Biosis Previews

• Use
• Accessing the Database
• Search Tips for General Search
• Using General Search
• Viewing the Records
• Marking and Saving Records
• Locating Articles
• Citation Alerts (requires free account)
• Combining Searches Using the Search History
• Setting E-mail Alerts (needs free account)
• General Notes (top)

Use 

• Biosis previews is the premier databases for biological and biological related information
• Includes abstracts from journals, books, conference proceedings, and patents
• Provides content from more than 5000 journals in the biological sciences
• Replaces Biological Abstracts and Biological Abstracts RRM (Reviews, Reports, and Meetings)
• Anyone in the biological and related sciences will find Biosis Previews useful
• Create a free account for specialized features. You will be prompted to log in when going to use these and can register for an account at this point
  

Accessing the Database

• From the UNT Home Page, choose Libraries from the left hand column and Libraries’ Home Page from the next page of links
• From Library's Home Page, www.library.unt.edu, click on Electronic Resources from the Quick Links section on the left side
• Select the letter “B” from the alphabetical list at the top of the page or type Biosis Previews in the search box
• From the next page, click on Biosis Previews.
• A screen for Web of Knowledge will open up. Select Biosis Previews by clicking on the Go button to the right of “Biosis Previews”
• Select the timespan you want to search from the choices at the bottom of the next screen. The default is to search from all years 1989-current. You can restrict to various years by choosing years from the drop down menu. You can also limit to between two or more years by using the “from to” option
• If you have already saved a search, you can open it from this page and run the search using a new time frame to capture the most recent information
• Then select either “General Search” or “Advanced Search”. Note: Advanced Search is much more difficult to use. General Search is recommended for most users
• You are now on the search screen
  

Search Tips for General Search

• Typing in two words together will be searched as a phrase. For example, cell biology will search for all records containing the phrase “cell biology” but will not pick up related terms such as “biology of the cell”
• Use “and” to look for both (or more) search terms together. For example: ecology and wetlands. This will look for articles that contain both ecology and wetlands
• Use SAME (have to use capitals) to force the terms to be in the same sentence regardless of order. For example: toxi* SAME effect* will find any form of “toxi” in the same sentence as any form of “effect”, such as “…effects of toxins on…” and “toxicity effects on the environment”
• Use “or” to include additional terms, especially synonyms or common names. For example: wetlands or marsh. This will look for articles that contain either wetlands or marsh (as well as any articles that have both together).
• Use “*” to find 0 to many characters. The most common use is to find alternate endings of your search terms. For example: butterfl*. This will find both butterfly and butterflies, as well as any other words beginning with butterfl. You can also use it to replace characters within words. For example, sul*ur will find both sulphur and sulfur
• Use “?” to replace one character. For example, wom?n will look for both women and woman
  

Using General Search

• This search gives you lots of options
• When using the topic search, you can click in the box next to Title only to specify that the words must be in the title for a more specific search
• When using the topic search, you need to be very careful of how you enter the search terms
• An effective search looking for effects of toxins on butterflies in wetlands would look like the following: (effect* N6 tox*) and butterfly* and (wetland* or marsh*). The parentheses keep each function separate
• One way to get around the complexity is to use the Search History feature (discussed below)
  

Viewing the Records

• View the abstract or summary information by clicking on the article title
• Use the blue arrow button to move to the next article or the SUMMARY button to return to the list of citations
  

Marking and Saving Records

• Mark desired records from search by clicking in square boxes to left of author(s)' name(s). From the right side of the screen, you can click on Mark Page to mark all records on page from the right side of the screen or enter selected record numbers

• Click the Submit Marks button to the right side of the screen when finished
• The system works best if you complete this step before moving to the next page of results
• Click on Marked List button at top of screen to display marked records. Note: records from previous searches unless you have deleted them
• Can set sort options and select fields for including (NOTE: can choose option of including cited references but this will take extra time). Choose FORMAT FOR PRINT (use browser File button to print), SAVE TO FILE (be sure to specify drive and .txt file extension or results may be unreadable) or EXPORT TO REFERENCE SOFTWARE (such as Reference Manager or Procite), or E-Mail and follow instructions
• Click on DELETE THIS LIST button at top right to remove marked records after exporting them
  

Locating Articles

• Click on the Links icon at the bottom of each record. This will open another window that indicates if the article is available in full text (online). There may be an option to go to the article or you may need to go to the journal home page and find the appropriate volume and issue
• You can also click on the article title to see the summary. From this screen there are also Links and Holdings options on the right hand side of the screen
• The Holdings option takes you into the UNT Libraries’ catalog and show the online and print holdings of the journal title
• The Links option performs the same way as in the first example
• If you don’t get a result, search for the name of the journal in the UNT Library Catalog using both the Journal Title and Title searches to be sure that we don’t have the item (remember to search by the name of the journal, not the article title or author)
• If the journal is available online, there will be a connect to online or click here for online link in the catalog record. Journals that we have in print format are shelved alphabetically by title. Check the location to determine which UNT library holds the journal and which dates are available
• If the article is not available online, you will need to know the name of the journal, the volume, the year and the pages for each item
  

Citation Alerts (requires free account)

• When viewing the article’s abstract or summary, there is an option on the right hand side to Create a Citation Alert.
• Click on the button to set up the alert
  

Combining Searches Using the Search History

• You can use this feature to break larger searches into smaller pieces
• Click on the Search History icon in the top left of the screen
• Your searches will be displayed in the middle of the screen
• To combine searches, click in the box to the left of the search (can do two or more) and choose either either AND or OR by clicking on the radio buttons
• This is particularly useful for complicated searches where you have several terms or when you are doing “repetitive” searches. For example, if you were looking for the use of sulfonylurea herbicides on different crops, you could perform a search on the phrase sulfonylurea herbicides. Then you can use the search history box and type #1 and corn, view the results, type #1 and barley, view the results etc.
• Click on the Search History tab to return to the search history screen after viewing the results
  

Setting E-mail Alerts (needs free account)

• Must be in the Search History/Alerts area
• Click on Save Search History from the middle right of the screen to save your search history or Open Saved History to open a previously saved search (requires a free account)
• You can choose to save the search to your computer or use ISI’s server which also allows you set to up an e-mail alert. Just click on the radio button next to the “Send Me E-mail Alerts” option in the middle of the screen. Then click “Save”. Note: Only the last search will be saved as an alert. Previous searches need to be repeated and saved individually
  

General Notes (top)

• Need to clear searches as settings and search terms are retained, even if performing a new search
• The bottom of search results screens will have the number of results if you have more than one page of results
• If have multiple pages of results, use arrows to move to next page or click on the page number
• Use LogOff button at top of screen to disconnect so others can use the connection (remember this resource is limited to 8 users)
  

For additional hints on finding journal articles, please call the Science Reference Desk at 565-4745 or go to Ask a Librarian and chat with a librarian during working hours or send an e-mail question.