BIOD20: Special Topics in Virology

Once you've identified what you need to search, you need to decide where to search for it. Research databases are an excellent place to look for scholarly information on a topic.

Why Use Research Databases?

• They are often specialized by subject area (e.g. Biomedicine)
• They contain information not available through public resources like Google
• They are designed with scholars and researchers in mind - that's you!

Check out the search tips pages in the left menu for examples of how to use a database.

Try some of these key databases to find articles for your research:

While doing your research, it's a good idea to look in more than one place for your articles. Why, you may ask?

• Databases contain different content: You may notice some overlap between the search results of different databases (for example, Web of Science and Scopus); however, each database also contains unique results. By searching one and not the other, you a) risk missing out on valuable information, and b) bias your search by excluding relevant materials.
• Databases operate differently: Not all databases search the same way, and so you may need to tweak your search strategy to match the requirements of a specific database. Check out "Building a Search Strategy" in the left menu for general tips and tricks when designing a search.