Biological Sciences
Database search tips
Recommended
- Scopus
Covers all life, health and physical sciences (1960+) including MEDLINE content, with most records linked to full text, citation data (1996+) and hyperlinked references - MEDLINE (OvidSP)
The premiere biomedical database (1946+) that uses controlled indexing and provides some full text - BIOSIS
Includes biology, clinical and experimental medicine, earth sciences, biochemistry, biotechnology, horticulture, and taxonomy, in two collections (archives 1945-68) and BIOSIS Previews (1969+) which includes books, meetings and patents.
Full list
Library databases for Biological Sciences.
Reference works
Animal behaviour and welfare
Bioengineering and biostatistics
- Encyclopedia of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
- Encyclopedia of Biostatistics
- Encyclopedia of Industrial Biotechnology
- Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (e-EROS)
Environmental, plant science, horticultural and dairy science
- CABI Encyclopedia of Forest Trees
- EcoSal Plus
- EIS Digests of Environmental Impact Statements
- Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences
- Encyclopedia of Ecology
- Encyclopedia of Ecology and Environmental Management
- Encyclopedia of Environmental Health
- Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology
- Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences
- Encyclopedia of Grain Science
- Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
- Encyclopedia of Soil Science
- International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics
- PlantSCIENCEnetBASE
Life and medical sciences
- Encyclopedia of Biodiversity
- Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry
- Encyclopedia of Genetics
- Encyclopedia of Immunology
- Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
- Encyclopedia of Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine
- Encyclopedia of Radicals in Chemistry, Biology and Materials
- Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules
- Encyclopedia of the Neurological Sciences
- Encyclopedic Dictionary of Genetics, Genomics and Proteomics
- Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia
Marine and freshwater
- Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology
- Encyclopedia of Inland Waters
- Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences
- Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science
Microbiology
- Bergeys Manual of Systematic Bacteriology
- EcoSal Plus
- Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology
- Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology
- Encyclopedia of Microbiology
Structural biology
E-books
The Joint Graduate School in Plant and Food Science was established between the University and Plant and Food Research (Crown Research Institute) in 2010, being the first such collaboration of its type in New Zealand. While some of the generic life science resources listed in the database and e-book package tabs of this guide will be appropriate for students in the joint graduate school, several more specialist ones are also included in the list below.
Databases, datasets and compendiums
- Analytical Abstracts
- APSnet (American Phytopathological Society)
- ASTM Standards
- Biological Abstracts
- CAB Direct
- CABI Crop Protection Compendium
- CABI Invasive Species Compendium
- CABI Plantwise Knowledge Bank
- FOODnetBASE
- Food Standards Code
- FSTA: Food Science and Technology Abstracts
- JSTOR Global Plants
- New Zealand Regional Botanical Society Journal Search Engine
- NUTRITIONnetBASE
- Phytotaxa
- PlantSCIENCEnetBASE
- Plantwise Knowledge Bank
- Scopus
- Viticulture and Enology Abstracts
The Joint Graduate School in Biodiversity and Biosecurity was established between the University and Landcare Research in 2011.
