Introduction to Biological Literature
Kenneth M. Klemow, Ph.D. & William B. Terzaghi, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
[email protected], [email protected]
Notes to instructors:
This exercise was originally developed in the early 1990s to help incoming life-science and pre-professional
students at Wilkes become more familiar with the biological literature. Indeed, it is the first lab exercise that
students enrolled in BIO 121 – Principles of Modern Biology I take as part of that course. It has evolved over
the past fifteen years, primarily to reflect changes in technology.
The exercise requires students to carefully examine periodicals, primary research articles, and other forms of
printed and online biological literature. It asks students to locate a variety of bibliographic and other baseline
information about the periodical or article. The methods used are a combination of “treasure-hunt” and
“dissection”. The primary objectives are to give students a deeper understanding of the professional literature,
and to bring to life the publishing process that is central to the lives of most professional biologists.
This file contains the instructions for the exercise, a set of datasheets and an Appendix that describes additional
directions to the Wilkes University website and library resources. Adopters are clearly free to adapt this
exercise for their own purposes.
As noted in the instructions, we have students work in pairs. The intent is to have one student search for the
information while the other records it in the datasheet. Working that way, students can complete the exercise in
about 2.5 – 3 hours. Students are urged to read the instructions before entering lab.
We provide each pair of students with a cardboard magazine box containing one issue each of Scientific
American, Science, Plant Physiology, and Plant Cell to represent journals prepared for different audiences.
Each box contains different issues of each journal, so that each pair of students has unique raw material to work
from. The last two journals are based on the professional interest of the instructor and are chosen to illustrate
different article formats. Certainly, substitutions are possible.
We also provide students with additional references including technical books, newsletters and meeting
programs.
Assembling the materials the first time took approximately one hour. We now do not break down and re-shelve
the periodicals, but instead keep them in their boxes from year to year. That practice cuts preparation time to
approximately twenty minutes.
The Internet part of the exercise is performed using a tablet computer with wireless Internet connection
provided to each pair of students. Other arrangements, such as using a bank of desktop units in a computer lab,
are possible. The attached Appendix includes the instructions used to teach students how to access the BIO 121
course webpage, Wilkes University library holdings, and Wilkes-specific search engines.
In terms of student assessment, students submit the completed answer sheets upon completing the lab. Those
sheets are graded by Teaching Assistants provided with a scoring rubric. Students are also asked questions
derived from this exercise on their exams.
We would like to hear your experiences with this exercise, should you adopt it. Please contact either of us,
using the emails provided above.
Introduction to Biological Literature
Kenneth M. Klemow, Ph.D. & William B. Terzaghi, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
INTRODUCTION
Information about biology is recorded in many ways, including journal articles, reviews, books,
reports, films, CD’s, websites, and electronic databases. This store of information is called the
biological literature. All biologists read it to stay current in their profession. The purpose of today’s
lab is to acquaint you with some important forms of the biological literature and ways to find
information.
Upon completing today’s lab you will have a better appreciation for the biological literature and will
feel less intimidated by it. Ideally, you will begin using the literature to supplement your course work,
and for personal professional development. Most biologists read the biological literature for pleasure
(believe it or not!) and as a source of new ideas. In fact, one of the frustrations of being a biologist is
finding enough time to keep up with the literature. Eventually, you will develop a strategy for coping
with the massive amount of information that already exists and the new information that is published
every week.
In this lab, you will first learn about some forms of published scientific literature. Next, you will
examine some bibliographic sources for identifying and accessing biological literature. You will
finish by looking at some resources available on the Internet.
Until the mid 1990s, most biologists got their information from the published literature – typically in
the form of articles that appeared in journals, as well as technical reports and less formal sources like
newsletters produced by professional societies and other organizations. When reading articles
appearing in journals, biologists were confident that the information went through peer-review, which
means that other scientists have studied the article and agreed that it is worthy of publication.
While the peer-reviewed published literature is still a mainstay of biological communication, the
evolution of the Internet beginning in the 1990s has profoundly changed the way in which biological
information is disseminated and accessed. Three of the most important changes brought about by the
Internet have been: 1) computer-aided searches that have greatly improved our ability to find
literature, 2) the availability of many journals online, with some being exclusively available
electronically, 3) electronic publication that allows anyone with Internet access to present any
information they please. The last item is especially troubling, because this allows a variety of
misinformation to be presented on the Internet, without the benefit of peer review. One must
therefore be very careful about information obtained online. Consequently, you must be vigilant in
reading scientific information, and one of the goals of today’s lab is to acquaint you with ways to test
the reliability of a source.
