Step by Step with Biomed Central
Biomed Central is a browsing tool which leads to articles in various life science disciplines, though its coverage tends to be weak in agriculture and the environmental sciences. Biomed Central lists hundreds of full text free articles. To use Biomed Central effectively, you need to know into which life science subdiscipline or broad category your topic best fits.
- First, point your browser at http://www.biomedcentral.com.
Click Journals A-Z, Subject areas, or Gateways. These are all equally good choices. You will have to learn by trial and error which
one works best with your research topic. - Select a journal that looks as if it might include your topic. For the topic,
primate conservation, BMC Ecology might be a good choice. Click on that journal's title.
- Scroll down the screen to look for articles that match your topic.
- If you see one that interests you, click on its blue title.
- To obtain a printable copy of your article with all its images and tables, click on PDF.
- For a quick look at your article, click on full text. Note: full text articles from
Biomed Central lose characters on the right side of the page when printing.
Choose PDF for making print copies.
If you don't see an article that interests you, click on the Archive link, and select a year. Most Biomed Central journals extend back fewer than seven years. - Then browse through the back issues.
- Articles can be lengthy. Read the abstracts and skim the rest before printing.
11)
To print an
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file, use Adobe Acrobat's own print icon. This is very
important. 12) To start a different search in Biomed Central, choose another volume of the journal or select another journal altogether starting with Step 1.
13) To end a Biomed Central session, click the browser's Home icon, type in another URL, or close the browser.