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BIOL 1106/1307 - Biology Science Majors II (Dr. José Pacheco-Lucero): Research Process

Fundamental principles of living organisms will be studied, including physical and chemical properties of life, organization, function, evolutionary adaptation, and classification. Concepts of cytology, reproduction, genetics, and scientific reasoning.

Search Strategy & Boolean Operators

Improve your online search by building a search strategy using the template below and also improve your results by using connectors, such as AND OR  NOT " " (   ), to combine search terms, expand or narrow your search.  These connectors are also called "Boolean Operators," named after the nineteenth-century English mathematician, George Boole.  The resources below are library materials to guide you in the process of historical research, methods and writing. 

Searching with MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)

MeSH terms are a controlled vocubulary used to catalog and index the article records in PubMed. They are arranged into tree structures and are updated every year to include new developments. These term are also useful to create your search strategy for information retrieval. You can think of MeSH terms as tags on an article. When an article is indexed for MEDLINE, an indexer at the National Library of Medicine applies these tags to indicate the primary subjects of the article. Each indexed article has a set of MeSH terms that describe the content of the citation.

Although MeSH terms can be used in PubMed searches, they are found in their own database.  This database is similar to searching PubMed but keep in mind that:

  • You are not searching article records, only subject headings.
  • The search history in the MeSH database is distinct from the search history in PubMed.

To search MeSH, click on MeSH Database under Explore on near the bottom of the PubMed main page.

The National Library of Medicine has produced a short video on MeSH Click here to view. 

Library Research Process

Keywords for Biomphalaria fresh-water Snail Schistosomiasis

Listed below are  some key search terms for you to use when searching for resources about your biology assignment for Biomphalaria fresh-water Snail and Schistosomiasis:

  • biomphalaria

  • “biomphalaria glabrata”

  • “disease vectors”

  • DNA

  • genetics

  • “immune system”

  • infections

  • “infectious diseases"

  • ”living orgnisms"

  • parasites

  • parasitology

  • pathogenicity

  • proteins

  • “schistosoma mansoni”

  • schistosomiasis

  • snails

  • “vector borne”

  • “vector borne diseases”

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