OVERVIEW OF TODAY’S EXERCISE
On your table and on the side tables are examples of several types of scientific publications. Work in
pairs. For you to truly benefit from this exercise, it is important that you proceed through the unit in
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the order presented in this handout and go through each phase together with your partner (i.e., don’t
split up the work). Please realize that in today’s lab you will acquire important skills that you will use
throughout your subsequent college work, and presumably throughout the rest of your professional
career.
In Part I of today’s lab you will examine periodicals containing short articles, most of which contain
reports of new experimental findings. Such periodicals form the backbone of scientific
communication. In Part II, you will examine a representative research article, examining its general
format, and a few stylistic features. In Part III, you will examine some other types of publications,
including review articles, technical books, newsletters, bulletins and abstracts. Finally, in Part IV you
will be exposed to Internet resources for finding and accessing information. As you proceed through
the exercise, you will be asked questions about the literature that you are examining. Your responses
should be entered onto the accompanying data-sheet.
As you proceed through the exercise, some of the questions will appear trivial. Please realize that each
question does have a purpose, which we hope will become clear during the discussions. Do your best,
and try to have some fun with this lab!
PART I: SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES
Most information about current advances in biology is disseminated by printed articles that appear in
periodically-produced journals and magazines. While these terms appear to describe the same thing,
scientists are careful not to interchange the two. A journal is a technical publication that is written for
scientists. A magazine refers to any non-technical publication that contains articles that can be
understood by non-scientists. Even among journals, considerable diversity exists in terms of intended
audience. Some are written for specialists in a rather narrow area, while others are written for scientists
in general.
To help you see the variation in periodical literature, four representative publications are available on
your table: the journals Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, Science, and Scientific American magazine.
To do: In the first part of today’s lab, you will conduct a comparative examination of each journal
placed in the box before you. Answer the questions pertaining to Part 1.
PART II: RESEARCH ARTICLES
A. Overview
The backbone of the biological literature is the research article, in which new findings are presented.
Because of their importance, scientists typically refer to such articles collectively as the primary
literature. In contrast, review articles, which rarely provide any new data, comprise a secondary
literature. The latter is nonetheless important because review articles summarize and synthesize
preexisting literature, provide new ideas, and often give directions for future research and applications.
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In this section, you will examine a primary article in some detail. These articles follow the same
general format that are commonly used for reports that you will be asked to write during your college
career and afterwards.
Typically, most journal articles contain seven elements: a Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods,
Results, Discussion, and Literature-Cited sections. The Title should help the reader understand the
essence of the paper. The Abstract is a mini-paper with Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion,
except that all these elements are condensed into a few sentences (this is because abstracts are often
published separately from the rest of the text, therefore they need to be able to stand alone). The
Introduction should contain a review of the pertinent literature and an indication of the areas that are
not known. The end of that section should clearly state a hypothesis to be tested or a set of questions
to be answered. The Methods should describe the procedures used in sufficient detail to enable
someone else to replicate the experiment. The Results section should present the findings and should
include a narrative along with tables and/or figures. The Discussion should interpret the importance of
the new data, especially in relation to the questions or hypotheses posed in the Introduction. Finally
the Literature Cited section gives a bibliographic listing of the articles and books mentioned in the
article. Most authors also provide a brief Acknowledgements section in which they thank those who
helped perform and fund the study. Some also provide an Appendix that may contain additional data,
analyses, or explanatory notes.
The research article that you will examine will be found in an issue of Plant Physiology. This journal
follows the most common stylistic approach used in the biological literature. However, you will
notice that Science and The Plant Cell use different styles. In fact, journals vary considerably in their
styles. When scientists decide to publish an article, they must first decide which journal they wish to
submit their manuscript to, and then follow its specific instructions for contributors.
B. How do Research Articles Come into Being?
Many scientists measure their productivity by the number of research articles that they produce during
a given time period. However, research articles are typically nothing more than glorified lab reports.
They begin when a scientist, or team of scientists, completes an experiment, gathers some
observational data, or creates a model about a particular scientific phenomenon. When the scientist is
satisfied that something new has been found that is worth communicating to the scientific community,
he or she prepares a manuscript that contains the elements discussed in the previous section.
