Information Services

Biological sciences

Some useful resources for Biological Sciences are listed below.

agCensus

Access information: Access on and off campus
Description: Agricultural Census data for England, Scotland and Wales downloadable or visualised as grid square estimates at 2km, 5km and 10km level of resolution.

Maps can be viewed, annotated and printed, and data can be downloaded for use in GIS or CAD software.

Coverage: 1969 to present.

 

BioMed Central

Access information: Free access on and off-campus from www.biomedcentral.com
Description: An independent publishing house committed to providing open access to peer-reviewed biomedical research. The University of Edinburgh is a member.
Coverage: Portfolio of 291 journals.

 

BIOSIS is a key resource

Access information: Access on and off campus. The link above defaults to search in the Web of Science Core Colletion. Please select BIOSIS Citation Index from the dropdown menu. 
Description: The electronic version of Biological Abstracts for information about contents of journals, meetings, patents, and books in the life sciences and biomedical research. Covers pre-clinical and experimental research, methods and instrumentation, animal studies.
Coverage: 1926 to present.
Additional Information: Detailed information about BIOSIS Citation Index

 

 

 

CAB Abstracts is a key resource

CAB Abstracts

Access information:

Access on and off campus. Due to a current technical problem with the CAB Abstracts database, any searches performed from 1 February 2024 onwards are unreliable and incomplete, returning fewer results than expected. Ovid have identified the cause of this issue and are working to resolve it as soon as possible. The work is expected to be complete by Monday 8 April 2024.  

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Cookies: Some functions, including use of the Search History, will be disabled if cookies are rejected or no selection is made.
Description: CAB Abstracts is the world's leading agricultural database. Find journals, books, conferences and reports. It covers significant research and development literature in the fields of animal and crop husbandry, animal and plant breeding, plant protection, genetics, forestry, veterinary medicine, aspects of human health, human nutrition, rural development, leisure and tourism and the management and conservation of natural resources.
Coverage:

1973-present.

1910-1972 available by selection from Ovid menu.

Note:

8 concurrent users.

 

Digimap Collection

Access information: Access on and off campus. Users are required to register and agree the data licence. Follow instructions provided
Description:

Digimap is a collection of EDINA services that delivers maps and map data of Great Britain.  Maps can be viewed, annotated and printed and data can be downloaded for use in GIS or CAD software. Subscribed collections include:

For a complete description of each collection, please see the individual entries on the alphabetical databases pages.

Notes: Northern Ireland data will be removed on 31/7/20. Any Northern Ireland data stored must be deleted.

 

Early English Books Online - ProQuest website

 Early English Books Online - JISC Historical Texts website

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Most books are in English (134,417), but there are also hundreds of books in other European languages including Latin (9060), French (678), Welsh (205), Ancient Greek (147), Greek (112), Italian (95), Scots (88), German (63), Spanish (32), Hebrew (12), Scottish Gaelic (8), Portuguese (7), Arabic (6), and other Roman languages (795).

Users can explore complete, digitized images of all the works listed in these key bibliographic records of English literature: The Short-Title Catalogue (Pollard & Redgrave, 1475-1640); The Short-Title Catalogue II (Wing, 1641-1700); The Thomason Tracts; and the Early English Books Tract Supplements, as well as original almanacs, pamphlets, musical scores, prayer books and other primary sources.

Cross-searchable with Early European Books on the Early Modern Books platform.

Cross searchable with Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) 65,000 texts from the British Library 19th Century collection and the UK Medical Heritage Library (UKMHL) on the JISC Historical Texts platform. The JISC Historical Texts platform does not contain any annual updates.

 

Coverage: 1470-1700. Approximately 200-500 new titles are added to EEBO every year (on the ProQuest platform).
Userguide: https://proquest.libguides.com/eebopqp 

 

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description: Contains over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes) published during the 18th Century, covering a range of subjects including history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, and science. The full text of the collection is searchable, from books and directories, Bibles, sheet music and sermons to advertisements.
Coverage: 18th Century.

 

EMBASE

Access information:

Access on and off-campus.

