This page provides you with guidelines to support any literature search activity that you will do in relation to your PLSC3005W course. Please follow them closely. They are meant to help you carry out sound literature searches.
Search the Libraries for books, journals, articles, media and more.
Databases to browse
-
ScopusSearch for information from scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Covers the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
-
Web of ScienceA comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of journal article citations. Subjects generally covered are within science and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences.
-
Google Scholar (Setup connection to get to PDFs)Use Google Scholar to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, research institutes, and scholarly repositories from colleges and universities. If you are using from off-campus access, change the "Library Settings" to University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Look for the "FindIt@U of M Twin Cities" links in your Google Scholar search results to access full text and PDFs.
Journals to Browse
Plant Science journals:
Multidisciplinary journals:
Methods journals:
Search tips
- It is possible that your first keywords are a bit unusual or exotic for the field—you might be using keywords that do not match anything, because of the way you construct them. In order to circumvent these problems, first have a look on the keywords mentioned in typical papers published in the field, in order to get a sense of how to formulate them.
- Searching for the right literature is time-consuming. In order to manage efficiently your search time, be organized. Save your search entries in a text file (date, keyword, papers already downloaded, etc.) so that you keep track of what you have done. Try different word combinations (example: if you are investigating cold-related stresses, try these combinations: cold tolerance, chilling tolerance, chilling injury, cold injury, chilling resistance, etc.). Have a look on the abstract to make sure you are downloading a relevant paper for your research.
- Give time to your search. It is a critical part of your work. If you don’t find a paper related to your assignment, you probably are not looking hard enough. Use different databases and journals.
- Beware of low-quality journals. For the purpose of your assignments, stick to the journal list mentioned above.
Citing references in your papers
There are numerous citations styles depending on the journal. Follow the recommendations in the “References” section of the Instructions For Authors of the Journal of Experimental Botany.
You can use citation managers such as Mendeley or Zotero, but this is not required.
Last Updated: Dec 25, 2020 11:06 PM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/c.php?g=903063