Begin searching for journal articles in the databases listed below. As your topic develops, you may find one database to be more useful than another. Also consider citation searching to find additional information on your topic. Backward citation searching can find original research and put it in context. Forward searching will find works that have cited a paper since it was published.
Combine concepts with AND to find more relevant sources
"synthetic biology" AND food
organoids AND organs-on-a-chip
pandemic AND bioweapons AND diseases
Use “double quotes” to find exact phrases
"synthetic biology"
“directed evolution”
“intellectual property”
Use proximity searching* to find words near each other
therapeutics NEAR programmed
*Proximity searching works differently in different databases. Check the help section of the database to learn how to properly use it.
Once you click into an article record in Pubmed, scroll down the MeSH terms section at the bottom of the page. Clicking any of these links will conduct a subject search using the term, which you can modify to your own research interests.
Publication Dates: 1907-Present
Contains all types of chemical literature. Use to find a registry number, locate property data, search by structure, and find chemical suppliers.
Using controlled vocabulary will make it much easier to search the library catalog or databases. A controlled vocabulary refers to pre-determined terms used to describe specific concepts, usually assigned by a specialist to a source. These terms could be different from the keywords supplied by the author of a source. By using controlled vocabulary in a database search query, a user could still find sources that were described with unknown author-supplied keywords, whether these terms were synonyms or variant spellings.
When you click on a reference in SciFinder, scroll down to the CAS Concepts, MEDLINE, and Supplementary Concepts sections. These can give you idea for further keywords to try in your search.
Use ORs and parentheses to combine synonyms or multiple topics
(organoids OR organs-on-a-chip OR "synthetic human organs")
(detect OR diagnose OR treat) AND biosynthesis
(drugs OR vaccines ) AND biosynthesis
Truncate roots of important words* to find plurals and more
perform* (searches for perform, performance, performativity, etc.)
cell$
evol!
Once you click into an article record in Web of Science, scroll down to the Keywords, or Web of Science Categories section for ideas on keywords to use in your research.