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Some functions, including use of the Search History, will be disabled if cookies are rejected or no selection is made.

Description:

The Excerpta Medica database, a major pharmacological and biomedical literature database covering about 8,500 journals from110 countries. Covers mainly journal literature (plus some book reviews and conference proceedings) with strong coverage of European journals.

Detailed information about EMBASE

Coverage: From 1947 to date.
NHS Staff and other authorised users: The Knowledge Network

 

Environment Digimap

Access: Access on and off campus. Users are required to register and agree the data licence. Follow instructions provided
Description: Environment Digimap provides land cover mapping from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), the service includes Land Cover Maps from 2015, 2007, 2000, & 1997. Maps can be viewed, annotated and printed and data can be downloaded for use in GIS or CAD software.

 

Geology Digimap

Access information: Access on and off campus. Users are required to register and agree the data licence. Follow instructions provided
Description: Geology Digimap provides onshore and offshore mapping from the British Geological Survey, scales ranging from 1:625,000 to 1:50,000. There is also access to the Lexicon of Named Rock Units, which has details for many of the rocks found on the map. Maps can be viewed, annotated and printed and data can be downloaded for use in GIS or CAD software.

 

Global Health (CABI)

Access information:

Access on and off-campus.

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Cookies: Some functions, including use of the Search History, will be disabled if cookies are rejected or no selection is made.
Description: Covers human health and disease, including communicable diseases, tropical diseases, parasitic diseases and parasitology, nutrition, community and public health, and medicinal and poisonous plants, from more than 16,000 journals as well as books and grey literature (dissertations, conferences, patents, standards, annual reports, etc.) from more than 130 countries.
Coverage: 1910 to present.

 

Global Plants

Access information: Access on and off campus. JSTOR are providing institutions with free access to the Global Plants database through June 30th, 2022.
Description: Global Plants is the world’s largest database of digitized plant specimens and a locus for international scientific research and collaboration.

 

Henry Stewart Talks - Biomedical and Life Sciences

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Biomedical and Life Sciences Collection of over 2,800 seminar style talks by leading world experts. All of the seminars have been specially commissioned from leading scientists and are presented in a user-friendly format of animated slides with synchronized narration.

 

MEDLINE

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

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Cookies: Some functions, including use of the Search History, will be disabled if cookies are rejected or no selection is made.
Description:

US National Library of Medicine database, covering worldwide medical literature including research, clinical practice, administration, policy issues and health care services. Corresponds to three printed indexes - Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature and International Nursing Index. Covers 5,600 journals published in the USA and about 70 other countries.

Detailed information about Medline

MEDLINE, PubMed, and PMC (PubMed Central): How are they different?

Coverage: From 1946 to date.
NHS staff and other authorised users: The Knowledge Network

 

Overton

Access information:

Access on and off campus - see registration guidance in Notes below.

Notes:

Use your University of Edinburgh email address to create a personal account via The Library's institutional subscription:

https://app.overton.io/ui/auth/register?group_code=unie61b0

Future access can then be direct from app.overton.io

Description:

A large searchable index of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers from sources that are typically difficult to find in one place. Documents are parsed to find references, people and key concepts in relevant news stories, academic research, think tank output and other policy literature.  Full-text indexing can lead to discovery of additional citations.

Coverage:

Over 11 million full-text policy documents and grey literature from 32,000 organisations in 188 countries

 

Access Information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Difficult to find publications in one place, built around a directory of over 21,000 policy organisations. Provides access to 2.4 million books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications from organisations including inter-governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, think-tanks and other research centres.

The search interface also enables searching for tables within reports.

Registered users can receive alerts of material added to the database.

 

Reaxys (Academic Edition)

Access information: Access on and off campus. Use the link to "Sign in via your Institution"  and follow the onscreen instructions.
Description:

Chemical reaction, structure and property data for organic and inorganic compounds. Also bibliographic data. Search by chemical structures and reactions as well as text. Contains the information from Gmelin and Beilstein.

