What are the concepts in your assignment? What are the keywords that describe your concepts?
CONCEPT 1: CHEMICAL/CHEMICAL GROUP + CONCEPT 2: TYPE OF ECOSYSTEM
Examples of CONCEPT 1 keywords:
- formal chemical name(s)
- synonyms for chemical (including trade name)
- CAS number
- molecular formula
Examples of CONCEPT 2 keywords:
- terrestrial (forest, tundra, etc), marine, freshwater
- ecosystem, biosphere, community, etc.
Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, "a phrase") to connect your keywords when searching databases.
Find chemical properties by using...
- standard reference works such as the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
- the "Search Chemical" search in the Scifinder database.
- TOXNET databases (for toxicity)
Explore background information.
- Use the library catalogue, Omni to find single-topic books on the subject (print or online)
- Search for review papers in databases such as Web of Science, BIOSIS, PubMed and Scifinder (each of these databases allows you to filter specifically for reviews)
Find specific scientific articles...
- Use the library databases - note that each has specialized filtering tools. For example,
- records in Web of Science have "cited by" links that let you see who has cited the article since its publication.
- PubMed allows you to filter articles depending if they are about humans or other animals.
- Scifinder has an analyze feature that allows you to sort through your results
- If Queen's library doesn't have the article you need, order a copy through the free interlibrary loan service, RACER.
Organize what you find using a citation management system, like Zotero.