The author first typically selects a journal that would likely publish the paper, and then tailors the
manuscript to follow its Guide for Contributors. Several factors go into the choice of journal,
particularly the prestige and readership of the journal, and the likelihood of having the article accepted
there (more prestigious journals have a lower acceptance rate). Often, the author will send a
manuscript to a colleague for comment before submitting it to the journal. This “pre-review” typically
alerts the author to any problems that can be corrected before formal submission.
Once the author is satisfied that the manuscript is ready, it is sent to the Editor of the journal. The
editor then sends the manuscript - by email or conventional mail - to two or three scientists, who are
typically especially knowledgeable about the specific subject, for their peer review. The reviewers
examine the manuscript and assess whether it contains information of interest to the scientific
community. The reviewers also evaluate details concerning the experimental design, the analysis of
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data, and the interpretation of findings with respect to the existing literature. Good reviewers will also
indicate any grammatical problems with the text, inaccuracies in the figures, and improper use of
statistics. The reviewer then returns the manuscript to the Editor, along with a recommendation as to
whether the paper should be accepted in its present form, conditionally accepted with modification, or
rejected. The Editor surveys all of the reviews, and decides to accept or reject the paper based on the
consensus of the recommendations. The Editor returns the paper to the author, along with a letter
stating whether it was accepted and any suggested revisions. Typically, the process from submission
to response takes six to twelve weeks. If the paper is conditionally accepted, the author makes the
recommended changes (or refutes the criticism) and returns it to the Editor. If it is rejected, the author
may attempt to revise the paper and resubmit to the same journal, or to a different - often less
prestigious - journal.
Once the manuscript is accepted it is sent to be typeset (which can take several weeks or even months),
and a letter is sent to the author indicating the journal issue in which the paper will appear. At some
point, the author will obtain page proofs, which are versions of the paper set as they will appear in
print. The author inspects the proofs and returns them with any corrections, then waits for the issue to
be published. Typically, at the time of publication, the publisher will send the author fifty or one
hundred reprints of the published article (not the whole journal issue) that can be sent to anyone who
mails a request to the author. The entire elapsed time from initial submission to publication typically
is in the range of eight months to two years, depending on the journal, and the amount of revision
needed. However, some journals are now reducing that time through the use of electronic typesetting.
The important point is that the publication of scientific literature is clearly a human endeavor, and is
liable to a great deal of subjectivity. Scientists often lament the poor quality of articles that appear in
print. Substandard articles are published when an author is a sloppy scientist or a poor writer, and the
reviewers and journal editors are not diligent about spotting weaknesses. Conversely, other scientists
complain that excellent research is not published because the reviewers are overly strict (and may even
have an ax to grind) and hence recommend rejection of a good paper.
Because the literature is often far than perfect, young scientists should develop the ability to critique
published articles, which is an important professional skill. Today’s exercise will help give you
practice along those lines.
C. Lab Activities
To do: In this part of the lab exercise, you will look for certain features of a published article. Pick an
article from Plant Physiology and answer the questions listed on your data-sheet.
PART III: OTHER PUBLISHED LITERATURE
A. Overview
Primary research articles represent only one part of the biological literature. Published information
also occurs in the form of review articles, technical books and articles, and informal literature.
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B. The Review Literature
Since so many research articles are published each year, scientists find it impossible to read all that are
of interest. In that light, some scientists prepare review articles that summarize and organize the
recent developments within a specific area, typically with a good deal of synthesis and many
suggestions about future directions for research.
Many review articles appear in one of several periodicals belonging to the Annual Review series.
There are several different Annual Reviews, each covering a general area of biology. Examples
include: The Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, The Annual Review of Genetics, and The
Annual Review of Plant Biology. Each issue contains many articles focusing on a certain topic. Unlike
research articles, review articles are typically written by authors who were invited to do so.
To do: An issue from one of the Annual Review series is on your table. Answer the questions on the
data sheet that pertain to the Annual Review periodical.
C. Technical Books
Aside from journal articles and reviews, scientists also consult technical books, which are more
comprehensive than articles in periodicals, but assume considerable background knowledge. Some
technical books are written by one or a few authors. Others are written by a team of authors, each of
whom writes a single chapter, and these are organized by an editor. Still other books present
compilations of journal articles that are of historical interest, again with some comment by an editor.
To do: A representative technical book is on your table. Use it to answer the questions posed on your
data sheet.
