BG 403 Biology Senior Seminar

This is the PowerPoint Presentation on “Developing Research Skills in Biology”

Presented by Fred Guyette on Sept 4, 2012

Let’s say this book is perfect for your project – How

will you get your hands on it?

Making Use of Subject Headings to build a longer list of resources...

Making Use of Subject Headings to build a longer list of sources...

WorldWorldCat (FirstSearch)“The Universe of Books

that can be borrowed from other libraries...”

WorldCat (FirstSearch)“The Universe of Books

that can be borrowed from other libraries...”

Making an Interlibrary Loan Request...

Summary of what we have looked at so far...

• Use our Library Catalog to find books we might own.

• Use PASCAL Delivers for books that might be held elsewhere in SC.

• Use WorldCat and/or EBSCO for Interlibrary Loan.

• Click on Subject Headings to find similar items

Our example was “Predation (Biology)”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mO6GQ0MtO4&feature=relmfu

WorldBioOne: An Excellent Place to Start

for Projects in Biology...

• Avery M, Engeman R, Keacher K, Humphrey J, Bruce W, Mathies T, Mauldin R (2010) Cold weather and the potential range of invasive Burmese pythons. Biol Invasions

• Pyron RA, Burbrink FT, Guiher TJ (2008) Claims of potential expansion throughout the US by invasive python species are contradicted by ecological niche models. PLoS ONE 3:e2931

• Reed RN, Rodda GH (2009) Giant constrictors: biological and management profiles and an establishment risk assessment for nine large species of pythons, anacondas, and the boa constrictor. US Geol Surv Open File Rep 1202:1–315

• Rodda GH, Jarnevich CS, Reed RN (2009) What parts of the US mainland are climatically suitable for invasive alien pythons spreading from Everglades National Park? Biol Invasions 11:241–252

• Snow RW, Krysko KL, Enge KM, Oberhofer L, Warren-Bradley A, Wilkins L (2007a) Introduced populations of Boa constrictor (Boidae) and Python molurus bivittatus (Pythonidae) in southern Florida. In: Henderson RW, Powell R (eds) The biology of boas and pythons. Eagle Mountain Publishing, Eagle Mountain, pp 416–438

Who is Carla Dove? And, why would a question like that be important?

Dr. Dove investigates bird strikes and looks for ways to keep birds away from airports...

Summary of Second Segment...

• We chose a project: Burmese Python as an Invasive Species

• We tried a search in BioOne • There was only one article on pythons in BioOne, but

we “raided” the references at the end of the article• We chose one of the authors to find out more about

her research interests • Why? Mainly to discover colleagues with interests

similar to our own / Graduate Studies / Internship / Job Interview...

Bibliographies, Literature Reviews: This type of article, if we can find one, offers an overview of MANY articles, summarizing and discussing

the shape of the question...

Editors of Annual Reviews invite leaders in their field to write an

overview of a certain topic, following this rule of thumb:

“Please discuss the 100 most important articles on this subject published in the last ten years...”

To summarize this third segment...• You might be especially interested in journal

articles that are “reviews of the literature” or have “bibliography” in the title field

• Also “Annual Reviews” can be very important.

• Written by Invited Experts/Provides...

• Ten Years/100 Articles

• Keywords/Abstracts

• Tables/Charts

A few highlights to remember...

In Academic Search Complete we did a search on Honey Bee Colony Collapse

We saw that articles in Annual Reviews can help: “100 articles in the last ten years”

MEDLINE will probably be the best place to begin if your project involves diagnosis and treatment of human diseases or health-related conditions

Interlibrary Loan and PASCAL Delivers for items we do not own here in our library.