Scientific Communication Skills - BSc modules: Home

Examples of HARVARD referencing style

How do I do my assignment? To find, access and use information effectively, use the Step-by-Step Guide.

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Contact the Science Librarian, Pieter du Plessis

• Search Google Scholar
• Be cautious: Google Scholar also lists predatory journals
• How to connect your Google Scholar to Stellenbosch Library e-journals A-Z for easy off-campus full text access

• KNOVEL (online textbooks [chemistry and other science topics] as well as chemical property searches, equations, unit converter searches and many more tools!)
• Gale Virtual Reference Library (Includes access to 10+ online encyclopedias in the Environmental & Science subjects) 
• Encyclopedia of Biological Invasion (and in print R*578.6203 ENC)
• Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology
• Encyclopedia of Geology
• Encyclopedia of Biodiversity R*577.03 ENC
• Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry R*572.03 ENC
• Encyclopedia of Biological Invasive Species R*578.62 WOO
• Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology R*579.1703 BIT
• Encyclopedia of Human Biology R*612.003 ENC
• Encyclopedia of Life Sciences R*570.3 ENC

• Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication R*501.4 ENC

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Scopus (includes PubMed/MedLine)  
Scopus from Elsevier is a comprehensive abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature with links to full text. Features tools to track, analyse and visualize research and provides bibliometrics for researchers' output.
Training material

Search and find full text peer review articles on ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is a multidisciplinary database that includes a large range of journals relevant to all BSc subjects. ScienceDirect also includes several electronic books. and encyclopedias

Refine by "subscribed journals" for full text access

Building blocks of a search:

• AND:  both terms that you connect with AND must be somewhere in the bibliographic record for that record to be retrieved.  AND narrows a search and retrieves fewer articles:
           antibiotics AND probiotics will find both terms in the record

• OR:  only one of the search terms combined with OR is required for the bibliographic record to be retrieved.  OR broadens a search and retrieves more articles. Applies also for related or synonym terms:
          polymerase chain reaction OR PCR
           corn OR maize

• NOT:  excludes or ignore a particular subset, category, or term.  NOT requires the presence of one search term and the exclusion of another.
            moths NOT butterflies

• Phrase Searching: Adding quotation marks around a phrase, such as "bushy top syndrome" will tell the database to search for these words together, rather than separately:
           "microbial ecology" versus microbial and ecology

• Truncating (using the *) is a good strategy to use for some terms:
           microb*  will give the following results: microbe, microbial, microbiome, microbiology, microbolometer,etc. (Choose your * wisely)

• Key reference sources for Chemistry & Polymer Sciences
• Subject specific Library Guides

When doing research, you should use a variety of sources such as books, articles from newspapers, magazines, or journals, and websites. To ensure you are including only valid information in your research, evaluate your sources using the criteria below.

Consult the Google and Google Scholar Libguide for guidelines on evaluating websites. 

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