Research Guides @ Fordham: Biological Sciences: Databases &amp; Recommended Resources

Biology Databases

Biodiversity Heritage Library This link opens in a new window
Digitized books, journals, images and collections from a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries creating a global “biodiversity commons” of significant biodiversity materials. Includes the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of Life.
Biological Science Database This link opens in a new window
On ProQuest's platform. Provides access to a wide range of biology topics, including some of the most popular information resources for users in academic, government, and public research environments.

BioRxiv
bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-archive") is a free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preprints in the life sciences. It is operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a not-for-profit research and educational institution. By posting preprints on bioRxiv, authors are able to make their findings immediately available to the scientific community and receive feedback on draft manuscripts before they are submitted to journals.

BIOSIS Citation Index and Biological Abstracts (ACCESS ENDS 12/31/22)
See Scopus
Birds of the World This link opens in a new window
Brings scholarly content from four celebrated works of ornithology into a single platform where biologists and birders can find comprehensive life history information on birds from around the world. Illustrated.
Formerly "Birds of North America Online."
Encyclopedia of Life This link opens in a new window
Descriptions of every species known to science with a list of references to books and articles.
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences This link opens in a new window
Wiley Online Library. Thousands of articles on biological sciences.
Environmental Studies - Gale In Context (formerly GREENR) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive resource on environmental topics that includes news, commentary, documents, conference reports, statistics, audio, video, images. Updated daily.
Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of environment journals and monographs covering agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, public policy, sustainability and other related subjects. Some full text.
GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
Indexing and abstracts of over 384,000 items on the human impact to the environment, as well as full text for nearly 5,000.
International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology This link opens in a new window
This title features over 450 entries contributed by an international team of scholars and represents the first comprehensive encyclopedic reference relating to biological anthropology.
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) This link opens in a new window
A resource providing access to biomedical and genomic information created by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
BioMed Central BMC This link opens in a new window
Several hundred peer-reviewed open access journals covering Science, Technology and Medicine subject areas from Springer Science+Business Media.

Biology Online Resources

National Resources Defense Council
Expansive website of one of the largest environmental organizations in the world.
iBioSeminars
Provides accurate up to date biological information reported and edited by scientists.
National Invasive Species Information Center
From the National Library of Agriculture; includes an large assortment of information and links.
MITOpenCourseWare
Open and online courses covering a variety of topics, including in depth Biology courses.
American Institute of Biological Sciences
The American Institute of Biological Sciences was formed with a vision of bringing together the organizations and individuals that advance the biological sciences to work together on matters best addressed through united action.
Integrated Taxonomic Information Sysstem (ITIS)
Contains authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.

Biology Media

BBC4: Best of Natural History
A wide range of programs that aim to immerse a listener in the wonder, surprise and importance that nature has to offer.
Human Behavioral Biology Lectures by Prof. Robert Sapolsky
A lecture series by Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky that covers human behavioral biology from beginning to end.
Microbe TV
A collection of podcasts dealing with the latest in different areas of biological research, including evolution, urban agriculture, virology, and many more. A majority of the podcasts are produced by the American Society for Microbiology.
OMGenomics
A bioinformatics channel that focuses on the intersection of biology and data science.

Multi-Disciplinary Databases

Academic OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Peer-reviewed full-text scholarly content across the academic disciplines with millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text.
Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
Full text of Annual Reviews on subscription, mostly in the sciences. No access to Economics and Computer Science titles.
ArXiv archive This link opens in a new window
A full-text, open archive and distribution server for theoretical and applied scientific research papers. Hosted by Cornell University. Coverage 1991 to the present.
Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals This link opens in a new window
Full text of subscribed journals and four collections - Business, Management and Accounting, Economics and Econometrics, Psychology, and Social Sciences.
Nature Journal This link opens in a new window
Nature is a weekly international journal publishing the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology.
Public Library of Science (PLOS) This link opens in a new window
A non-profit organization dedicated to making scientific literature freely available by publishing a suite of influential Open Access journals across all areas of science and medicine. Includes submission of papers that have been shared
as preprints.
Science Database This link opens in a new window
On ProQuest's platform. A definitive resource for students studying both the applied and general sciences. Provides access to charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, photos, and other graphical elements vital to scientific and technical literature.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Abstract and citation database covering thousands of titles in Science, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, Health Science, and Arts & Humanities going back to 1960.
Wiley Online Library - All Journals Database 2023 This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to all Wiley Journals - 2023 Collection. Typical access is 1996/1997 to Present. Always click on the journal title to see specific years of access, even if there is no access icon visible on the front page.

Community Science Resources

CitiSci
CitSci.org was developed through the Natural Resources Ecology Lab (NREL) at Colorado State University as an initiative to promote citizen involvement in scientific research. It provides tools for the entire research process including: creating new projects, managing project members, building custom data sheets, analyzing collected data, and gathering participant feedback.
CitizenScience.gov
CitizenScience.gov is an official government website designed to accelerate the use of crowdsourcing and citizen science across the U.S. government. The site provides a portal to three key components: a catalog of federally supported citizen science projects, a toolkit to assist federal practitioners with designing and maintaining their projects, and a gateway to a community of hundreds of citizen science
Citizen Science Association
The Citizen Science Association (CSA) is a member-driven organization that connects people from a wide range of experiences around one shared purpose: advancing knowledge through research and monitoring done by, for, and with members of the public.
iNaturalist
iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you. It also connects you to a community of over a million scientists and naturalists who can help you learn more about nature.
SciStarter
SciStarter is an online community dedicated to improving the citizen science experience for project managers and participants. Over 3,000 projects and events are searchable by location, scientific topic, and age level, and by joining SciStarter, members can track their contributions and provide valuable feedback. SciStarter also supports researchers in managing projects, including best practices for engaging participant partners.
Zooniverse
The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. The goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications.

Biology Oriented CommunityScience Projects

eBird
eBird is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance.
Foldit
Foldit is an online puzzle video game about protein folding. The objective of Foldit is to fold the structures of selected proteins as perfectly as possible, using tools provided in the game. The highest scoring solutions are analyzed by researchers, who determine whether or not there is a native structural configuration (native state) that can be applied to relevant proteins in the real world.
Snapshot Safari
Snapshot Safari looks to citizen scientists from around the world to identify wildlife caught on camera. With millions of images ready to be classified, participants have the opportunity to search for wildlife in remarkable ecosystems featuring a variety of habitats.

Biological Sciences: Databases & Recommended Resources

Biology Databases

Biology Online Resources

Biology Media

Multi-Disciplinary Databases

Community Science Resources

Reference & Instruction Department