Databases, datasets and directories
- Amphibiaweb: Amphibia database
- ANTWEB: Ants Database
- APDRC: Asia-Pacific Data-Research Center
- APRDC: In-situ oceanographic or atmospheric data from a Dapper OpenDap server
- Aquamaps: Online Computer-generated Maps for large Scale Species Distributions
- ARCTOS: Multi-Institution, Multi-Collection Museum Database
- ARGOS: Worldwide tracking and environmental monitoring by satellite
- Avibase: The World Bird Database
- BHL: Biodiversity Heritage Library consortium of natural history and botanical libraries
- Bio-Oracle: Ocean Rasters for Analysis of Climate Environment
- Biotaxa: Online Library for Taxonomic Journals
- BirdLife Data Zone
- BoL: Barcode of Life
- Botanic Gardens Conservation International (interacts with CABI databases)
- BUGZ Bibliography (Bibliography of New Zealand terrestrial invertebrates online)
- CABI Invasive Species Compendium
- CCCMA: Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis
- CITES Species Database
- CliMond: Global climatologies for bioclimatic modelling
- EMODNET Biology:Biology Portal of European Marine Observations and Data Network
- EoL: Encyclopedia of Life
- EUNIS: European Nature Information System Database
- EU-NOMEN: Pan-European Species Directories Infrastructure
- FEOW: Freshwater Ecoregions of the World
- FishBase
- GBIF: The Global Biodiversity Information Facility
- GISD: Global Invasive Species Database - ISSG
- Global Invasive Species Database
- Glovis: USGS Earth Resource Observation and Science Center Data Portal
- GOOS: Global Ocean Observing System
- Invasive Species Compendium
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- JSTOR Global Plants
- MaNIS Portals: The Mammal Networked Information System
- Marine Species Identification Portal
- MPA Global: A Database of the World's Marine Protected Areas
- NCBI GenBank®: Public NIH genetic sequence database
- New Zealand Lizards Database
- New Zealand Plant Conservation Network
- NODC: NOAA Oceanographic Data Center
- NSIDC: National Snow & Ice Data Center
- OBIS: Ocean Biogeographic Information System
- OceanColor: NASA Oceancolor Portal
- Phytotaxa
- Paleobiology Database
- Reefbase: A Global Information System for Coral Reefs
- SCAR-MarBIN: SCAR-Marine Biodiversity Information Network
- SeaLifeBase
- VLIZ Flanders Marine Institute Database Page
- WDPA-Marine: World Database on Marine Protected Areas
- WDPA: World Database of Protected Areas
- WikiSpecies: Free Species Directory
- WorldClim: Global Climate Data
- WoRMS: World Register of Marine Species
- ZOOTAXA: A mega-journal for zoological taxonomists in the world
Image: Aerial views of Auckland from 1940 (left) and 2008 (right) Auckland Council GIS Viewer.
Finding maps, imagery and data | New Zealand | International
Finding maps, imagery and data
- Finding data
Accessing data from the Geospatial data guide.
New Zealand
- Key resources
From the Geospatial data guide.
Additional
- DOC maps and geospatial services
- Landcare Research: Resources
- LRIS Portal
Online GIS viewer for environmental data, including rock and soil layers. - S-map Online
National soils database.
- LRIS Portal
International
- Geoscience Australia
Maps, data, GIS files and spatial metadata for Australian geoscience, including earth monitoring, energy, greenhouse gas storage, groundwater, hazards (fire and earthquakes), marine and coastal, minerals and topographic information, observation and imagery. - GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer)
Imagery, maps and data from the European Space Agency's Earth Explorer satellite programme. - National Oceanic and Atmsopheric Administration - NOAA (US)
- Climate Maps & Data
Global and US climate data presented as dashboards, maps and downloads. - Ocean Service Geospatial Data
- NOAA View - Data Imagery Portal, part of their Environmental Visualization Laboratory
Dymanic global map tool to view atmospheric, climatic, cryospheric, land, oceanic data sets over time, with description and download options.
- Climate Maps & Data
- UN Environmental Data Explorer
National, subregional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps), covering themes such as climate, disasters, emissions, forests, freshwater, GDP, health, and population. - UN Food and Agriculture Organisation - GeoNetwork
- US Geological Survey
- Landsat missions
Satellite imagery and data for online viewing and download from NASA.
- Landsat missions
Lab protocols | Patents | New Zealand biology publications | Writing guidelines | Current awareness services | Print collections
Lab protocols
- Brain Research Protocols
- Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
- Current Protocols in Molecular Biology
- JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments)
- Nature Protocols
- Springer Protocols
Structural drawing packages
Other structural drawing packages are available in databases such as Reaxys and SciFinder.
Patents
- BIOSIS Previews (choose 'Current file 1969+')
- Derwent Innovations Index (Emphasis on chemistry)
- Patents guide
See Subject-based Patent Databases. - Scopus
New Zealand biology publications
New Zealand biologists publish in high profile international journals and in lesser-known local titles, some of which are published by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) and the Crown Research Institutes or CRIs (known as Department of Scientific and Industrial Research [DSIR] before 1992). Such titles may contain items on regional conservation and ecological issues, and applied sciences in fields such as aquaculture, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and horticulture. The RSNZ has publications from 1869 and promotes scientific research via the Marsden Fund (est. 1994) and the Rutherford Foundation (est. 2008).
New Zealand journals with biological content are listed below. Most of these titles are indexed by the Scopus database.
