There are a number of useful on-line resources that will help you identify the core literature in your field. A number of these tools are useful across disciplines but some are discipline specific. A list of some of the most common tools is shown below:
- American Chemical Society's SciFinder Scholar
- Thomson's Web of Science
- Pub Med Central
- Elsevier's Science Direct
- Thomson's Science Citation Index
- Thomson's BIOSIS
For information on access to these resources and directions on how to get started using these tools, consult your college or university's science librarian and/or the library's website. As these products are quite expensive, depending on your institution's library budget for electronic resources, it may or may not have all of the resources identified above. Because of the cost many institutions are now partnering with other area institutions to form local library consortia. So, you are strongly encouraged to consult with your science librarian if your library doesn't provide one of the aforementioned resources as they may be able to direct you to another library located nearby where you can access these tools for your literature search.