D. Informal Published Literature
1. Bulletins and Newsletters
Scientists who belong to professional societies also receive a variety of newsletters, bulletins, and
other less-formal literature. Those sources often include news items, notices of upcoming conferences,
information about society members, reviews of meetings, minutes of the society’s business meetings,
letters to the editor, and articles of a philosophical nature. These less formal sources of information
often contain current information (a few weeks to two months old), but they are not peer-reviewed, so
the information is not “filtered”.
To do: On your table is a Newsletter from the American Society of Plant Biologists. Answer the
questions on your datasheet about it.
2. Meeting Abstracts and Proceedings.
Most scientists attend professional conferences to hear the latest research before it is published. Such
conferences are typically sponsored by professional societies, and held at locations such as convention
centers and universities. At those conferences, scientists typically hear oral presentations (usually ten
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to twenty minutes long) or view posters that describe studies recently completed by researchers. Most
of those presentations or posters are made voluntarily by the scientist(s) and are presented during
contributed paper (or poster) sessions. Other sessions, called symposia, consist of oral
presentations by invited speakers. Symposium presentations are generally somewhat longer (twenty to
forty minutes) and provide more of a synthesis than contributed papers.
To provide a written account of the presentation, scientists are required to submit an abstract
describing the findings to the conference committee. Abstracts are due several months before the
meeting, and all are then assembled into a document that is published and distributed to the society
membership and all attendees of the conference. That document also includes a program that shows
the time and location of each talk and poster. Most scientists’ first publications appeared in such
programs.
Another type of publication to result from a conference is known as a Proceedings. These are
published collections of the information presented at a meeting. While proceedings are popular
because they are current, they are often not peer-reviewed or rigorously edited.
To do: On your table is a volume containing the Program and Abstracts from a recent American
Society of Plant Biologists meeting. Scan through it, and answer the questions on the datasheet.
PART IV: INTERNET SOURCES
Computers have become important tools for all biologists. In addition to their use for general tasks
such as word processing, analyzing data, and preparing figures, a variety of programs have been
developed for specific biological applications such as analyzing DNA sequences or predicting protein
structures.
Biologists now have access to a vast sea of information made available on the Internet. These include
newsgroups devoted to various biological topics (and for advertising jobs- a topic which will soon
become important to you!), databases for a variety of biological information, sites where programs for
biologists are stored, home pages for many institutions, directories to find biologists with specific
interests or whose research is funded by specific institutions, and sites where a variety of other
information for biologists is stored.
We will conclude this exercise by taking a brief guided tour around the Internet looking at some of the
search engine sites that will help you locate biological information. We will also take you to a site that
will help you evaluate the validity of websites containing biological information.
A. Using a Specialized Search Engine: PubMed
To do:
1. Start up your computer and open a web browser like Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox. The
homepage specific for that computer should appear.
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2. Go to the website for PubMed, which is the sponsored by the U.S. National Library of
Medicine. PubMed’s website is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed.
Notice that a search box occurs near the top of the screen.
3. Type in the name of some cool parasite or disease, then click “search.”
4. Record the search term and the number of hits. Note that you can download the full text of
many of the articles you recover.
B. Using commercial search engines
To do:
1. Direct your browser to “Yahoo! Directory” by typing dir.yahoo.com into the “address”
window. A page listing the various directories will appear; click on “science.” A new page will
appear. Click on “biology”, then select one of the categories to see what’s in it. Record the
category name and URL.
2. Next, search using the same term you used for PubMed and record the number of hits.
3. Compare Yahoo with Google. Type www.google.com into the address window. When the
Google page comes up search with the same term you used for PubMed and record the number
of hits.
C. Evaluating websites.
Since websites are not peer-reviewed, anybody using the Internet should have some ability to
discriminate reputable from unreliable sites. The Internet contains numerous guides and “rubrics” to
help users distinguish the good from the bad. One excellent guide is produced by the Ithaca College
Library at their “ICYouSee: T is for Thinking,” site, which can be found at:
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html
To do: Direct your browser to the Ithaca library site. Review the information posted there, and then
answer the questions on your datasheet.
A FINAL THOUGHT
You have covered a great deal of material today. Although it may seem overwhelming now, by the
time you graduate these different sources of information will seem like old friends to you. Learning
about the biological literature is can be equated to the process of familiarizing yourself to a new city.
