Biology
Guide content supports the teaching and research goals of multiple departments on campus. Content represents a non-exhaustive selection of essential resources and tools for engaging a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints.
Biology Databases
Find biology articles in scholarly journals and magazines with these databases and indexes. Look for 
in search results to link to full text resources (when available). For assistance please ask a librarian.
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bioRxiv This link opens in a new windowbioRxiv (pronounced “bio-archive”) is a preprint server for the life sciences operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Articles are not peer-reviewed or edited, although all articles undergo basic screening for non-scientific content and plagiarism, and for material that might pose a health or biosecurity risk.
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Biology CommonsFind full-text articles in biology and other related disciplines submitted by scholars at 112 institutions, including the University of Iowa.
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PubMed This link opens in a new window(For UI students, faculty and staff) PubMed comprises more than 21 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
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PubMed Central This link opens in a new window(For comunity users) PMC is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).
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BIOSIS Citation Index This link opens in a new windowLife sciences and biomedical research covering pre-clinical and experimental research, methods and instrumentation, animal studies, and more.
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H1 Connect (formerly Faculty Opinions) This link opens in a new window
H1 Connect is an article recommendation service, providing up-to-date notifications and information about science you shouldn’t miss.
Our global virtual Faculty of nearly 8000 leading experts from across the life sciences, health and physical sciences recommend articles they consider to be highly important to others working both in their field and beyond.
Coverage includes research from basic and fundamental, to clinical application and social and behavioral sciences. In addition, a substantial body of recommended content provides insight into science and research policy and practice. -
JoVE Unlimited This link opens in a new windowEncompasses all current and future JoVE video resources. JoVE publishes more than 1,200 videos annually across the 13 sections of the JoVE Video Journal and launches new subject series and collections to the JoVE Science Education Library several times a year. Access to both the fundamental building blocks of common laboratory techniques and the newest, cutting-edge experiments
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Combined Chemical Dictionary This link opens in a new windowIncludes descriptive and numerical data on chemical, physical and biological properties of compounds; systematic and common names of compounds; literature references; structure diagrams and their associated connection tables. Contains all those compounds published in: Dictionary of organic compounds (200,000 records), Dictionary of natural products (120,000 records), Dictionary of inorganic and organometallic compounds (90,000 records), Dictionary of pharmacological agents (30,000 records), Dictionary of analytical reagents (14,000 records).
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Biological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowBiological Abstracts (1969 - 2006 coverage) encompasses the entire field of life sciences and provides comprehensive coverage of the world's published biological and biomedical research. This includes traditional areas of biology, such as botany, zoology and microbiology, as well as experimental, clinical and veterinary medicine, biotechnology, environmental studies, and agriculture. Interdisciplinary fields such as biochemistry, biophysics and bioengineering are also included. More than 6,500 serials are monitored for inclusion.
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BioMed Central This link opens in a new windowBioMed Central is an independent publishing organization committed to providing immediate and free access to peer reviewed biomedical research.
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BioOne Complete This link opens in a new windowBioOne Complete is a database of more than 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences.
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Zoological Record This link opens in a new windowThe world’s leading taxonomic reference and oldest continuing database of animal biology.
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Bioline International This link opens in a new windowProvides access to quality research journals published in developing and transitional countries. The periodicals included cover all subject areas, with the majority in the life and medical sciences. Most journals are in English and Spanish. The website provides a search engine that covers all articles in all journals, while users can retrieve articles in both HTML and PDF formats. All material is available on an open-access (free) basis.
Other Databases
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AGRICOLA (USDA National Agricultural Library)Index to journal articles and catalog to other publications on all aspects agriculture and allied disciplines, including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences.
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Bibliography of Systematic Mycology (CABI)A survey of the literature encompassing the biodiversity, classification, distribution, evolution, identification, nomenclature, phylogeny, systematics and taxonomy of fungi (including yeasts, lichens, chromistan fungi, protozoan fungi and fossil forms), searchable by cited generic names or author names.
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Bio-ProtocolCreated by Stanford researchers, bio-protocol is a freely available peer-reviewed e-journal/database of protocols in the life sciences. Its mission is to make life-science research more efficient and reproducible by curating and hosting high quality, open-access, life science protocols.
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Biodiversity Heritage LibraryA consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.” BHL also serves as the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).
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Botanicus.orgBotanicus is a freely accessible portal to historic botanical literature from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library. Botanicus is made possible through support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, W.M. Keck Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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Fungi Online (Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Labratory, ARS, USDA)Searchable databases, including Specimens in the U.S. National Fungus Collections, Fungus-Host Distributions, Literature Guide for the Identification of Plant Pathogenic Fungi, Nomenclature, Index to Saccardo's Sylloge Fungorum, and International Mycological Institute's Index of Fungi.
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GreenFILE This link opens in a new windowA freely accessible research database focusing on the relationship between human beings and the environment, with well-researched but accessible information on topics ranging from global warming to recycling to alternate fuel sources and beyond.
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Index to American Botanical LiteratureThe searchable database includes all those entries published in the index since 1996, and thus includes botanical literature appearing since late 1995. Deals with various aspects of extant and fossil American plants and fungi.
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PAN Pesticides DatabaseToxicity and regulatory information from Pesticide Action Network.
Finding Journal Articles
There are several ways to find journal articles at the UI Libraries. Here are some useful tools. For assistance, please ask a librarian.
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InfoHawk+If you know the title of the article you're looking for, search for it in InfoHawk+
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Citation LinkerIf you have all or part of the citation for the article you're looking for, use the Citation Linker to find it quickly.
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Alphabetical List of DatabasesIf you want to browse through some journal articles by author, topic or keyword, use one or more of these databases. This is a huge list of over 650 databases, so check out the Databases box for some recommendations.
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Interlibrary LoanIf the Library doesn't have the article you're looking for, request it via Interlibrary Loan and we'll get it for you from another library.