Biological sciences: Recommended Resources

Biological sciences is the study of life. Virginia Tech's curriculum provides a broad education in the fundamentals of biology such as ecology, genetics, microbiology, botany, zoology, molecular biology, and biotechnology.

Courses offered at Virginia Tech

Welcome to the Biological Sciences Subject Guide from VT University Libraries!

My name is Kat Brown, and I'm your liaison librarian (see my photo and contact info in the right-hand side column). This guide is intended to provide you with key resources for Biological research to get you started.

Please contact me anytime with questions, or to set up a project consultation - for yourself, or for groups.

Below are recommended resources to get you started, or explore a Biological Sciences Course Guide.

Course Guides

This guide includes:

Course Guides

Topic Overviews

Gale Ebooks
Gale Ebooks is a collection of searchable ebook reference works. You can search within a particular work or across the entire collection. Individual articles from these sources are presented in HTML and PDF. Illustrations, photos, maps, and multimedia content is often included.
Oxford Handbooks Online
Oxford Handbooks Online provides scholarly overviews of topics through in-depth articles. We have access to handbooks in Archaeology, Economics & Finance, Business Management, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Music, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Physical Sciences, History, Literature, Neuroscience, Sociology, Classical Studies, Law, Linguistics, Religion, Social Policy and Social Work.

Scholarly Research Databases

Web of Science from Clarivate Analytics
The three Web of Science databases index citations from journal articles and conference proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. You can perform cited reference searches, analyze trends and patterns, and create visual representations of citation relationships. 1900-present
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.
CAB Abstracts from CABI
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.
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.
Global Plants from JSTOR
We have temporary access to this resource. Global Plants provides over 2 million high-resolution images of type specimens of plants from around the world.
Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide from EBSCOhost
Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text articles from journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and technical reports in the natural resources and life sciences disciplines. Full-text materials are available in HTML and PDF formats. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1900-present.
Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide indexes literature on wild mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Coverage includes more than 1.6 million bibliographic records many of which include abstracts. Most of the records in this database are from Wildlife Review Abstracts, formerly Wildlife Review. Wildlife Review Abstracts offers a global perspective and is the most comprehensive resource on wildlife information. Major topic areas include studies of individual species, habitat types, hunting, economics, wildlife behavior, management techniques, diseases, ecotourism, zoology, taxonomy and much more.
Zoological Record from Web of Science
Zoological Record indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journals, trade publications, magazines, books, conference proceedings and more in the biological sciences. You can find the first appearance of a species in the literature and track taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. 1864-present.

Biological Sciences Liaison Librarian

Kat Brown

Any Pronouns

Email Me

Contact:

Newman Library, Room 3005
katbrown@vt.edu

(540) 231-5140

Interlibrary Loan Services

All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:

not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)

We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).

Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.