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Pollak Library

Biological Science: Write | Cite | Publish

Research guide for biology

ACS Style

LaTeX (Lamport's TeX, named after Leslie Lamport | tau epsilon chi)

What are peer-reviewed articles?

Peer-reviewed articles have been reviewed by experts in the field under either a single-blind review (where the identity of the reviewer is anonymous, but the author's name and affiliation are on the manuscript) or a double-blind system (where neither the authors nor the reviewers' identity is known).

Bibliographic Management Software

EndNote logo  Endnote desktop logoMendeley logozotero logo image      


  • EndNote Online (Web)

This is a free, web-based bibliographic management software that allows to collect, organize and format references and more. To create an account you will need to register.
More help and features: See EndNote guide


  • EndNote Desktop

Download
Training (Desktop and Online version)


EndNote with LaTeX (MIT)
EndNote with LaTeX (University of Melbourne)


  • Zotero

Zotero is a powerful, easy-to-use research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources and then share the results of your research. Create an account online with Zotero.  For more help and frequently asked questions with Zotero


  • Mendeley

Tutorial videos for Mendeley

Getting started with Mendeley Web

Getting started wirth Mendeley desktop

Mendeley Web Importer (drag to favorite bar)


Comparison table of bibliographic management tools (University of Oxford)

Creative Commons

Geological Society of America (GSA) Style

DIMENSIONS

DIMENSIONS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research in Natural Sciences and Mathematics
DIMENSIONS provides students in California State University, Fullerton's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics an opportunity to publish their research, share their findings, and gain experience in the peer review publication process.

Data Repositories

  1. CSU ScholarWorks (i.e., our shared CSU institutional repository)
  2. Recommended Data Repositories (from Nature)
  3. Figshare
  4. Dryad
  5. National Technical Reports Library
  6. re3data.org

For more information on Data Management Planning (DMP) from  National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM)  and our DMP LibGuide

Miscellaneous (Citing legal information)

Impact Factor | h-Index | Altmetrics

  • Impact Factor (IF)

Impact factors give a quantitative measure of a journal’s influence and impact.
An Impact Factor gives the average number of times articles from a journal published 2 years that been cited in the Journal Citation Reports year.

E.g. The 2016 Impact Factor for a Journal:
A = the number of times articles published in 2014-2015 were cited
in indexed journals during 2016
B = the number of articles, reviews, proceedings or notes
published in 2014-2015

In a 2016 journal, the Impact Factor (IF) = A/B

Hence, a  2016 journal with an Impact Factor (IF) of say 7.123 means that on average, each of its 2013 and 2014  articles was cited 7.123 times in 2016.


  • h-Index

(Originally described by Jorge Hirsch)
An integer metric that provides a value for the productivity and citation impact of a scientist, group, or institution publications via quantity (# papers) and quality (# citations). Obtained from WOS and Scopus.


Other Resources,

Academic Search Engines

Exaly (Search top authors)

Research.com (Rankings by discipline, subject, journal, university, conference, researcher)

Resurchify (Search for impact score, journal rankings, conferences, meetings, and more)

Where to Publish?

ChatGPT

ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) from OpenAI is a free chatbot built as an online assistant that can chat with an user. This resource has pros and cons. Try it out by creating an account. Information on Citing ChatGPT.

HELP - Writing, tutoring and more...


Scientific writing

Writing Scientific Reports

The Writing Center (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Writing a Scientific Lab Report (Monash University)

Writing a Research Report (MIT)

Writing Scientific Reports (University of Waikato)

Writing a Scientific Report (University of Sheffield)

Journal Information

          Cabells logo     
 

ulrichzweb logo    scopus logo
 

     Google Scholar logo       


 CWTS logo     
 

1. Look at the journal's website (Publication format, scope, review times, impact factor, etc.)
2. Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities (Assist in selecting journals likely to publish a manuscript, acceptance rates, time of review, time of publications, freq. of publication, publisher, editorial info., etc. ). Cabell's classification.
3. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (Directory containing info about academic journals, e-journals, popular magazines, newspapers, e.g. peer-review status, start of publication, frequency of publication etc.).
4. Scopus - Journal Metrics (From Elsevier. Free metrics for serial titles in Scopus, e.g. SNIP score)
5. Google Scholar Metrics (Summarize recent citations to many publications)
6. EIGENFACTOR.org (Eigenfactor Score - measures the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) year. Like the Impact Factor, the Eigenfactor Score is a ratio of number of citations to total number of articles.)
7. CWTS Journal Indicators (Indicators have been calculated by Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) based on the Scopus bibliographic database produced by Elsevier)
8. ERIH PLUS (originally called the European Reference Index for the Humanities or ERIH is an index containing bibliographic information on academic journals in the humanities and social sciences)

Open Access (OA)

1. *Open Access Overview LibGuideOpen Access logo
(Intro to  Open Access Publishing Fund (Covers up to $2000 of author submission fees)
2. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (Online directory that
indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals)
3. SHERPA-Juliet (Research funders' open access policies)
4. SHERPA-Romeo (Publisher copyright policies & self-archiving)
5. PLOS Journals (Public Library of Science) is a nonprofit open access
scientific publishing project aimed at creating a library of open access journals)