LibGuides: Biology: Access reference resources

Reference Resources

A dictionary or encyclopedia can be a good place to start to help orient you to the literature. Encyclopedias are particularly useful as they will often include a bibliography of seminal works in the area. Below are just a few examples of these resources. Ask Monique (https://libcal.uvic.ca/appointments/monique) if you can't find what you're looking for.

Oxford Reference Collection - Life Sciences Collection

Oxford Reference provides concise definitions and in-depth, specialist encyclopedic entries on the wide range of subjects. Entries are complemented by illustrative line drawings, equations, and charts.

Dictionaries

A Dictionary of Biology
This dictionary provides comprehensive coverage of biology, biophysics, and biochemistry, as well as key terms from medicine and palaeontology.
A Dictionary of Ecology
This resources has entries on all aspects of ecology and related environmental scientific disciplines such as biogeography, genetics, soil science, geomorphology, atmospheric science, and oceanography. Coverage is wide-ranging and includes plant and animal physiology, animal behaviour, pollution, conservation, habitat management, population, evolution, environmental pollution, climatology and meteorology
A Dictionary of Genetics
The dictionary includes terms from a wide range of disciplines which entwine with genetics, including molecular biology, cell biology, medicine, botany, and evolutionary studies.
A Dictionary of Zoology
This resource includes terms from the areas of ecology, animal behaviour, evolution, earth history, zoogeography, genetics, and physiology and it provides full taxonomic coverage of arthropods, other invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals.
A Dictionary of Plant Sciences
Wide coverage on topics including biochemistry, plant physiology, cytology, ecology, genetics, evolution, bio-geography, earth history, and the earth sciences. There is worldwide coverage of taxonomic groups: one-third of the entries are devoted to taxa, from bacteria and fungi to the main groups of flowering and non-flowering plants.

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Evolution
A comprehensive guide to the essentials of evolutionary biology including essential concepts and theories, present methods, models and findings, and discuss both the history of the field and current controversies.
The Encyclopedia of Underwater Life
This Encyclopedia offers unrivalled coverage of the fish and aquatic invertebrates that inhabit our rivers, lakes, and oceans.
The Oxford Companion to the Body
This concise and readable accounts of the structure and function of all the major systems of the body and the causes of disorders that affect them.
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
An online encyclopedia on all 1.9 million species currently known to science, capturing information on newly discovered and formally described species. Provides text, images, video, maps, and data.

Biology

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Oxford Reference Collection - Life Sciences Collection