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Tips for Searching

Try these tips for effective searching on a database: 

  • Search the scientific and common names of a term. For example Duckweed OR lemna minor.
  • Search both the acronym and the full term. 
  • Search the specific and more general term for a concept. For example copper sulfate OR heavy metals.
  • Consider different spellings of a word, such as center OR centre.
  • The non-technical portion of your research likely has many terms to describe a single concept. For example, women OR woman OR female.

Key databases

By Zorba the Geek, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13070917

Other Biology Databases