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BIOL 1406 NE Maines: Websites

This guide is to assist students on their class research project.

Word of Caution!

Not all instructors allow the use of internet sites as references. Check with your professor to be sure you are allowed to use websites for your research.

Websites

Catalogue of Life
Indexes the world's known species.
GBIF Backbone Taxonomy
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) species search catalog.

Biodiversity Heritage Library
Openly available biodiversity literature.
Encyclopedia of Life
Global access to knowledge about life on Earth.
PLoS Biology
Original research articles, essays, & other features as well as synopses of the research article for general audiences.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Search by topic or keyword to locate environmental articles.
PubMed
PubMed comprises more than 24 million citations (NOT full text articles) for biomedical literature. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
Science.gov
Science.gov searches over 60 federal databases. Use the advance search to limit to one or more research categories.

Searching Google

When browsing Google remember:

The more specific your keywords (business management vs. business), the better your result list will be.

Use available search tools to narrow your results.

Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate

Keep in mind that anyone can post anything on the Internet. Use PARC for evaluating websites.

Purpose/Point of View

Is this fact or opinion?
Is it biased?

Authority

Who are the authors, sponsors or publisher?
What are their credentials?

Reliability

Is the information reliable and accurate?
Are you able to find the same information elsewhere?

Currency

Is it current enough for your topic? (no more than 3-5 years for some topics)
Is the data using current information?

Evaluating sources
More about evaluating print and Internet sources from the OWL at Purdue University.