Free Journal Indexes & Databases (Washington University)

library.wustl.edu/subjects/life/free.html

 

Free Journal Indexes & Databases

Link to top Life Sciences page

First, a word about free databases: Most of these are not the best resources for the job, but there are exceptions, such as PubMed which is the database we recommend first to nearly everyone! These can be handy when you are off campus and don't want to be bothered with the proxy server or just need a few quick references.

For lists of biology-related recommended indexes and databases please see: Biology short list, Biology longer list, Medicine/Toxicology list.

• Publisher-related sites, usually limited to output of certain publishers Fulltext will usually be available if there is a license on campus for the journal, so it never hurts to click on the fulltext/pdf links. Just know that they won't always work.
• Subject specific databases, often from the governmental sites
• Interdisciplinary sites Many of these databases are trying to SELL you a document which may be available to you free of charge from Washington University libraries, in the collection, online or through Interlibrary Loan, so think carefully before you provide your credit card number!
• Miscellaneous other sources

Publisher-related sites, usually limited to output of certain publishers Fulltext will usually be available if there is a license on campus for the journal, so it never hurts to click on the fulltext/pdf links. Just know that they won't always work.

Electronic Journal Databases & Publishers

Search capabilities vary but these sites usually have very nice SEARCH features for their own set of journal articles and occasionally they will include citations to other publisher's content also. The search features, citations and abstracts are usually freely available whether you are at a site with a subscription or not.

Highwire search.

Search engine for all of Highwire Press journals plus Medline.

NTIS

Covers 1964-present. Publications and products available from the National Technical Information Service. More info.

Scirus

Elsevier journal articles, Medline, many web sites and preprint sites.

Subject specific databases, often from the governmental sites

AGRICOLA (NAL)

Covers articles/book chapters in agriculture and related sciences. More info. This site also included the NAL Catalog.

AgZines: A Harvest of Free Agricultural Journals

Searchable full-text index of agriculture-related, Web-based serials produced by USAIN, United States Agricultural Information Network.

Bibliography of Genetic Variation in Natural Populations

Searchable citations and abstracts compiled by Fred Allendorf, Univ. of Montana. Covers last 25 years.

Biosafety Database

Covers 1990-present. Records extracts from CAB International Database on biosafety and risk assessment in biotechnology, especially on the environmental release of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). More info.

DOE Information Bridge

Searchable citations and many full-text documents, 1996+. Subjects include physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental cleanup, energy technologies, and other topics. These reports were contributed to the OSTI collection by the Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP) partners at the various DOE and contractor research and development sites throughout the DOE complex.

GreenFILE

Information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment. Indexes scholarly, government and general-interest titles. More info.

Index to American Botanical Literature

Late 1995+; from the New York Botanical Garden; entries deal with various aspects of extant and fossil American plants and fungi, including systematics (traditional and molecular), floristics, morphology, and ecology, as well as economic botany and general botany. More info.

Kew Bibliographic Databases

More info.

Phytochemical & Ethnobotanical Databases (Dr. Duke's)

from ARS/USDA

Plant Information Online - current sources in North American nurseries for plants, citations to current plant science literature, and listings for North American seed and nursery firms; freely available.

Popline

Journal index. Provides indexing and abstracts from books and journals and other materials for worldwide coverage of population, family planning, and related health issues. Coverage is mostly 1970+. Updated twice monthly. More info.

PubMed Retrieval System; also known as Entrez Medline

Includes the entire Medline database (1953+) PLUS PreMedline (recent articles that are not yet fully indexed for Medline) and links to publisher full-text web sites and other databases. Free articles from PubMed on selected subjects. More info

STINET Scientific and Technical Reports Collection

1985+; unclassified, unlimited citations to Defense Technical Information Center database; some fulltext reports are included. Contains info on biology, environmental pollution, etc.

Toxnet (Toxicology Data Network)

Includes access to several toxicology data and bibliographic citation files, including Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System (CCRIS), GENE-TOX, Toxline, Toxic Release Inventories (TRI), and others.

Toxseek: meta-search engine in toxicology and environmental health

Simultaneous searching of many different information resources on the World Wide Web.

Invisible Web: What it is, Why it exists, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity

Tools for finding more specialized databases like the ones listed above; most will be specialized web search engines but a few will retrieve journal citations.

Interdisciplinary sites Many of these databases are trying to SELL a document which may be available to you free of charge from Washington University libraries, in the collection, online or through Interlibrary Loan, so think carefully before you provide your credit card number!

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)

CrossRef Search

More info.

Google Scholar

Subset of Google which limits retrieval to "scholarly" literature. More info.

OAISTER

Academically-related digital materials search engine; includes many dissertations

Ingenta

Multi-disciplinary coverage. WU users may sign up for Ingenta Alerting Services. Most other services are available to all users on the web. More info.

MagPortal.com

Indexes several magazines that are freely available fulltext on the web.

CiteSEER; Scientific Literature Digital Library

Miscellaneous other sites

Internet search databases: Selected Search Pages - Biology/Medicine

Most of these are freely available on the web

Science and Technology Sources on the Internet: There is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch: Freely Accessible Databases for the Public

Article by Sandy Lewis in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Winter 2001. The inspiration for this page and source of several of the entries.