BI 149  Cancer Biology
Locating sources for your lab report

 

Primary and secondary literature in Biology

 

Scientists advance knowledge by writing up and publishing the results of their research.  Their write-ups are generally in standardized scientific format; they usually seek to publish these write-ups in peer-reviewed journals.  Scientists' original reports of the research are known as primary literature.

 

Literature that is derived from the primary literature is known as secondary literature.  Secondary literature may include scholarly reviews of the primary literature; articles in magazines or journals that summarize primary reports (either for scientists or for the general public); books, textbooks, websites, or encyclopedia entries that summarize what is known about a particular topic; etc.

 

Secondary literature is useful for understanding the broad contours of a topic, for understanding how research on a topic may have evolved, and for tapping into some of the more important primary sources.  But the primary literature is key to understanding research related to your own experiment.  Thus, for your lab report, you will focus on locating primary literature.

 

To locate primary literature:

 

Use the following databases, which are specific to the biological sciences.

 All are listed under the BSC Library's Indexes & Databases.

To see if a journal or magazine is available full-text, in print, or in microfilm at BSC:

 

Consult Periodicals @ BSC, a comprehensive list of journals and magazines available in all formats.

If the book or journal you need is not available at BSC:

Use Interlibrary Loan service (order forms are under Library Request Forms)

To locate relevant websites :

Citing the literature:

 

As you read the primary literature, you will notice that the authors always include a list of references at the end.  Of course, you will want to do the same in your lab report!  If you have questions about citation style: