Searching the Literature for Animal Testing Alternatives

Steps in the Research Process

Define the Question

Construct the Query

Select & Search Databases

Evaluate Your Search

Manage Your Results

Report Your Results

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill subscribes to a number of subject-specific and general science/health databases that contain information relevant to research in animal testing alternatives. These include the major biology databases BIOSIS and Zoological Record as well as the ISI Science Citation Index (Web of Science/Web of Knowledge) and databases for related subjects in the sciences. They are available on campus or off campus to UNC-CH affiliates via the campus proxy server.

BIOSIS Previews: Biological Abstracts and Biological Abstracts RRM - ISI Web of Knowledge
"BIOSIS Previews is a comprehensive biological sciences product that is available via the ISI Web of Science platform. Updated weekly, it combines the content from Biological Abstracts and Biological Abstracts/RRM (Reports, Reviews, Meetings) with the speed, flexibility, and easy navigation of the ISI Web of Science. BIOSIS Previews provides approximately 13 million records from nearly 5,000 life sciences journals and non-journal literature, including conferences, meetings, symposia, review articles, U.S. patents, books, book chapters, and software reviews."

INSPEC (Axiom) - Institute of Physics / Institution of Electrical Engineers
"INSPEC is the world's largest bibliographic database in the field of physics, electrical engineering and electronics, computers and control engineering, and information technology. With more than 6 million abstract records and 330,000 new abstracts, 4,000 journals and 2,000 conference proceedings added each year, the INSPEC database remains the most comprehensive source of published reference literature in the world. Each record contains an English-language title and descriptive abstract, together with full bibliographic details which include the journal title, author's name and affiliation and the language of the original document."

ISI Citation Databases (ISI Web of Science/Web of Knowledge) - Institute for Scientific Information
"ISI Web of Science accesses multidisciplinary databases of bibliographic information gathered from thousands of scholarly journals. The databases are indexed so you can search for specific articles by subject, author, journal, and/or author address. Because the information stored about each article includes the article's cited reference list (often called its bibliography), you can also search the databases for articles that cite a known author or work."

PsycInfo - American Psychological Association
"The American Psychological Association's PsycINFO database, with over 1,125,000 records, is the most comprehensive international database of psychology. It covers the academic research and practice literature in psychology from over 45 countries in more than 30 languages. PsycINFO includes relevant materials from related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, education, social work, law, criminology, social science, and organizational behavior. It provides indexes to journals, dissertations, book chapters, books, technical reports, and other documents from 1887 to the present."

Sociological Abstracts - via SilverPlatter
"Sociological Abstracts provides access to the world's literature in sociology and related disciplines, both theoretical and applied. Approximately 2500 journals in 30 different languages from about 55 countries are scanned for inclusion, covering sociological topics in fields such as anthropology, economics, education, medicine, community development, philosophy, demography, political science, and social psychology. Journals published by sociological associations, groups, faculties, and institutes, and periodicals containing the term "sociology" in their titles, are abstracted fully, irrespective of language or country of publication. Non-core journals are screened for articles by sociologists and/or articles of immediate interest or relevance to sociologists."

Zoological Record - via SilverPlatter
"Comprehensive coverage of zoology, including the biochemistry, behavior, ecology, evolution, taxonomy, and genetics of animals. Over 4,500 international serials plus approximately 1,500 non-serial publications are indexed and abstracted, including professional journals, magazines, newsletters, monographs, books, reviews, and conference proceedings." (from NCSU catalog)