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.

Digitized Science Collections

Last Updated October 6, 2023