Course resource help for Biology and Environment

Subject databases provide the best way of finding journal articles, published worldwide, on different aspects of the sciences - and are highly recommended.

Web of Science

This host service provides a single route to many of the key scientific databases subscribed to by Brookes. These are: the Web of Science Core Collection (including the Science Citation Index); MEDLINE; Biosis Citation Index; Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science; and Journal Citation Reports. Databases can be searched individually or together and bibliographic records will link to any full-text content available via Full Text Finder.

Academic Search Complete

A full-text database providing full articles, with their accompanying indexing and abstracts, across a wide range of subjects, including biology and the environmental sciences.

Science Direct

Contains around 2500 full text journals published by Elsevier, mainly in science, technology and medicine. Full text coverage for most journals in the collection is available from 2002 to present.

Emerald Insight

This database contains academic and theoretical articles on management and business, including business strategy and the environment and aspects of quality control. The database provides abstracts from 1969 onwards and the full text of many journal articles is available from 1989.

JSTOR

This database provides an archive of full-text articles from a wide range of academic journals. JSTOR does not give access to issues which are less than 3-5 years old but is very useful for older journal articles

Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection

A collection of seminar style talks/lectures by leading world experts on all aspects of biomedical and life sciences. The talks can be searched as a whole but are arranged into subject categories. There are over 3000 talks, which vary in length from about 20 minutes to an hour. The collection is regularly expanded and updated as new series and talks are added. 

Digimap

Digimap is an online map and data delivery service. Digimap offers a number of map collections, including global, Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, aerial and society

Overton

Overton is a policy and grey literature database, it includes Overton Index and Overton Engage.

• Overton Index: the world’s largest policy and grey literature database. It tracks over 21 million documents including links to the evidence, and policy citations.
• Overton Engage: a database of policy engagement opportunities.

Researchers can use the database to track the impact of their own work on policy, and to nurture potential partnerships.

Statista

Statista offers access to statistics and studies on 80,000 topics and 170 industries. It contains statistics, infographics, market surveys, consumer surveys, industry and country reports. Sources include government institutions, such as statistical offices and ministries, international organisations, market research institutes, and trade journals. Data on the gross advertising market (Nielsen) and buying and consumption behaviour/brands(VuMa) and other paid sources such as Mintel, YouGov, eMarketer, Kantar and PwC are also included.

BIOSIS Citation Index

Life sciences and biomedical research - includes agriculture, animal studies, bio-engineering, bio-physics, botany, ecology, microbiology, pharmacology, zoology and experimental clinical medicine. Over 18 million records. 1969 to present.

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)

An online archive giving you access to thousands of recorded radio and TV programmes including films. It allows users to record programmes which will then be stored on the database. Log in when prompted with your Brookes username and password.

British Standards Online

This includes access to the full text of all current British Standards.

• Google Scholar : a way of focussing your Google search on more academic or scholarly literature
• Google : Advanced Search
• Carrot2 : a search engine that organises your results into topics. Includes visualisations and is useful for identifying alternative phrases. Also links with PubMed.
• Library guide on Evaluating web sources
• Oxford Reference Online - About 200 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

Biology and Environmental sites

• Encyclopedia of Life
• The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
• DEFRA - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Environment Agency
• National Environment Research Council
• HSE - Health & Safety Executive
• ELDIS - Environment : development policy, practice and research
• Chatham House - energy, environment and development
• Parliamentary Select Committees
• European Environment Agency - Environmental themes
• EUROPA - Environment - activities of the European Union
• UNEP - United Nations Environment Programme
• Forum for the Future- sustainable world
• Environmental Information Exchange (EiE)
• IEMA - Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment
• Environmental Association for Universities & Colleges
• Chartered Institute of Wastes Management
• Sustainability Exchange - sustainability in education
• The Environment Directory
• UKSO - UK Soil Observatory
• Our World in Data
• Planetary boundaries
• The complete work of Charles Darwin Online - contains Darwin's complete publications including many handwritten manuscripts and a searchable bibliography of the writings of Charles Darwin.

In addition to the websites listed above, the following links may prove useful:

Business and Environmental Management

• NETREGS - environmental guidance for business
• ISO 14001:2015 resources (sponsored blog)
• EMAS - Eco-Management & Audit Scheme
• CBI - Confederation of British Industry

 Conservation

• JNCC - Joint Nature Conservation Committee
• UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC)
• Conservation Evidence
• Wildlife Law
• First Global Integrated Marine Assessment (First World Ocean Assessment)
• UK Species
• The Catalogue of Life: a global index of species
• IUCN Red List
• BWARS - Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society
• National Biodiversity Network
• England Biodiversity Indicators
• GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility)
• UK BAP - UK Biodiversity Action Plan
• Natural England
• MAGIC - interactive map and geographic information about the natural environment across Great Britain

 Climate Change and Air Quality

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment
• Met Office : Climate Change
• Real Climate - blog written by Climate Change scientists
• UK Air Quality Archive
• UK NAEI - National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory
• AURN - UK Automatic Urban and Rural Network (Air quality and monitoring)

Water Quality UK, Marine Environmental Data

• Water Quality in Rivers
• River Basin Management Plans
• Surface Water Status (this supersedes the River Water Quality Indicator link below)
• River Water Quality Indicator (this precedes the Surface Water Status link above)
• British Hydrological Society
• MEDIN - Marine Environmental Data and Information Network

Renewable Energy, Bioenergy: Food - Climate Change 

• Renewable Energy Statistics in the UK
• IEA - International Energy Agency Data
• BP Statistical Review of World Energy
• RenewableUK (includes wind wave and tidal energy)
• FAO - Food and Agriculture Organisation
• International Food Policy Research Institute
• NNFCC - National Non-Food Crops Centre
• Food and Drink Federation

Sustainable Development

• Sustainable Development Goals Today - Data for Sustainable Development
• RELX Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Resource Centre
• The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 

• Basic Library Searching (video guide) - shows you how to find books, journals, your module reading list.

