic searches, like "roots", or the Advanced search for more complex searches. Results with green check marks are full text.
Science Reference Center --primary (journals), secondary, (journals and magazines), and tertiary (encyclopedia); lots of full text, plus videos (secondary & teritatry); some articles aimed at young audiences.
Academic Search Premier--mixed primary, secondary, and tertiary sources; good for all types of research.
Bio-One--Mostly research articles (primary) and review articles (secondary).
JSTOR--Mostly research articles (primary) and review articles (secondary).
Science Direct--Mostly research articles (primary) and review articles (secondary). Also includes book and product reviews--which you can screen out in the search.
How to search for articles for your lab reports:
Generally you won't find the exact same experiment that you performed in lab written up in an experimental research journal. You should find articles dealing with the same:
Examples:
Example of species/genus searching
Bio-One: "Sarracenia" (genus name of pitcher plants)
Uses in lab report: What else has been studied regarding this species or related species? (For instance, some of the prey species of Pitcher plants.)
Example of concept searching
JSTOR: "maize and roots and epidermis"
Uses in lab report:
Have similar studies been done? (Yes!)
Example of methods searching
Science Direct: "leaf dissection and light microscopy"
Uses in lab report:
What some reasons to use this method? (Comparative anatomy of related species.)
