BCHM 1014 Research Resources - Biochemistry FYE: Selecting a Database

Remember to look for the Get VText icon:

If that doesn't work, don't hesitate to contact your librarian for help accessing the full text of an article.

Virginia Tech's University Libraries gives you access to nearly 1,000 databases.  How do you know where to start?  

Try out the 3 options below: Discovery Search (general library search), Web of Science (broad science research database) and PubMed (Biomedical and Life Sciences research database). For more options, try the Biochemistry Subject Guide, or contact your librarian for specific recommendations.

Topic Overviews and Scientific Vocabulary

Biochemistry research frequently uses genetics or other specialized terms. Try these sources, or even Wikipedia to understand unfamiliar vocabulary, or to get an overview of a particular concept, theory or method.

• Science in Context from Gale provides curated topic pages that combine academic journal articles, primary sources, reference works, essays, news sources, multimedia, and biographies on people, concepts/theories, current events, and places
• Sage Knowledge provides searchable reference works and books for finding topic overviews
• Get the Research is an in-development tool that allows you to search a keyword or phrase and see snippets or abstracts from current research. You can click on highlighted terms in the texts to see definitions and more info about each term (sourced from Wikipedia) on the right-side of the screen.
• NCBI Bookshelf from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (the folks who bring you PubMed!) 
• Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms from the National Human Genome Research Institute

Science News Sources

Some options to start with:

• The Scientist - Biochemistry section
• Science Daily
• Search Google News for a biochem topic
• Newspaper and Magazine databases via University Libraries @ Virginia Tech

General - VT Library Search

• Discovery Search via the search bar on the  University Libraries home page, or via the Advanced Search option. Discovery Search allows you to conduct a Google-like search of most of our library resources - both online and print. While it's not a disciplinary database, like the others below, it can help you gain a broad overview of a particular research topic or question.  
  • Tip: For short videos on searching techniques in Discovery Search and in general see this guide.
• Google Scholar is similar to Google, but focuses on scholarly works. It is not a database, it is still a web search driven by an algorithm that ranks results based on things like words in the title, number of other pages that link to that item, etc. While it does not replace research databases, it is a good complement to search along with research databases as it has a more global reach for some topics and may provide results across more disciplines.
  • *Tip* Set your Google Scholar Settings for Full Text links
    • Start at scholar.google.com and click on Settings.
    • Click on "Library Links" from the selections on the left.
    • Search for Virginia Tech and then select "Virginia Tech - Get Vtext" (the one with the lowercase 't' in Vtext). Then Save. ==> Your search results will now display Get VText links that make use of the library's subscriptions and will authenticate off campus users automatically. You can also view this video for directions. 

Biochemistry Research Databases

Tutorials are available for: 

• PubMed
• Web of Science
• CAB Abstracts