Research your topic by using Databases (highly recommended!):

• Academic Search Complete database (video guide)
• Web of Science database (video guide)
• Web Searching Guide - use LibKey Nomad to help you access full text content on the Web!
• Includes tips to save you time, helping you to search effectively and efficiently and find appropriate information by using Google Advanced Search and Google Scholar (including setting up links to Brookes library). Also includes information on Evaluating web sources.

• An Introduction to Referencing - what is referencing and why do we need to do it?
• Cite Them Right Online shows you how to reference a wide range of sources (books, journal articles, web sites) using exactly the same Harvard style used at Brookes. Video - How to use Cite Them Right
• Library guide to referencing using the Harvard style (PDF and Word versions available)
• A Handbook of Writing and Presentation Skills for Science Students
• An excellent easy to read guide book: Referencing & understanding Plagiarism
• Further information available on our library referencing webpage
• Use the EndNote software to store, manage and cite your references easily (see EndNote section below)

Endnote is a tool for storing and organising your references, and it will also work with Word or Pages to create a fully formatted bibliography from the references in your Endnote library.

It is available as a desktop version and an online version.

• The desktop application is Endnote 21, and this can be streamed via Apps Anywhere.
• How to Guide: Use EndNote21 (Windows)
• How to Guide: Use EndNote21 (Mac OS)
• A Guide to using Endnote Online.
• Further information can be found on the web page: Endnote
• Endnote Import Filters: A list of Endnote Import Filters corresponding to each library database for the Life Sciences. Select the appropriate one, if required, when transferring references from library databases into Endnote – mostly though you won’t need to use them.

The Interlibrary Loans service is available to all staff and students. When doing research you will come across references to items which are not held in the Oxford Brookes University Library. This services often enables us to borrow items and obtain copies of articles from other UK libraries and even abroad. Our webpages provide details of how to request items.

You can get access to libraries other than our own, including the Oxford University Bodleian Libraries and British Library. Our Access to other libraries guide provides further details, including joining information. 
For content at the Bodleian Libraries you can use SOLO - the catalogue of the major collections of the University of Oxford to find out what is available.

Oxford Brookes Theses

A copy of every Oxford Brookes PhD and MPhil thesis is deposited with the Library in print format (also known as a 'hardcopy'), online format (also known as 'electronic' theses or eTheses), or in both print and online formats. Oxford Brookes theses submitted from 2021 onwards are only available from the Library in online (or 'electronic') format.

To find print and online Oxford Brookes theses you can search LibrarySearch by author, title, keyword, while for only the online theses you can browse or search our repository RADAR.

Theses from other institutions

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses provides access to multi-disciplinary dissertations and theses from around the world, offering over 6 million citations and 4 million full-text works from thousands of universities.
• EBSCO Open Dissertations: enables you to search for thousands of open access dissertations
• British Library’s EThOS project: a theses digitisation project. You can search across 500,000+ theses for free and download / order full text where available. You will need to register and log in if you want to download a thesis or to order digitisation of a thesis.
• CORE: CORE (COnnecting REpositories) is an aggregation of open access content from UK and worldwide repositories and open access journals. It includes access to theses.
• DART-Europe: provides details of European theses with access to full text where available.
• National Library of Australia Trove Service: a free repository of Australian material, including almost a million Australian theses.

Grey literature: literature with limited distribution, where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body.

It is literature produced by non-commercial publishers such as public institutions, civil society, research institutes and universities. It contains a lot of useful content but is often hard to find as it is scattered across different locations.

It includes: reports, government documents, policy documents, working papers, conference proceedings, theses, clinical trials, preprint articles. Although not classed as grey literature news sources and social media can be good sources.

Grey literature:

• introduces alternative perspectives
• may be the only source of information (where there is little published evidence)
• can be essential in emerging, changing or interdisciplinary research areas eg. alternative medicine
• can contain more local information, unique content
• ongoing availability not guaranteed
• difficult to find/limited distribution
• may not have undergone peer review
• can help offset bias

Many library databases include grey literature. 'Overton' is a policy and grey literature database. Also the Web of Science, PubMed, Science Direct include dissertations/theses and clinical trials - which can also be found via ClinicalTrials.gov. The Cochrane database also includes systematic reviews and clinical trials. Pre-print servers also include grey literature. Other sources include organisational, government and statistical websites and Google Scholar.

Pre-prints: A preprint is a full draft research paper that is shared publicly before it has been peer reviewed. These reports are shared publicly through preprint servers, enabling researchers to share their results quickly and freely. Do be aware that credibility concerns have been raised about some papers as they haven’t been peer reviewed. Examples of preprint services are listed below.

• bioRxiv is a free online archive of preprints in Biology and the Life Sciences. The archive has links with PLOS - publisher of a number of open access journals in the sciences and medicine.
• ecoevorxiv is a free preprint service for ecology, evolution and conservation.  
• ASAPbio is a directory of preprint servers
• Research Square

Open Access Databases

• CORE
• SciELO
• Dimensions
• Lens
• DIALNET
• Journals Online project: access to peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries

• Academia.edu: academic social network, enabling free sharing of papers
• ResearchGate: academic social network for science and research. Connect, collaborate and find scientific publications, jobs and conferences.