Databases for Science Research

This list reflects just some of the science databases available to researchers from the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. For a complete list of subscription and vetted databases go to E-journals, E-books, and Databases. For more subject-specific resources see our Science Research Guides.

Databases that require SI network for access are indicated by "SI staff." For information about remote access see Off-Site Access to Electronic Resources.

Broad Science Research Databases

• AGRICOLA: The National Agricultural Library's comprehensive database covering agriculture and allied disciplines, including: chemistry, engineering, entomology, forestry, social science (general), and water resources.
• Anthropology Plus (SI staff): Index of journal articles, and additional resources from core and lesser-known journals from the early 19th century to today. 
• Encyclopedia of Life (EOL): Online encyclopedia of all living species, currently number over 1.9 million. 
• GeoRef (SI staff): Over 3.4 million references in the geosciences, including journal articles, books, maps, conference papers, reports and theses.
• Google Scholar: Accessing Google Scholar from the Smithsonian computer network provides access to library-subscribed full text. For more information, see Off-Site Access to Electronic Resources.
• Journal Citation Reports (SI staff): Provides impact factors and rankings of many journals in the social and life sciences based on citation analysis.
• PubMed: Includes more than 22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
• U.S. Geological Survey Library: Among the largest geoscience library collections in the world.
• Web of Science: Core Collection (SI staff): Covers over 12,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide with coverage from 1900 to present. See the Web of Science training portal for additional help resources. 
• Worldcat (web) or WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) (SI staff): Combined search of thousands of library catalogs from around the world, including books, music, videos, and digital content records.
• Zoological Record (SI staff): Considered the world's leading taxonomic reference for zoological names, indexing 90% of the world literature in zoology.

Focused Science Databases

For research guides on a variety of natural history topics, including additional databases and resources, see our Science Research Guides.

• Algaebase: Database of taxonomic, nomenclatural, and distributional information on terrestrial, marine, and freshwater algae organisms.
• AnimalBase: Early Zoological Literature Online: Hosted by the Zoological Institute of the University of Gottingen, this database provides open access to zoological works from 1550-1770.
• AnthroSource (SI staff): Full-text anthropological resources from the breadth and depth of the discipline.
• AquaDocs: A thematic repository covering the natural marine, coastal, estuarine /brackish and fresh water environments.
• Birds of North America Online: Comprehensive resource from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Ornithologists' Union.
• Catalogue of Life (Species 2000 - ITIS): Project that catalogued over one million species as of 2001.
• FishBase: Database covering the breadth of all known species, considered a powerful tool for ecology.
• GreenFILE (SI staff): Covers connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines and includes topics such as global climate change, green building, and more.
• Index of Botanical Publications (Harvard University Herbaria): Created to assist in the verification of publication names in the Specimen Database and the Gray Index.
• Index of Botanists (Harvard University Herbaria): Comprehensive database of authors and collectors in botany, mycology, including systematic publications.
• IOPI Database of Plant Databases: Hosted by Charles Sturt University, this meta-database allows the user search granularity across 100 metadata fields.
• International Plant Names Index: Nomenclatural database for the scientific names of vascular plants, linking directly to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
• ITIS: Integrated Taxonomic Information System: Created through international partnerships (including the Smithsonian), this database hosts authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes.
• JSTOR Global Plants (SI staff): Includes plant type specimens, taxonomic structures, scientific literature, and related materials.
• KBD: Kew Bibliographic Databases: Selection of 24 botanical databases containing information on correspondence, herbaria, seed lists, etc.
• Latindex: Regional Cooperative Online Information System for Scholarly Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal. For more details, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latindex.
• National Museum of Natural History Research and Collections Information System (EMu): Over ten million specimen records covering six departments and four divisions of the National Museum of Natural History. 
• SORA: Searchable Ornithological Research Archive: Developed by the University Libraries at the University of New Mexico, SORA is the world’s largest open access ornithological publications database.

Digitized Science Collections

• AnimalBase: Early Zoological Literature Online:  Hosted by the Zoological Institute of the University of Gottingen, this database provides open access to zoological works from 1550-1770.
• Biodiversity Heritage Library: A digital library containing primarily historical texts in the natural sciences.
• Field Book Project (Smithsonian Archives): With the purpose of illuminating unpublished works integral to scientific research, the FBP database contains 4,000 digitized field books and 9,500 catalogued field books, in total.
• Joseph Henry Papers Project (Smithsonian Archives): The scientific output of the first Secretary of the Smithsonian.  Contains over 170,000 documents in fifteen scientific disciplines.