Research Guides: Biology Research Guide: Online Sources

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Online Sources

Recommended sites about biology.

All About Birds
An online guide to birds and bird watching from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Animal Diversity Web
"Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan."
Arkive
"With the help of the world’s best wildlife filmmakers and photographers, conservationists and scientists, we are creating an awe-inspiring record of life on Earth."
Biodiversity Heritage Library
"The Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community."
BioMed Central Journals
BioMed Central is "an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher with a large portfolio of peer-reviewed open access journals."
Bug Guide
"We are an online community of naturalists who enjoy learning about and sharing our observations of insects, spiders, and other related creatures."
National Human Genome Research Institute
"The National Human Genome Research Institute began as the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR), which was established in 1989 to carry out the role of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the International Human Genome Project (HGP)."
NCBI Bookshelf
"Bookshelf provides free online access to books and documents in life science and healthcare. Search, read, and discover."
Plant Information Online
"Use Plant Information Online to discover sources in 1,008 North American nurseries for 80,145 plants, find 396,895 citations to 143,013 plants in science and garden literature, and access information on 2,711 North American seed and nursery firms. Plant Information Online is a free service of the University of Minnesota Libraries."

Biology-related reference sources -- dictionaries, encyclopedias, and more.

Encyclopedia of Life
"To increase awareness and understanding of living nature through an Encyclopedia of Life that gathers, generates, and shares knowledge in an open, freely accessible and trusted digital resource."
Online Biology Dictionary
"Online Biology Dictionary is a free, concise, illustrated dictionary of biology and medicine." Created by Eugene M. McCarty, PhD Genetics.

Biology-related associations and organizations.

American Institute of Biological Sciences
"The American Institute of Biological Sciences is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) scientific association dedicated to advancing biological research and education for the welfare of society."
American Society for Cell Biology
"ASCB is an inclusive, international community of biologists studying the cell, the fundamental unit of life."
American Society of Plant Biologists
"ASPB is a professional society devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences. It publishes two world-class journals and organizes conferences, and other activities that are key to the advancement of the science."
National Association of Biology Teachers
"Since its establishment in 1938, the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) has been the recognized 'leader in life science education.'"
Society for Conservation Biology
"The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) is an international professional organization dedicated to promoting the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity."

Alternative search engines. Useful for locating specific types of sources.

CiteSeer^x
"CiteSeer^x is an evolving scientific literature digital library and search engine that has focused primarily on the literature in computer and information science."
Congress.gov
"Presented by the Library of Congress, Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information."
FDsys (Federal Digital System)
"GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government."
Google Images
Image search from Google - either text-based or reverse image.
Google News
A news aggregator
Science.gov
"Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites to provide users with access to more than 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information including research and development results."
TinEye Reverse Image Search
Reverse image search - upload an image or provide a URL to an image's online location.
USA.gov
"USA.gov is an interagency product administered by USAGov (formerly the Federal Citizen Information Center), a division of the U.S. General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Service. Our mission is to create and organize timely, needed government information and services and make them accessible anytime, anywhere, via your channel of choice."
WolframAlpha
"Wolfram|Alpha introduces a fundamentally new way to get knowledge and answers—not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods."
Want to have fun? Look what the response is to the question "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"