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Life Sciences

Find journal articles, newspaper articles, book reviews etc.

Note: the search above won't find every article, for a more comprehensive search see the information below on databases.

To find relevant and good quality information for your work, searching databases is the most effective method. You have free access to a range of searchable databases though you may need your GUID and associated password to use some of them. Databases contain quality-assessed and peer-reviewed journal articles on particular topics.

Databases

Help links for databases:

Internet sites

Once you have decided on your topic, use the Library's webpages on Information Skills which contain helpful tips on doing a literature review, searching for information, finding theses and dissertations and so on.

If you would like some advice on searching for information, please contact me by email at Alison.Faichney@glasgow.ac.uk  

You might find some resources useful for your dissertation which we don't have available from this Library. Through our Inter Library Loan service you can order books and journal articles free of charge. See the Need Something We Don't Have section on our website.

Here is a selection of book titles we have in the library which may help to get you started with your research, or help when you are writing up your results:

CRYER, P. The research student's guide to success. 3 ed. Open U.P, 2006 OR e-book

 

DAY, R. How to write and publish a scientific paper. 6 ed. Greenwood P., 2006.

DYTHAM, C. Choosing and using statistics: a biologists guide. 3 ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2011

GRAZIANO, A.M. Research methods: a process of enquiry. 7 ed. Allyn & Bacon, 2009

KATZ, M.J. From research to manuscript: a guide to scientific writing. Springer, 2006. OR e-book

MACHI,L. The literature review: six steps to success. Corwin P. 2009

MURRAY, R. How to write a thesis. 3 ed. Open U.P. 2011 [or 2006 ed. as e-book]

 

 

 

Referencing and citing – using your sources

What is referencing?

Referencing is the acknowledgement of items you have read and used while creating a written piece of work for your essay, dissertation, article or thesis.

It is important to keep an exact and complete record of the details of all the sources of information that you use for coursework, essays, dissertations or publications.

Sources can include books, journal articles, reports or web pages. If you don’t keep a precise record you will have difficulty (and a lot more work) when you need to list the sources in your reference list.

Citations

When writing an essay, report or dissertation, it is usual to cite [mention] the sources that you used, referred to, or took quotes from. These references might describe journal or newspaper articles, books, government reports, web pages

Citing accurate references is important for the following reasons:

  • To give credit to concepts and ideas from other authors
  • To provide evidence of the extent of your reading
  • To use other work to support the arguments you make
  • To allow the user to locate the cited references easily
  • To help you avoid plagiarism

Plagiarism – what is it and how to avoid it

You must always acknowledge the sources you use. Use of material without cknowledgement of the sources is called plagiarism which is considered to be an act of fraudulence and an offence against University discipline - see the University Plagiarism webpages
TurnitinUK – in University of Glasgow, Turnitin is a program used by some departments to detect plagiarism in student work submitted for assessment.  

Which style of referencing does my School use?

There are many styles for references, however, the most commonly used styles are Harvard (using author/date format) and Vancouver (numbered format).  If you are not sure which one to use, refer to your course handbook or consult your project supervisor for advice.

In the Harvard style references are listed by author,date ( Smith, 2011) in the text, and are listed alphabetically by author in the reference list at the end.

In the Vancouver (numbered) style references are listed by number (1, 2) in the text are are listed by number in the reference list at the end.

Further information: PEARS R. Cite them right :the essential referencing guide. 8 ed. Palgrave MacMillan, 2010

Managing your references using Reference Manager or EndNote software

Reference Manager and Endnote - These are reference management software programs which help you to record and store references to books or journal articles and many other sources while you are working on a research project. You can then use the stored information to generate bibliographies for your essay, thesis or article using a wide range of styles, such as Harvard or Vancouver.

EndNoteWeb -this is a web-based product, free to University of Glasgow users through the Web of Knowledge database service. You need to sign up and register to use this on campus, and then have free access away from the University.  This program has basic options which are suitable for undergraduate users.

How do I get help with using referencing programs?

See our local Support web pages    
IT Services also runs introductory courses where you can make an online booking to attend a training session on an advertised date

 

The School of Life Sciences subjects include Agriculture, Anatomy, Biochemistry, Biology, Botany, Microbiology, Physiology, Zoology. Print books in these subjects are available on Level 5 of the main University Library. Print journals are held off campus  in the Library Research Annexe.  We also have thousands of e-books and e-journals which you can view on our web-site.

College Team Librarian for the School of Life Sciences

Alison Faichney
alison.faichney@glasgow.ac.uk
0141-330-6711
Room 815(Level 8)

  • I work on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday

College Team Librarians for the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Heather Worlledge-Andrew
heather.worlledge-andrew@glasgow.ac.uk
0141-330-6722
Room 806 (Level 8)

  • I work on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

Susan Ashworth
susan.ashworth@glasgow.ac.uk
0141-330-6703 -
Room 810 (Level 8)

Contact us for help with finding information for theses, projects or dissertations.

For more general information have a look at the Information for students/staff/subscription members pages.