LibGuides: Biology Research Guide: Reference Information

Encyclopedias and Other Reference Publications

Oxford Bibliographies in Ecology This link opens in a new window
Oxford Bibliographies in Ecology is an extensive, annotated bibliography of the most important concepts and ideas in the discipline. Ecology is a multidisciplinary field that draws from classical ‘hard sciences’ such as chemistry and physics, as well as the life sciences, geography, mathematics, computing and statistics.
Gale eBooks | Environment This link opens in a new window
Online access to reference sources for environmental issues, such as sustainability, climate change, pollution, weather and water sciences, including Grizimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia.
Gale eBooks | Medicine This link opens in a new window
A collection of online reference books in the field of medicine, including titles on consumer health care, sports medicine, health communication, mental health as well as titles on diseases and conditions.
Gale eBooks | Science This link opens in a new window
A collection of online reference books in the science fields, including titles on biology, chemistry, environmental science, animal life, real-life math, space exploration and the weather.
STAT!Ref This link opens in a new window
Cross-search full-text titles, journals, and evidence-based, point-of-care, authoritative, resources across 50+ healthcare disciplines. Continuously updated, and featuring a variety of discipline core resources including Medline, STAT!Ref follows you with the STAT!Ref app.

Animal Diversity Web
Animal Diversity Web (ADW), hosted by the University of Michigan, is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology.
Barcode of Life Data System
The Barcode of Life Data (BOLD) System is a database that supports the assembly and use of DNA barcode data. DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses standardized short genetic markers in an organism’s DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species.
BugGuide
BugGuide is a community-built database and guide to arthropods, including spiders, insects, and related creatures.

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics This link opens in a new window
The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is an online, fully searchable data reference book of chemical information used by scientists worldwide. The Handbook regularly updates existing tables with the most current data and introduces new topics of interest to the scientific community.

eFloras
A collection of authoritative online Floras from around the world. Floras provide information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all native, naturalized, and invasive plants in a geographical region.
Encyclopedia of Life
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It aggregates biodiversity knowledge from trusted sources, providing information about species' descriptions, conservation status, distributions, and related multimedia.
FishBase
FishBase is a comprehensive global information system focused on finfishes. It provides data on all known species, covering taxonomy, biology, trophic ecology, life history, uses, and historical records spanning 250 years.
PLANTS Database (USDA)
Plant List of Attributes, Names, Taxonomy, and Symbols (PLANTS) provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. PLANTS is a product of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Taxonomy Database (NCBI)
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Taxonomy includes organism names and classifications for every sequence in the nucleotide and protein sequence databases of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC).