Databases for Science Research

The following science databases are just some of the databases available to researchers from the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. For a complete list go to the Libraries' E-journals, E-books, and Databases. Databases that require SI network for access are indicated by "SI staff." For information about remote access see Off-Site Access to Electronic Resources​. For a more complete list of freely available, yet noteworthy research resources, visit Free Databases and Collections.

For science research guides on a wide variety of topics, see our Science Research Guides.

• Anthropology Plus (SI Staff):  Index of journal articles, and additional resources from core and lesser-known journals from the early 19th century to today. 
• AnthroSource (SI Staff): Full-text anthropological resources from the breadth and depth of the discipline.
• Biodiversity Heritage Library: A digital library containing primarily historical texts in the natural sciences.
• Birds of North America Online: Comprehensive resource from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Ornithologists' Union.
• 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 directions about remote access.
• 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.
• Journal Citation Reports (SI Staff): Provides impact factors and rankings of many journals in the social and life sciences based on citation analysis.
• JSTOR Global Plants (SI Staff): Includes plant type specimens, taxonomic structures, scientific literature, and related materials.
• 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.
• PubMed: Includes more than 22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
• Web of Science (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 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, with coverage back to 1864.

Please feel free to Contact Us with suggestions for additional resources or with questions.