good bioscience journal databases/searchengines?

S

Can you please introduce me to good bioscience journal searchengines/databases?
I prefer ones that offer at least some articles for free, like sciencedirect.

I have been using sciencedirect until now. I find it great. However I would like to expand the number of references I use by using an additional or two websites.

Please give me search-engines that will simplify things up, not make things more chaotic.

I would like to have a min number of websites to do my searches, in a way to feel as complete in my research as possible.

I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
Thank you.

S

======= Date Modified 15 Sep 2009 17:54:43 =======
Have you tried pubmed?

Just type it in google, its the top page that comes up (I think) and away you go. It definitely one of the most comprehensive databases for biosciences that I know of.

H

======= Date Modified 16 Sep 2009 00:17:46 =======
Science Direct will only give you stuff from certain publications. You need a general database. PubMed is highly popular for the medical end of bioscience. Web of Science is also worth a look. Some people like Google Scholar, but I've never used it in a big way.

Free articles are most commonly available from 'open access' journals which don't have any subscription fees for anyone. Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a group of open access journals that has a number of bioscience arms: http://www.plos.org/

It does depend entirely on what you're searching for and what your overall aim is, but you should be aware that unless you use a thorough database like PubMed or Web of Science, you could easily miss out on some key literature (Science Direct only covers ~25% of journals). In fact if you were to do a 'systematic review' you might even use both of those in combination. But as I said, it depends what you are trying to find out.

M

Google Scholar works for me - it shows you how much every paper is cited, possible sources where it can be downloaded without needing a journal subscription, you can sort by year of publication ....

S

Thanks to all the repliers, the replies are really helpful

I'm cheking out your suggestions.

if people still have suggestions please go ahead and reply...

S

======= Date Modified 07 Oct 2009 17:29:06 =======
In case this might help other people as well:
With the help of what people suggested here I came to the following conclusion:

Most bioscience search-engines/databases on the web are restricted in their range of articles they can locate.
The most general/comprehensive ones that I have found are Pubmed (or one can use Hubmed or Gopubmed instead, which are a little bit different in their search properties but detect the same things) and Google Scholar, which is rather new but I have found to be great. Scirus is another one that seems quite comprehensive.

I have also heard good words about Web of Knowledge (or Web of Science, I think it's the same thing), but I think this one needs a paid subscription, though I could be wrong about this.

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