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How do I search Biological Science Collection?

Learn how to search this database for scientific articles.

Need Help?

Ask a Librarian @
Betty Sue Jessup Library

501 College Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.961.5309
reference@pvcc.edu

Search Biological Sciences Collection

Step 1:

Access Biological Sciences Collection. (If you're off-campus, you will be prompted to login with your myPVCC username and password)
 

Step 2:

Enter your search terms in the search box.  Select both "Full text" and "Peer reviewed."  Full text means that the complete article is available for download in the database.  Peer reviewed means the article has been reviewed by several experts in the author's discipline prior to publication.  So, it's considered of higher quality.  Many Biology professors will require that the sources for your assignment are "scholarly" or "peer reviewed."  This filter ensures you only get results from those journals.

select full text and peer reviewed

 

Step 3:

Click Search, and review your results.  Click the "Abstract/Details" to get a short summary of the article, or click "Full text - PDF" to download the article.  

abstract details for short summary or full text PDF to download

 

Step 4:

When you reach the article page, you can flip between the "Abstract/Details" tab and the "Full text - PDF" tab.  Or click "Download PDF" on the right to download it.

tabs: abstract details and full text PDF. Download PDF button

Tips!

tip

  • In biology, it's important that the articles are recent.  Pay attention to the publication date as you review your results.  You can also use the filters on the left to limit your results to a specific timeframe.  Move the sliders to limit to a specific date range: 
    publication date filter slider