Biological Abstracts Guide
Biological Abstracts is one of the foremost sources of bibliographic references to the life science journal literature. This database enables researchers and students to retrieve references to vital biological and medical research findings, clinical studies, and discoveries of new organisms. BIOSIS monitors more than 5,000 international journals to ensure that virtually every life science topic is covered, including agriculture, biochemistry, biomedicine, biotechnology, genetics, botany, ecology, microbiology, pharmacology, public health, toxicology and zoology. Approximately 90% of the records include abstracts. Years of coverage are 1985 to present.
Access via Internet
- Any computer connected to the World Wide Web can access Biological Abstracts.
- The address or URL for the Health Sciences Library is http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/library
- Select the Databases link at the top left side of the page.
On the next page, select Health Sciences Databases.
On the next page select the Biological Abstracts hyperlink.
If unable to access program, try later because BA is limited to 4 simultaneous users.
Please logout when finished (otherwise others may have trouble using this database).
Searching
Type a word or phrase in the Search box. Select one field from the Find Terms pull-down menu on the right-hand side (Anywhere, in Subject, in Title, or in Author) to search, or leave the selection as the default. Examples of the types of searches you can enter are listed below in italics:
Term: rabbit
Phrase: E. coli
Author
Author names appear last name first, followed by initials. When searching for an author, search for the phrase, such as Smith-MJ or Smith-M and select the “in Author” Find Terms pull-down menu on the right hand side. Since some journals do not include authors’ middle initials, you should search Smith-MJ or Smith-M to retrieve all articles. This search will retrieve articles by any person with the initials MJ or M and the last name Smith.
Truncation
Truncation is a method to look for plural, singular, and various forms of a word. For example, typing the word rabbit with an asterisk, rabbit* will search for any word that begins with this prefix, i.e. rabbit, and rabbits. If you need internal truncation, the question mark is used. For example wom?n retrieves records on woman or women.
If you are using advanced search, set other limits as needed. You may want to limit to Full Text (whole article is available). Select the Search Button. BA performs the search and indicates how many records it finds for your search.
To view the full-text of the article, click on the pdf or html hyperlink.
To find out of the library has the journal in print, click on the “Find it @ WVU” hyperlink.
Combining Search Terms
Often research topics are not limited to one topic but combine multiple topics. You need to understand how the program combines topics.
and is the intersection of two sets or topics (these topics are usually different)
or is the union of two sets or topics (they are often synonyms or similar topics)
You may enter one or more terms (e.g., vitamin c common cold) in the query box and press the enter key or click the Search button. IPA automatically combines (ands) significant terms together.
Example: Please find articles on therapy of common cold
- Type common cold therapy on separate lines
- Select the search button
Refining a Search
Search results can be improved by: 1) limiting search to title (TI Article) or 2) looking at the full article description. Biological Abstracts provides a consistent methodology to retrieve information that may use different terminology for the same concepts.
Terms within the full article description are the most relevant to your topic and can be used as hyperlinks to refine your search.
Printing Records
- Print Records separately or
- Add the records you want to print to the folder
E-mailing Records
- Email records separately or
- Add the records you want to email to the folder
- Select the Email hyperlink
- Complete the form below.
- Click the Send Button.
Saving to Disk
- Save records separately or
- Add the records you want to save to the folder.
- Select the Save hyperlink.
- Complete the form
- Select the Save Button. The next screen will tell you how many articles will be saved and shows the record for each article.
- Select File then Save As from your browser’s toolbar.
- Be sure to save as a text file (.txt) or as an HTML file (.html).
Exporting records to RefWorks, EndNote, etc.
Select records to export and select the desired format. Your bibliographic management software will open for you to save the records in the location that you choose.
To exit the database click on WVU Libraries hyperlink.
