Guidelines on Searching for Scientific Information

Introductory texts/secondary literature

When you start researching a new scientific subject, it is best to first read introductory texts on that subject. Introductory texts are mainly ‘secondary’ literature, meaning that they give someone else’s interpretation of the ‘primary’ scientific literature (original research literature). Good places to find introductory texts are the following:

  1. Textbooks: not just your own course textbook, but also the textbooks used for the 200- and 300-level courses. All of the science books used at UC can be found at the office of the science student assistants.
  2. Other books: you can also read other books on the topic. The UU library has books on most subjects of interest. Instructions for how to order these books can be found below.
  3. Newspaper articles: if your topic is of public interest, you can probably find newspaper/magazine articles on the topic. These articles are usually written for the general public, and may therefore be easier to understand.
  4. Review articles published in scientific journals: these articles summarize the knowledge available on the topic so far. Instructions for how to find review articles can be found below.

You can also discuss the topic with your fellow students, your teacher or the science student assistants.

Primary Literature

When you have a good basic knowledge of the subject of interest, you should start reading primary literature on the topic. Primary literature is published in scientific journals.Instructions for how to find literature on your topic will follow. Most articles in scientific journals have an abstract, summarizing its content. Read the abstract first, and decide then whether it is worthwhile to read the entire article. Be critical and selective!

Internet sources

As you know, the internet offers huge amounts of information on scientific topics. However, in contrast to publications in books and journals, internet information may not be properly validated. Since anyone can publish on the internet, the information may not always be reliable, and the use of scientific books and articles published in journals, newspapers or magazines is preferable. Some websites are naturally more reliable than others. For example the websites of governmental organizations or institutes (e.g. National Institutes of Health, Cancer Institute etc.) are often used as references. Use your common knowledge to see if a website is reliable!

Searching for relevant literature

Books

As already mentioned, the UU library is a good source of relevant literature. You can search for relevant books in the internet, at the UU library website. Go to First, log in by clicking on the log-in link on the top right hand corner. Enter your UU student number and your password, which is your birthday, e.g. 0112 (first of December). Then go to search, type in your keywords and you get a list of books on the screen. To get more information about the book, click on the title. If the book seems interesting, press “add to basket” and enter note for record in basket (something that reminds you why this book is interesting). When you have added all the books that you want to your basket, click on “your basket” on the top right-hand corner, and click on the “availability” link, which you can find after the book name. Now you see whether the book is available for loan, and if so, at which sub-library you can find it. You can also request the book to be delivered to the sub-library closest to you, by pressing the “request” link. If you choose “UB central desk”, the book will be delivered to the central UU library at the Uithof and you can pick it up from there with your student card after one working day.

Journal/magazine articles

The easiest way to search for journal articles is to use search engines on the internet. The UU has a license for a large number of scientific journals and magazines, meaning that you can read (and download) the articles from these sources for free on the internet (however, only when accessing the articles from the UU network, e.g. from campus or a UU library). Below you will find guidelines for how to use the most common search engines for scientific texts:

  1. Pubmed. Go to Type your keywords on the search field, and you get a list of articles. If you are looking for review articles, pubmed is especially useful because it separates the review articles from the primary articles. To view review articles, click on the link “review” above the article list. If the article title seems interesting, click on the names of the authors. Now you will see the abstract of the article. If the abstract is interesting and helpful, you can access the whole article by clicking on the link on the right-hand side of the screen, next to “links”. This link differs based on the publisher of the journal (e.g. links for “Elsevier full-text article”, “Full-text article at etc.) If the article is published in a journalfor which the UU does not have a license, you will not be able to access the full-text article.
  2. Omega.This is a search engine developed by the UU library, which gives access to all the journals that the UU has a license for. To access it, go to Type your keywords on the search field, press search and you get a list of articles. First read the abstract by clicking the link “abstract” at the bottom of the article information. If the abstract is useful, read the full-text article by clicking the link “full text” next to the “abstract”link. To search for review articles, add the word review in the search field.
  3. Other search engines of interest.If you cannot find useful articles with pubmed and omega, you can try the following links:
  4. Science direct.
  5. Google scholar.

General hints for searching

  1. Use different keywords and different combinations of keywords in order to find as many articles of interest as possible.
  2. Once you have found a promising article, read the entire article first without making annotations. Try to understand the general picture and develop your own interpretations. Then decide if the article contains useful material. If not, you have saved the time of note-taking. If the article is relevant, reread it and make notes. Never copy the sentences, but use your own words!
  3. If you have found a useful article, check the reference list of that article for more articles of interest!