Recommended Databases

Looking for full text?

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.

Peer review

Looking for sources where submissions were peer reviewed before publication?

Check a journal title in Ulrichs Web to see if its 'referred' (peer-reviewed).

Check on a journal website to find out about publication and editorial practices such as whether or not they include peer-review in the process.

Investigating a Research Database - Questions to Ask

PubMed Tip

Setting PubMed Up for Maximum Full Text Options
Use these instructions to set up your NCBI Preferences for PubMed's Outside Tool - to ensure you have a 'GetVText' option for every PubMed result.
Setting PubMed Up for Maximum Full Text Options
Use these instructions to set up your NCBI Preferences for PubMed's Outside Tool - to ensure you have a 'GetVText' option for every PubMed result.

At University Libraries, we have nearly 1,000 different scholarly databases that you can use. For your research in Biological Sciences, I recommend the following databases. Still not sure about which database(s) are best for your research? Try the Biological Sciences subject guide, or browse other subject guides.

Below find suggestions for:

Research literature databases
Statistics and Dataset sources

Research Literature Databases

Web of Science
(1975 - ) This database includes citation databases for journal publications in science, social science, and arts and humanities

PubMed from NLM
Indexes citations, abstracts and full text from journal articles, case studies, conference papers, clinical trial reports, news reports, and reviews in the fields of medicine,nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and pre-clinical sciences. Full text available in HTML and PDF. You can limit to types of clinical queries, age, gender and species of subject, and review articles that summaries research on a topic. 1946-present.

PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences. PubMed also provides access to additional relevant Web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources.

PubMed is a free resource that is developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A mobile version is available.

PubMed Tip: Follow these steps to get set up for maximum full text options

CAB Abstracts from CAB Direct
CAB Abstracts indexes citations and abstracts from journals, books, reports, handbooks, conference proceedings, field notes, and theses in agriculture, life sciences, natural resources, veterinary sciences, applied economics, nutrition, tourism, and the environment. Includes the CAB Abstracts Archive. Some full text available as PDFs. 1910s-present.

Google Scholar
Google's search engine for scholarly research: the ease of Google searching combined with the quality resources you find in library databases. It indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text articles, books, conference proceedings, theses, online repositories, patents, legal cases, and more. Google Scholar is particularly good when starting research and canvassing the literature or as a final search on a topic.

Biological Abstracts from Clarivate Analytics
Biological Abstracts indexes citations and abstracts from life science journals and meeting reports. 1926-present.
Biosis Citation Index from Clarivate Anaytics
Biosis indexes journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters, and patents on all areas of life sciences including molecular and cell biography, pharmacology, endocrinology, genetics, neurosciences, and ecology. You can perform cited reference searches. 1926-present.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition from EBSCOhost
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Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from academic journals. In addition, this database includes Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which covers 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names. Full text is available as PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1952-present.

Statistics and Datasets

Locate statistics and datasets related to biological topics in these resources. Contact Ginny if you'd like assistance using these resources, or for additional suggestions.

VT Libraries Statistics & Datasets Sources - Databases Listing
This list of databases from VT Libraries are those focused on statistics research or with statistics or other datasets related to different topic areas or subjects.
Recommended Life Science Data Repositories
This page describes Nature Publishing Group's recommended data repositories - a list that they update quarterly and make available with a CC BY (attribution) license for reuse.
Recommended Health Sciences / Biomedical Data Repositories
This page describes NIH (National Institutes of Health) recommended data sharing repositories - a list that they update regularly.
r3data.org
Registry of Research Data Repositories - Search or browse for a repository in your subject of interest. For example, browse by subject to view repositories for data related to "Biology."
Health Data Tools and Statistics
From Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries. Links to sources for: Health Data News, County and Local Health Data, State Health Data, Individual State Data, National Health Data, Global Health Data, Statistical Reports, Demographic Data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Training and Education, Health Information Technology and Standards, and Tools for Data Collection and Planning

ICPSR: InterUniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a membership-based organization providing access to the world's largest archive of computer-based research and instructional data for the social sciences. The archive of data sets includes a broad range of disciplines, including political science, sociology, demography, economics, history, education, gerontology, criminal justice, public health, foreign policy, and law.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
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Includes more than 2.7 million citations to dissertations and theses from around the world along with more than 1.2 million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. More than 70,000 new full-text dissertations and theses are added yearly. Use ILLiad to request non-full-text theses or dissertations. 1637-present, full-text dissertations 1997-present.