Reaxys and Reaxys Medicinal Chemistry (as of Dec 2022):

  • 170 MILLION organic, inorganic and organometallic compounds
  • 60 MILLION chemical reactions
  • >500 MILLION published experimental facts
  • 16,000 chemistry-related periodicals
  • 196,000 patents
  • 240 years of chemistry knowledge 6 indexing sources for a cross-disciplinary view of chemistry
Coverage: 1771 to date.
Userguides: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/list/page/1/c/10545/supporthub/reaxys/

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources.  Contains over 16 million author profiles, 70,000 institutional profiles, 5000 publishers, 70 million records, 1.4 billion cited references, covers over 20,000 journals from health, life, physical and social sciences and the humanities.
Coverage: For some subject areas, from 1788 onwards.  
User guide: https://elsevier.libguides.com/Scopus/home
Note: The University of Edinburgh's Affiliation ID is 60027272 (used for configuring Papers 3 for Mac to work with Scopus).
Note: If you would like to register to receive personalised searches, alerts etc then select "Other Institution login", then add "Edinburgh" to the search box to find the University of Edinburgh log in link, select the Shibboleth option if requested.

 

SciFinder is a key resource

SciFindern - (both University and personal login required)

Not letting you in?

  • Have you registered for your personal SciFinder username/password?
    • An existing SciFinder personal registration will work for SciFindern
  • CAS retired SciFinder classic platform on 1st July 2022. Use the new SciFindern platform linked to above.
  • Going direct, rather than using the link above, requires IP authentication as well as personal registration and therefore connection to the VPN may be necessary.

How to register for a personal SciFinder account (required)

Access information:

Requires personal registration.

Direct access possible with your personal login details plus a University registered IP address

VPN service

  After 20 minutes of inactivity sessions will be closed automatically.
Description: Bibliographic information and abstracts of articles published from more than 50,000 journals. Covers chemistry (all aspects), chemical structures and patents, chemical engineering, biochemistry, biotechnology, genetics. Information on more than 268 million chemical substances.
  Search by chemical structure or text. Full reaction searching allows you to specify reaction sites and map atoms in the reactants. Also, information on patents, chemical suppliers and regulations. Cited reference searching is possible.
Coverage: From 1800s onwards
Additional information:

Further support from the supplier for SciFindern

 

 

Web of Science Core Collection is a key resource

Web of Science Core Collection

 
Access information:

Access on and off campus.

  Russian Science Citation Index is not presently included in the Web of Science.
Description:

Citations and abstracts to millions of journal articles and conference proceedings from all subjects. Cited reference searching, Impact Factors, h-indexes and email alerts available.

Coverage:

Arts & Humanities (1975 onwards), Science and Social Sciences Citation Indexes (both 1900 onwards), Conference Proceedings in Science and Social Science & Humanities (both 1990 onwards).

Also: Book Citation Indexes in Science and Social Sciences & Humanities (both 2005 onwards), Current Chemical Reactions (1986 onwards), Emerging Sources Citation Index (2015 onwards), Current Chemical Reactions (1985 onwards), Index Chemicus (1993 onwards).

Change "Search in:" to use: BIOSIS Citation Index (1926 onwards), Current Contents Connect (1998 onwards), Data Citation Index (1990 onwards), Derwent Innovations Index (1966 onwards), KCI-Korean Journal Database (1980 onwards), Medline (1950 onwards), PrePrint Citation Index (1991 onwards), ProQuest Dissertatoins & Theses Citation Index (1637 onwards), SciELO Citation Index (2002 onwards), Zoological Record (1864 onwards).

Help:

Publisher userguide

Finding articles which have in their reference lists a work you found useful ('cited reference searching'):

Cited Reference Searching (pdf)

 

Journal Citation Reports (JCR): 

Journal Impact Factors and other measures on JCR (pdf)

 

Zoological Record

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Zoological Record is the world's oldest continuing database of animal biology. Records cover every aspect of zoology, including biochemistry, behaviour, ecology evolution, genetics, biodiversity and veterinary sciences. It indexes over 4,500 international serials plus other publications including monographs, books, reviews, and conference proceedings.