A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored electronically.
A bibliographic database is a collection of references to research or published literature, searchable online and updated on a regular basis, with content indexed & organized by an organization, publisher or vendor that provides access. Some bibliographic databases may be free online, many are provided for your use by the Library, which pays for a subscription or license.
Find relevant articles efficiently by searching in a database. Connect to databases through the Library website for full functionality such as access to the full text of journals, locating print materials, or requesting an article from another campus.
Make an appointment with your librarian if you need help getting started.
The full text of an article within a database is provided in multiple formats. Look for:
The Get it at UC link will provide you options for how to access the full text of the article. If there are no online links available, this means you need to request the item through Interlibrary Loan if a print version is not available at UC San Diego. The Library will deliver the full text of an article to you free of charge. When requesting you will need your Library ID number.
Your library card/account number begins with "21822" and can be found on the back of your UCSD ID card or within the UCSD app. Enter the 14-digit number without spaces.
BIOSIS coverage is from 1926 to present and includes around 6,000 journals, conference proceedings, books, & technical reports in all aspects of biological sciences. The BIOSIS Citation Index database is an excellent database for all biological information, including marine biology, biological oceanography, marine ecology, developmental biology, and molecular biology. The platform also includes a version called BIOSIS Previews which lacks some cited-reference search abilities.
1597-present. From the American Psychological Association. Provides access to scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Includes journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations. Includes approximately 2,500 journals. Updated weekly and includes an index of PsycArticles.
Covers over 5,700 journals in the biomedical and health sciences and years covered late 1940's - present, with additional older medical literature selectively added. Search using keywords or the controlled vocabulary called MeSH. PubMed will automatically match your keyword terms to MeSH terms. For additional tips, see the Library's PubMed page.
Indexes over 18,000 journals in all subjects (coverage back to 1900 for science and social science journals), as well as 80,000 books and more than 180K conference proceedings. Includes the popular "cited reference search" to identify papers which have cited a previously published work or author. Can also sort by "times cited" and find related articles based on commonly cited works.
bioRxiv is an open access preprint repository for the biological sciences hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. As preprints, papers hosted on bioRxiv are not peer-reviewed, but undergo basic screening and checked against plagiarism
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