General Reference
Research assistance in the health and life sciences is available at the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library.
See Reference and Research Help for complete reference service options.
Journal Article and Other Databases
Note that many of these sources only index journal articles—they don't actually include the full text. Use the blue Get it at UC button to help you locate the full article, either online or in print, or search for the full journal title in the UCLA Library Catalog.
Top picks:
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of most disciplines. Indexes major journals with all cited references captured. Combines the following citation databases: Science Citation Index Expanded; Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI); Conference Proceedings Citation Index.
- GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
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Collection of scholarly, government, and general-interest titles which include content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations, and local/national governments and what can be done on each level to minimize negative impact. Topics: global warming, green building, ecology, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records. - BIOSIS Previews This link opens in a new window
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Index and abstracts for journal articles, books, conference proceedings, and technical reports in all areas of biology, related fields such as medicine and ecology, and interdisciplinary areas such as biochemistry and biotechnology.
More options
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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A multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers. - ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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Index to doctoral dissertations from 1637 to the present, with abstracts since 1980. A number of master's theses are also indexed, with abstracts since 1988. Many are available for download in pdf format. UCLA has access to all full text dissertations in the database. Non-UCLA users may use Dissertations Express to purchase digital or print copies of individual dissertations. - Agricultural & Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new window
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Coverage of the agricultural and environmental sciences, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, and government publications. Includes the AGRICOLA, TOXLINE, Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management, Ecology Abstracts, and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) databases. Can also be searched as part of the Natural Science Collection. - Primatelit: A Bibliographic Database for Primatology This link opens in a new windowAccess scientific literature on nonhuman primates. Includes articles, books, abstracts, technical reports, dissertations, and book chapters.
- PubMed This link opens in a new window
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. Also searches NCBI's integrated molecular biology databases, including nucleotide sequences, protein sequences, 3-D protein structure data, population study data sets, and assemblies of complete genomes in an integrated system. Note: This link uses a special address which turns on Get it at UC. Without that, PubMed does not link to UCLA's online subscriptions.
- Springer Nature Experiments This link opens in a new window
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Springer Protocols is an online collection of over 18,000 protocols in the areas of biochemistry, bioinformatics, biotechnology, cancer research, cell biology, genetics/genomics, imaging/radiology, immunology, infectious diseases, microbiology, molecular medicine, neuroscience, pharmacology/toxicology, plant sciences, and protein science. - TAIR, Arabidopsis Information Resource This link opens in a new window
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From the TAIR database:
"The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) maintains a database of genetic and molecular biology data for the model higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana . Data available from TAIR includes the complete genome sequence along with gene structure, gene product information, gene expression, DNA and seed stocks, genome maps, genetic and physical markers, publications, and information about the Arabidopsis research community."
- Global PlantsJSTOR Global Plants offers access to botanical resources from dozens of herbaria, libraries, museums and other research institutions. The database includes plant type specimens from herbaria around the world, scientific research articles and correspondence dating back hundreds of years, and full-text books and reference works on botany.
- Zoological Record This link opens in a new window
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Provides citations and abstracts to journal articles, books, conference papers, and newsletters covering all aspects of modern animal research, including behavior, evolution, genetics, morphology, nomenclature, physiology, and taxonomy.
- Reaxys This link opens in a new window
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Access to Beilstein's Handbuch der Organischen Chemie, and Gmelin's Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie. Provides chemical data on organic substances and reactions, including structures, properties, bioactivity records, preparation details and specific reaction pathways; also provides citations and some abstracts to the primary organic chemistry literature.The MarvinSketch structure editor works with the campus VPN, but not the proxy server.
Newspaper and Magazine Articles
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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A multi-disciplinary full-text database that indexes and abstracts over 10,000 publications, including magazines, trade publications, newspaper articles, book reviews, and peer-reviewed journals. - Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
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Full-text news (including broadcast transcripts), business, legal, and reference information. Useful for finding full-text of current performing arts and media industry news in major newspapers. Includes biographical information from Who's Who titles. Formerly LexisNexis Academic.
- Los Angeles Times This link opens in a new window
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Full text (no ads or pictures) from 1985 to the present. For access to older issues, see ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times [1881-2000].
- New York Times This link opens in a new window
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Full text (no ads or pictures) from 1980 to the present. For access to older issues, see ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times [1851-2020]
Database Tutorials
Review tutorials to learn to search databases.
Finding Review Articles
Review articles are a special kind of journal article: evaluative summaries of previously-published research. Review articles are published in journals and can be located by searching the databases listed on this guide.
One way to find review articles is to look for a way to limit your search within a database. Review articles are usually listed as a publication type or literature type. If you cannot find a review article, you can always contact the Biomedical Library for help.