Resource Guides / Pathfinders: Science Chat: Home

What's interesting to me?

One of the first things you must do for this assignment is locate an article that is interesting to you. How do you know where to start? These resources may help you find ideas to explore further. A news article about a recent scientific finding could lead to a scientific article you can use!

Topic list from Science in Context

Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window
Briatannica Academic provides access to reference articles, primary sources, images and videos, and journal articles on topics in any academic discipline.
Scientific American This link opens in a new window

Science News
Once you've found a news story about an interesting study, use a database to locate the original paper.

Nature This link opens in a new window
Full-text digital access to Nature magazine
New York Times This link opens in a new window
Enjoy full access from anywhere, via Bryn Mawr’s subscription.
To get full access, simply follow these steps:
- Visit nytimes.com/passes. Create a free NYTimes.com account using your school email address. If you already have an NYTimes.com account associated with your school email address, log in with those credentials.
- Check your email inbox for our confirmation message. Click on the link in your confirmation message to validate your email address and claim your Pass. If the confirmation email didn’t arrive, check your spam folder. If it isn’t there, send an email to edu@nytimes.com from your school email address to request confirmation.
- You have successfully claimed a Pass when you see the Start Your Access screen. Now you can enjoy seamless, full access to NYTimes.com, INYT.com and NYT mobile apps from any location, on or off campus, just by logging into your NYTimes.com account. You may download NYTimes mobile apps at nytimes.com/mobile.

Library Databases

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to scholarly articles in psychology and behavioral sciences.
Science in Context This link opens in a new window
Presents reference information and topic guides in all areas of science, along with related news, magazine, and scholarly journal articles.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to a vast archive of scholarly work in all disciplines.
Scientific American This link opens in a new window
Scientific American is not a journal, but it may give you some ideas of interesting papers you could look up!
ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new window
From the publisher: ProQuest Research Library provides one-stop access to thousands of full-text periodicals from one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer. Search from a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, professional and trade publications, and magazines covering over 150 subjects and topics.
GreenFile This link opens in a new window
This free resource from EBSCO provides access to articles and citations on topics related to study of the environment.

Open Access Journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Open access journals providing free availability to scholarly and scientific work.
PubMed Central
PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM)

A note about Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine powered by Google that indexes scholarly and scientific articles. It can be a useful tool for discovering articles relevant to your search, however, you may be frustrated if you find articles for which you don't have full-text access. If you encounter that issue, here are some things to try:

Search for the article by title in our databases. Putting quotation marks around the title will search for the exact phrase.
Try finding related articles - you may have access to the authors' other papers, or to papers that cite the first one you found. Those could be useful, too!
Send the citation to Ms. Hammond and she'll look into it for you.

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Search Tips / Reading Articles

How to Read a Scientific Paper
from Purdue University Libraries, created by Michael Fosmire, designed & illustrated by Aly Edmondson
How to Read Scientific Articles
University of Kansas Libraries
Reading Primary Literature in Biology
A tutorial from Kenyon College; very useful practice for reading and interpreting papers in any scientific field.

Quick notes about reading scientific articles:

You don't have to read the paper from beginning to end
Scientific papers follow standard formats often along the lines of IMRD (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion)
- You can use this standard format when reading to easily skim the article for the information you're looking for
When interpreting a study and its findings, always try to identify the authors' affiliations and source of funding

Presentation Tips

Cite your sources using NoodleTools. Don't forget to include your properly formatted references on the last slide!

APA Style References

NoodleTools This link opens in a new window
A great citation management and note-taking tool. Sign in with your BMS Google account.

Create a terrific presentation

Presentation tips:

Do not include a lot of text on your slides
Lots of effects and animations are distracting and they may even bother some people to look at them - keep it simple
DO include images, and make sure to cite them if they aren't your creations
Make sure elements are placed and aligned thoughtfully to make an attractive layout
Spell check and proofread! It would be helpful to practice and have another person review your slides
When choosing fonts and colors, go for readability
Check out Presentitude for helpful information on making color choices

Why not take some tips from the Pecha Kucha method? This a style of presentation / storytelling in which the presenter uses no more than 20 slides, spends 20 seconds speaking per slide, and includes no more than five words per slide (not including the References slide). It's a technique to make sure that the presentation stays engaging, focused on you and your knowledge, and does not rely on overly text-heavy visuals. You are not required to adhere to this format, but see if it can help guide your presentation creation.