Molecular biosciences databases

If you already know the journal title, volume and pages of an article, do not use databases. Instead search for the journal title directly in the Library Catalogue.
Use databases when you know only your topic or an author's name and need to find journal articles.
First link to a database from the list below. Then search your topic. See Library tutorial for science for help with search techniques.
Most databases are restricted to members of the University of Adelaide community, for non-commercial research, education or personal use. You will be prompted for your University ID.

Biosis previews (Biological abstracts), through ISI Web of Knowledge, 1980-: Indexes biological journal articles, reports and meetings from 1980 onwards. An important biological database for plant, animal and microbial biology.
Medline, 1950s-: Indexes biomedical journal articles. An important biomedical database for human, animal and microbial biology. It can be searched as:; PubMed (Medline), 1950s-, National Library of Medicine - the most complete and up to date version with full MeSH searching (term explosion) and links to related databases. Has some awkward search methods - be aware of the effects of phrase searching and truncation. For help see PubMed's own tutorial and help and these PubMed search notes.; Medline through ISI Web of Knowledge (free trial) - can be searched in the same way as Biological abstracts and has MeSH term explosion.; Medline through SciFinder Scholar with Chemical abstracts - uses natural language searching and has no MeSH term explosion.
Web of Science, 1980 onwards for cited reference searching as well as 1966 onwards for topic searching via Web of Knowledge's Medline database.
Scopus, 1996 onwards for cited reference searching and 1966 onwards for topic searching via partial Medline and EMBASE content.: Web of science and Scopus are large databases covering science and other subjects and allowing cited reference searching (finding articles that have cited a given article). The 1980 onwards date range of Web of science makes it the more useful database for cited reference searching.
Web of science and Scopus can also be searched by topic but they lack the depth of coverage of a biological database such as Biosis previews. The Medline content of Scopus is incomplete: it does not allow explosion of MeSH and, according to its help, it excludes some MeSH normally found in Medline records.
Combined search through Web of Knowledge: Biosis previews, Web of Science and Medline can be searched together in a single All Databases search. It is doesn't allow special features such as MeSH explosions or cited reference searching so may be less effective than searching each database separately.
Journal citation reports: gives rankings and impact factors for science journals.
SciFinder Scholar (Chemical abstracts (1907-) and Medline (1958-)): Chemical abstracts covers chemistry and chemical technology, and chemical aspects of related areas such as biochemistry, molecular biology, pharmacology, biotechnology. You can search SciFinder Scholar in the Library on computer 335 and 336 near the information desk or you can download client software for use on a computer linked to the University network.
For help, see the Library's introductory guide or use the database's online help.
Other databases cover some aspects:: Zoological record through ISI Web of Knowledge, for animal biochemistry, genetics and evolution when the emphasis is on the organism or taxonomic group.
CAB abstracts, 1910- through ISI Web of Knowledge and Agricola, the main agricultural databases
Publisher search engines: allow you to search all or some of the full text of articles not just abstracts, titles and added keywords, so they can be useful for finding articles on narrow topics. However often they are restricted to a few publishers' journals or don't tell you which journals they cover. Always search more wide-ranging databases such as Biological abstracts as well.
NextBio - search of public articles and data
ScienceDirect or Scirus from Elsevier
Wiley interscience
Cambridge University Press
Springer
HighWire Press
BioMedCentral
BioOne
PubMed Central
CrossRef search
Google Scholar
Windows Live Search Academic (beta)
Google Books - searches the contents of books and gives tables of contents, indexes and sample pages; some out of print books can be downloaded in full.
For theses, eprints, etc: see Thesis information which includes databases such as Proquest Dissertations and theses and details of delivery through the Interlibrary loan service.
Web sites with electronic theses include:
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations - worldwide
Arrow Discovery Service - Australian research, including theses
Australasian Digital Theses Program - for searching and also depositing your own University of Adelaide thesis
BASE: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine - searches world-wide institutional repositories of electronic materials, pre-print-servers, electronic journals etc.
To find which other Australian libraries hold books and journals, search:: Libraries Australia (Kinetica)
Note: Use Advanced search and change all of these to starts with. Apply the Journals limit when searching for journals.
General science and interdisciplinary databases are useful for:: the social and ethical aspects of science e.g. Academic search elite
Science news
Patents