Just like your understanding of the relationships between various streets and buildings increases with
every trip out and about, your understanding of the structure of articles will improve every time you
critically read a published article, paying attention to the items mentioned throughout this
investigation.
Introduction to Biological Literature - Datasheet
Student Name: ___________________________
PART I. COMPARISON OF SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES
A. Background Information for Periodical
1. Is the journal published by a scientific society or a publishing company? Name the society or
publisher.
Plant Physiology Science Scientific American The Plant Cell2. How frequently is each periodical published?
Plant Physiology :
Science :
Scientific American :
The Plant Cell:
3. Costs:
Plant Phys
Science
Sci Am
Plant Cell
Cost of a personal annual subscription:
Cost of an institutional annual subscription:
Cost of a single issue:
Is it cheaper if you join a professional society?
4. Are instructions to authors included?
Plant Physiology: ____
Science: _____
Scientific American: _____
The Plant Cell:_____
B: General Contents
1. How many pages does each publication contain? Does the numbering begin with page 1?
Plant Physiology:
Science:
Scientific American:
The Plant Cell:
# pages
begin p. 1?
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
Introduction to Biological Literature – Instructions
Which of the following are present?
Letters to the Editor:
Page 2
Plant Phys
Science
Sci Am
Plant Cell
Plant Phys
Science
Sci Am
Plant Cell
Plant Phys
Science
Sci Am
Plant Cell
Editorial:
News-related items:
Review articles:
Research articles:
Employment opportunities:
Notices of upcoming conferences:
Book reviews:
The following questions refer to research
articles (not news or review articles):
How many are in the issue examined?
What is their average length? (based on 5
articles)
Do they have an Abstract or Summary?
Are the articles divided into sections, like
Introduction, Methods, Results?
Where is the “Methods” section?
Does a Reference (or Literature Cited) section
occur at the end?
Are notes other than references at the end?
Can you find any ads for publishing
companies?
Any for computer hardware or software?
Any for automobiles?
Any for alcoholic beverages?
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C. Target Audience:
Please rate each periodical for each of the following criteria on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 is very
difficult and 5 is very easy).
Plant Phys
Science
Sci Am
Plant Cell
Understandability of the titles of the research
articles to you:
Understandability of the titles of the research
articles to an average 9th grade student:
Understandability of the titles of any news
articles to you:
Interest to a professional in your chosen field?
Interest to a science editor at a major
newspaper?
Interest to a laborer who dropped out of school
in 11th grade?
D. Other Periodicals
On the side table are other periodicals. Scan any four of them and assess their target audience
according to the following scale:
1. Mainly of interest to biologists interested in a certain target sub-discipline.
2. Should be of interest to most biologists, but not really to non-biologists.
3. Should be of interest to most scientists, but not really to non-scientists.
4. Should be of interest to scientists and non-scientists alike.
Periodical Name
Target Audience
1. ____________________________________________________________
____________
2. ____________________________________________________________
____________
3. ____________________________________________________________
____________
4. ____________________________________________________________
____________
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PART II. EXAMINATION OF RESEARCH ARTICLE
A. General Information
1. What is the title of the article?
2. List the author(s):
3. What is the bibliographic citation of the article?
4. How many pages long is the paper?
5. When was the paper first received?
6. When was it accepted?
7. How many months elapsed between the time the paper was first submitted and its appearance in
print (assume that the date on the journal was the date of publication)?
8. Why should these dates be presented on the paper?
9. Give the scientific and common names of at least one of the organisms studied.
10. Where was the study done?
B. Now turn to the Introduction and answer the following questions.
1. How many citations to other literature are given in the Introduction?
2. Are any references made to work previously published by the author(s)?
3. Scan the introduction, and locate any sentence that indicates what we do not know about the
general topic being researched. Write that sentence in the space below.
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4. Does that sentence appear at the beginning, middle or end of the Introduction?
5. Find a sentence that explains the objectives of the paper, and write it in the space below.
6. Does that sentence appear at the beginning, middle or end of the Introduction?
C. Now turn to the Methods section.
1. What organism was studied?
2. How many references to other literature were given in this section?
D. Now turn to the Results section.
1. How many figures were provided in the Results section?
How many tables?
2. Were any photographs included?
3. How many references to other literature are in this section?
4. Were the results of statistical tests given in the tables?
In the text?
E. Now turn to the Discussion.
1. How many figures were provided in the Discussion?
How many tables?
