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Biology

A library guide for biology students

OneSearch is a mega-databse that enables students to search 95% of all the databases that the UNF Library subscribes to at one time. OneSearch is a comprehensive option to begin your research. Watch this brief video to learn more about the power of searching within a mega database for your research. This video will cover the following subtopics:

  • How to find OneSearch -00:41
  • Benefits of using - 01:01
  • Searching basics - 01:10
  • Signing in to OneSearch - 01:21
  • Tweaking to find better resources - 01:45
  • Find the full text of resources - 02:23
  • Saving with confidence - 02:31

Thomas G. Carpenter Library. (n. d.). Basic searching using UNF Library's OneSearch. Vimeo.

Once you gain confidence with basic searching, watch the UNF Library's Advanced Search Tips for OneSearch tutorial. This video will cover the following subtopics:

  • How to get to Advanced OneSearch - 00:18
  • Using multiple search terms - 00:35
  • Boolean operators - 01:15
  • Tweaking your results - 01:45
  • Saving searches and sources - 02:00
  • Cited references - 02:33

Thomas G. Carpenter Library. (n. d.). Advanced search tips for OneSearch. Vimeo.

Start with the simple search box. As en example, search for biotechnology and pediatric lung disease.

Sample OneSearch simple search for terms biotechnology and pediatric lung disease

 

Click on the OneSearch button to begin the search. Note that your result list is extensive. OneSearch results showing a large result list of 6,218 items.

Before exploring your results, consider refining your result list to achieve a more succinct list. You may choose to limit to peer-reviewed literature and/or creation (publication) date so that you see a result list of high quality materials that are more recent.

The filter box is located tot he left of the result list. This example shows students how to limit by peer-review and date range via the filter tools. Select the limiter "'peer-review" and select creation date and limit by your desired date range (i.e. 2018-2023).

If you need to keep refining, click on the title of a record that appears applicable to your research. Once in the record, scroll down to find the subject headings. 

a record representative of the topic search showing the title of the article and journal name. The title is hyperlinked. Select it to review a more extensive record.

You will see "Subject" and then a list of subject headings in blue.

You will see the term "Subject." The blue words listed to the right are subject headings representative of what the article is about.

If you see a subject heading representative of your topic, you can click on it or return to the UNF library homepage and opt to search in Advanced mode. Here, you will have the option to toggle from keyword to search by subject or keyword. 

Note that searching by a combination of keyword and subject heading will significantly reduce the number of results and may yield the most succinct result list based on your interests. 

demo of searching by subject and keywords by using the dropdown box next to each search query box

This search query reduced the result list to 38 peer-reviewed articles:

result list showing 38 results found

Searching by a combination of subject and keyword terms and employing limiters are not unique to OneSearch. Take your new-found knowledge and use your advanced search strategies in subject specific databases to retrieve a succinct list of results. Select the blue Biology Databases tab to learn more.