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Biology
Journal Packages
Contents:
How should journal packages be used in biology research?
Recommended journal packages for biology research
What Are Journal Packages?
Journal packages are electronic collections of journals that are usually produced by one publisher. For example, the publisher Elsevier produces all of the journals in the journal package Science Direct and Wiley Publishing produces all of the journals in Wiley InterScience.
How Should Journal Packages Be Used in Biology Research?
Journal packages should not be used to find articles on a subject. Topic searches should be done in a journal database (abstract and index). Journal packages should only be used to find already identified articles in full-text.
The reasons for the above statements are:
- Journal packages usually contain 100s of journals, while journal databases index and/or abstract 1000s of journals, so you get a more extensive search with a journal database.
- Journal databases have more sophisticated search features, so you can do a more tailored search in them, then in journal packages.
- If a publisher has an agenda, that bias may be reflected in some or all of the titles in a journal package, thus you would only get one perspective on a topic.
Appropriate uses of journal packages are:
- Finding a full-text article that is not available in a journal database. Many times the Find Full Text link in an article record in a journal database will take you directly to a journal package. If it does not, you can search for the journal title in the catalog and then find the link to the correct journal package.
- Setting up a journal alert so that you will get an email every time a new issue of a journal is posted in the journal package. Most journal packages allow you to create a personal account in which you can create journal and other kinds of alerts. For more information, see the Email Alerting Services webpage.
Recommended Journal Packages for Biology Research
American Chemical Society Journals
Full text access from volume 1 of the journals published by the American Chemical Society. Articles can be downloaded or printed in PDF or HTML formats.
The Company of Biologists is a United Kingdom charity that publishes three peer-reviewed journals edited by professional biologists. The journals are Development (1987 to current), the Journal of Cell Science (1966 to current), and the Journal of Experimental Biology (1930 to current).
The Indian Academy of Sciences Journals provides free full-text access to their publications. Disciplines covered include Chemistry, Math, Materials Science, Biology, and Astronomy.
Nature Publishing Group Online Journals
Full-text access is provided to Nature, EMBO Journal, and EMBO Reports from 1997 to current, Nature Biotechnology from May 1998, Nature Cell Biology from May 1999, Nature Materials from September 2002, Nature Medicine from May 1998, Nature Physics from October 2005, and Nature Structural and Molecular Biology from May 1998.
ScienceDirect provides full text access to over 1800 journals from Elsevier and Academic Press, representing all areas of science, medicine, and technology, as well as inter-disciplinary titles. Coverage is from 1995 to current, but some titles in physics, chemistry, and mathematics begin with volume 1, regardless of the year.
Full text access from 1997 to current for over 350 Wiley journals in biology, chemistry, mathematics, behavioral sciences, and computer sciences. Synergy (Blackwell) titles were merged into Wiley Interscience during Summer 2008.
