BIOSIS Previews
Most comprehensive coverage of biological and
biomedical literature in one source
6,500 life science journals and
2,000 international meetings,
review articles, and books
Coverage
Available from 1926
Subjects include: aquaculture,
agriculture, biology, biochemistry,
biotechnology, botany, ecology,
environment, microbiology, neurology,
pharmacology, public health
Shibboleth protected resource, so first
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Overview of Session
Searching from the Search
screen
Structured searching
Refining searches
Example search
Find information on the conservation of
capercaillie (use the systematic name, i.e.,
Tetrao urogallus)
2 ideas
conservation
tetrao urogallus
Search each idea in turn, then combine the
searches
Search in biosis
Structured Searching
using Major Concepts
Major Concepts - Terms used to index broad
topics discussed in the paper
For example:
all papers discussing
nutrition, feeding, diets, etc.
will be indexed under one
Major Concept - nutrition
There is a list of Major Concepts you can
browse to check if your topic is listed
Major Concepts - example
Particularly interested in the role of behaviour
in the conservation of capercaillie
Browse the Major Concepts List for behaviour
and search
Then combine the behaviour search with our
search strategy on the conservation of
capercaillie
Search in biosis
Using Major Concepts
Use Major Concepts to set the overall scope
of a search or to search broad topics
Major Concept searches give large numbers
of results so combine with keyword searches
using Search History
Or Use the Refine Options
Other field searches
Taxa Notes
Taxa Notes
Taxa Notes - are very large groupings of
taxonomically related organisms
Allow ease of searching, for example
Humans - covers women, men, children, Homo
sapiens
Birds - covers all the different species that fall within
the category birds
etc
Using
Taxa Notes
Can restrict your search to a particular
Taxa Note - use the Taxa Note field
from the Search screen – will bring up a
drop down menu
Search for nutrition (major concept) and
birds (Taxa Note)
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Refining Search Results
After each search you have the option to
“Refine results”
Can be a very useful way to narrow your search
further
Example search
Example search
nutrition
in birds
literature type
only
REVIEW articles
Summary
Simple searching
Structured searching
Species search – use Taxonomic Data field
Major Concepts - broad subject searching
Taxa Notes – broad groupings of animals
Refining Searches
Literature Type
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