LibGuides: Biology: Home

Start your search

1. Select a topic that meets the requirements of your assignment.

2. Explore information: explore ideas and perspectives and identify potential sources of information.

3. Narrow your topic: identify key points you want to explore and formulate a question or argument around them.

4. Refine your search & evaluate resources: explore information related to your argument and make connections between your ideas and the ideas of others.

5. Use information appropriately: give credit to the original creators of information and strengthen your argument with citations and references.

Learn more about the search process and search strategies with this guide.

What is a peer-reviewed article?
Peer-reviewed or scholarly articles are studies that are evaluated by experts prior to publication. Experts consider if the article meets certain criteria of originality and quality, recommending revisions that must be made as a condition for publication in an academic journal.

Check the Understanding Peer-Review guide for more information.

Find articles, books, videos and more with Discovery Search

How to search the library catalogue
Learn how to use the Discovery Search to find articles, books, videos, and more.

Make use of Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine keywords.
Use geographic locations in your searches, without abbreviations. E.g.: Yukon, Canada, British Columbia (not BC)
Consider synonyms and related keywords when searching for specific populations. E.g.: animals OR fauna; plants OR flora
When searching health related topics in databases such as CINAHL or Medline, use the subject headings and thesaurus to discover other keywords you can use in your search. More information from this tutorial.