- Bulletin of the Auckland Museum
- Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
- New Zealand entomologist
- New Zealand journal of agricultural research
- New Zealand journal of botany
- New Zealand journal of crop and horticultural science
- New Zealand journal of ecology
- New Zealand journal of forestry
- New Zealand journal of forestry science
- New Zealand journal of marine and freshwater research
- New Zealand journal of zoology
- New Zealand science review
- Phytotaxa
- Records of the Auckland Museum
- Zootaxa
RSNZ journals are indexed in New Zealand Science, as is scientific material from Crown Research Institutes, which include the following:
- Callaghan innovation
- GNS Science (Institute of Geologic and Nuclear Science)
- Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR)
- Landcare Research
- National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
- New Zealand Pastoral Agricultural Research Institute (AgResearch)
- Plant & Food Research
- Scion (NZ Forest Research Institute Ltd)
New Zealand Science
Includes some New Zealand science journals not indexed by international databases. Some of these have low journal impact factors, a feature of many specialist titles. The New Zealand Science interface enables you to simultaneously search (or exclude) other databases covering more popular New Zealand literature (such as Newzindex, the Newspaper Index and Index New Zealand), as well as the Forest Bibliography.
Index New Zealand
Indexes newspapers, magazines and journals including popular science titles relating to science topics and also contains New Zealand Science as well as non-science New Zealand datasets.
- Index New Zealand is compatible with the bibliographic software package EndNote and requires the use of an import filter (rather than the direct option used by most databases).
Archive of indexed publications from the School of Biological Sciences 2004-2013
To access full-text and citation data, copy and paste titles into Scopus.
2004-2006
2007-2008
2009-2010
2011-2012
2013
Bibliometrics
- For assistance with the bibliometric measurements used in science publications, see Measuring and Evaluating Science Research
Writing guidelines
- A student handbook for writing in biology
by Karin Knisely. - Ecology writing guide
Compiled by the School of Biological Sciences for ecologists but applicable to all natural sciences. - Essentials of writing biomedical research papers
by Mimi Zeiger. - Guide to peer review
Compiled by the British Ecological Society but applicable to all natural sciences. - Scientific report writing
By Anuj Bhargava, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciencs, and Libraries and Learning Services staff. - Technical report writing
Writing for science: A practical handbook for science, engineering and technology students - by Heather Silyn-Roberts.
- Writing for science and engineering: Papers, presentations and reports
by Heather Silyn-Roberts.
Current awareness alert services
Current awareness alert services are offered by most large science databases. Alerts enable you to:
- Set pre-determined topic searches.
- Be notified about new publications by certain authors.
- Be notified when publications are cited.
Unlike general searching, you need to be logged into a database to save alerts, or access previously-saved alerts.
- Setting alerts in Scopus is highly recommended as Scopus harvests data and citations from many other databases. If you have an existing registration for ScienceDirect, use that for Scopus as well.
- Setting alerts in Ovid interface databases (e.g., Biological Abstracts, FSTA [Food Science and Technology Abstracts], PsycINFO, and MEDLINE) is a little more involved but is the same procedure for each, and they use a shared login.
Print collections
Biological Sciences print collections are housed in the General Library and are catalogued in Dewey Decimal sequence. Most material is on Level M (Dewey 500-600s), but there is also material (primarily related to conservation and national parks, or the history of biology) on Level 1 (Dewey 300s).
Dewey categories for Life Sciences are:
- 570 = Life sciences and biology
- 580 = Botany and plant science
- 590 = Zoology
- 600 = Medicine
Other biological-related titles can be found in the Engineering collections (primarily topics on biotechnology, engineering science, and bioengineering and biomedical engineering). These are catalogued under the Library of Congress system.
APA is the preferred referencing style for the School of Biological Sciences.
APA
Serial title abbreviations
- Biological Serial Abbreviations
- CAS Source Index (CASSI)
- Ulrichs Periodical Directory
- Web of Science Journal Abbreviations
Names of taxa appearing within references
- Taxonomic names are normally rendered in italics.
- When they appear in a reference and the surrounding text is in italics (for example, in a book or unpublished thesis title), enter the taxonomic name in regular font to distinguish it from the surrounding text.
- Figure captions are sometimes rendered in italics. In this case enter a taxonomic name within the caption in regular font.
Support
- Referencing
Access a range of tools and support material to assist your referencing work
Examples
- Quick©ite
Use this interactive tool to view examples of references.
Covers a range of styles used at the University of Auckland including APA.