Most scientific research focuses heavily on periodical literature -- journal articles, conference proceedings, and the like. Learning to find this material is critical for graduate students in the biological and environmental sciences. The Library subscribes to a number of databases which index articles in these disciplines plus those fields which have a biological or environmental scope. Some of the databases also provide the full text (see note below).

In the boxes below, you will find links to resources designed to search the periodical literature for specific fields, along with some advice on how to efficiently and effectively use the resource. 

The list is just some of the databases we subscribe to and there may be others that may be more appropriate for your research.  For the full list of all the Library's databases go to A-Z Databases

Note: Many of these tools will provide you with citations for the articles but not access to the full-text itself.  However, most of the databases have a "search for full text" button for each citation which will execute a search to find the full text in another source.  You can also use the URI Libraries Search to search for articles we do not have online (you must search by the journal title, then see if we have the specific volume/year). For material we do not have, Interlibrary Loan can usually get it for you in a few weeks.

These are tools that cover a wide range of disciplines. All of them have a great deal of science material, but they also will lead you to articles on arts, humanities, social sciences, etc.

Deborah Mongeau; rev. 10/2014 Madge Boldt