2. How many references to other literature were given in this section?
3. Can you find any sentence that states whether an hypothesis was supported or refuted?
4. Find a sentence that identifies one or more questions that remain unanswered and/or deserve
additional study and write it in the space below.
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F. Now turn to the Acknowledgements section.
1. Was this study supported by a grant?
If so, what was the granting agency?
2. Did the author thank anyone for assistance with the study?
3. Did the author thank anyone for providing comments on the manuscript?
G. Finally, turn to the Literature Cited section.
1. Are the entries listed alphabetically, or in order of their appearance in the paper?
2. How many books were cited?
3. How many journal articles were cited?
4. Please state the order in which the following items were listed in the citation: title of article,
journal name, page numbers, journal volume, author’s name, and date.
PART III. OTHER BIOLOGICAL LITERATURE
A. Review Literature
1. What is the title of the periodical examined?
2. Frequency of publication?
Cost?
Publisher?
3. How many articles does your issue contain?
4. Does each article have an Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion?
5. Are figures and/or tables presented?
How long are the articles?
B. Technical Book
1. Title
Year published
2. Publisher
3. Did the author(s) write the entire book, or was it a compilation of chapters, each written by a
different author?
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C. Informal Published Literature
Look at the American Society for Plant Biology Newsletter
1. How often is it published?
2. Which of the following does it contain?
Information about the annual meeting
Letters to the editor
Research articles
Listing of upcoming events
Cartoons
Book reviews
Job listings
Information about government
Now look at the Program and Abstracts for the ASPB annual meeting (a separate item)
1. When and where was the meeting held?
2. How many sessions did the meeting contain?
3. At what intervals were the symposium talks scheduled?
4. How many abstracts were there?
PART IV. INTERNET RESOURCES
1. PubMed search term:
# hits:
2. Yahoo! Biology category name:
URL:
Title of article:
3. Yahoo! search term:
Number of hits with Yahoo!:
Number of hits with Google:
4. What are the six suggestions at ICUSee for evaluating websites?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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Appendix: Instructions for using the Wilkes website.
1) Start up your computer and open a web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer. It should open at the
Wilkes Homepage; if not, go there by typing "http://www.wilkes.edu" into the "Address:" window at the top
of the page.
2) Click on “Current Students” in the upper left side of the page.
3) You will see links to a variety of useful information such as the academic schedule and upcoming events; you
will also find links to a variety of useful sites related to academics or living.
4) A particularly important site for this course is the Homepage for Bio 121. This can be accessed by clicking
on “WebCT ” in the “ACADEMICS” menu on the right side of the screen. You will get a new window.
Click on “see courses on this server,” then select “view by term” and “Wilkes Fall 2006-2007” and click the
update button. Now select “BIO 121 - Principles of Modern Biology.’ You can then login using your Wilkes
email prefix (everything before the @) as your user name, and your PIN. This site contains syllabi, lab
instructions, etc. If you lose any of your handouts, you can replace them by downloading them from
this site
5) On the Bio-121 homepage, click on “Links,” then on “This week’s website, “ and write down the subject of
this week’s website on your datasheet.
6) Return to the course homepage by clicking on “homepage” in the left column. Pick any two of the links, and
see where they go. Write the titles, the URLs (the text in the “address” window) and a one-sentence
description of the contents of each of these sites in the space provided.
7) Next we will visit the library. Return to the Wilkes homepage by clicking on the Wilkes Home Page
hypertext at the bottom of the course homepage. Click on “Quicklinks” at the top and select “library.”
8) A page with links to a variety of useful information will open. Click on “book search” in the Library menu
on the left, then on “Farley Library Catalog.” A new page will open. Enter a search term, pick a search type,
then click “search.”
9) Record the search term, the type of search, and the Hit Count for the relevant scan terms.
10) Return to the library homepage and select “Article Search” in the Library Info box.. A page will open that
has links to several different services. Several such as EBSCOhost and PubMed are free; others such as
FirstSearch require a password that you can obtain from the library. EBSCOhost is good for general
information. PubMed is devoted to biomedical information.
11) Click on “EBSCOhost” then on “Academic Search Premier.”
12) Type in the name of some cool parasite or disease, then click “search.”
13) Record the search term and the number of hits. Note that you can download the full text of many of the
articles you recover.
14) Return to “Article Search” and click on PubMed (not PubMed Central!). Type the same term you used for
EBSCOhost into the search window, then click “go” and record the number of hits.