NUT 117: Database Searching/Resources Section

by Ruth Gustafson — December 2, 2020

NUT 117: Database Searching/Resources Section

by Ruth Gustafson — December 2, 2020

NUT 117: Database Searching/Resources Section

by Ruth Gustafson – December 2, 2020

Nutrition Topic Ideas and Search Terms
Good sources for finding recent research in nutrition, where you might find interesting topics, are the weekly magazines SCIENCE NEWS and NEW SCIENTIST. In addition, the premier journals SCIENCE and NATURE include the latest innovative research across the sciences. Premier licensed nutrition journals include The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , Annual Review of Nutrition, Clinical Nutrition (this is an Elsevier journal, <2019 issues have perpetual access but no current access due to UC-wide Elsevier contract cancellation from Jan 2019), The Journal of Nutrition (JN), and Advances in Nutrition.  Top open-access nutrition titles include BMC Nutrition.
                                                                                                                                                                                  Once you’ve picked a topic, you will need to think of search terms to use for locating articles and other publications. Search the UC Davis Library online catalog (for books, DVDs and more) and use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for books at Shields Library and also (for books owned at the Carlson or Blaisdell medical libraries) the National Library of Medicine (NLM) terms. Each library subject database also has subject lists/thesauri that can help you precisely search your topic, e.g PubMed has MeSH and BIOSIS Previews has Concept Codes and more.

Ruth Gustafson

Student Services
Student Services Librarian

ragustafson@ucdavis.edu

530-752-1883

In this Guide:

Research Help

Nutritional Science Collections

The majority of nutrition-related materials are found in Shields Library.  UC Davis has 2 separate health sciences libraries and one life sciences collection in the Shields Library (Biological, Agricultural & Environmental Sciences). Important nutritional information may also be found as part of the Government Information collection of Shields Library, Lower Level.

  • Biological, Agricultural @ Environmental Sciences, Shields Library:  The nutritional print collections are located mainly on the 3rd floor of Shields Library.
  • Blaisdell Medical Library, Medical Education Building, UC Davis Medical Center
  • Carlson Health Sciences Library, Southwest UCD campus
  • Government Information Collection, Shields Library  —  The UC Davis Library is a federal and state depository library with extensive historical and current collections in print, microform and electronic formats. The UCD Library collects extensively from major international, intergovernmental organizations, selectively from local jurisdictions, and on a very limited basis from foreign governments. Agriculture, forestry, the environment and ecology are areas of strength. The UCD Library collects comprehensively from the U.S. Congress and California Legislature, along with federal and state laws and regulations. The Library’s collection of technical report literature is extensive. We emphasize statistical data in all collecting areas. Most government documents and maps are listed in the UC Davis Library Catalog and the UC-wide MELVYL Catalog. Some materials, such as technical reports and historical documents, may require specialized indexes and assistance from reference librarians.

 

Library Catalogs

The UCD Libraries selectively buy materials on writing in the life and health sciences. Browsable subject headings that bring up these types of publications include: Biology — Authorship; Communication of technical information; Life sciences — Authorship; Medical writing; Proposal writing in biology; Proposal writing for grants; Proposal writing for medicine; Proposal writing for research; Report writing; Technical writing

Use these subject terms that are nutrition related:  Nutrition disorders ; Nutrition — Handbooks, manuals, etc. ; Nutrition policy ; Nutrition — Tables ; Nutrition therapy

Shields Library uses the Library of Congress (LC) Classification system with nutrition related titles in the following areas:  Nutrition overall  QP 140s ; Food as therapy/Diet Therapy  RM 210s-220s ;  Food/Cooking & Nutrition  TX 350s-360s

Medical libraries at UC Davis use a modification of LC called the NLM classification with the following nutrition related areas:  General Nutrition/standards  QU 145  ; Clinical nutrition/Diet therapy  WB 400  ;  Nutrition disorders  WD 100 

  • UC Davis Library Catalog
    Replacing Harvest on August 18, 2016, the new UC Davis Library Catalog includes the collections of all four UC Davis General Libraries. It does not include the holdings of the Law Library. If you log in (My Account) using your UCD login and Kerberos passphrase, you are prompted with your loan period, can renew books online, and request items that have been checked out to another borrower, or are in storage.

SPECIAL NOTE:  Temporary online access is available for some print-only UCD materials.  Look for the gray elephant icon with the link label “Full Text Available at HathiTrust.” Also note that the “Physical copy is Library Use Only”.  Follow the HathiTrust link and LOGIN using your UCD credentials.

COVID TIME DUE DATES EXTENSION:    For any items “checked out, due dates are being extended indefinitely. If you are in the [UCD] area and would like to return materials, you can deposit returns via the remote book drops or at Shields or Blaisdell Medical Library. Materials may also be mailed back at no cost to you. Contact shieldsinterloan@ucdavis.edu for additional instructions and to receive a postage-paid mailing label.”

 

  • Understanding Call Numbers

    Author: Library Instruction Services, Shields Library

    Library of Congress Classification is used for all of the UCD libraries except the health sciences libraries (which use NLM — National Library of Medicine — classification). Learn about how books are arranged in the UCD libraries with this guide.

    Date: 2004

Subject Guides

Subject Guides

There is a subject guide matching nearly every department at the UC Davis campus.  Find the Subject Guide which best matches your major!  Nutrition is found under the Food Science & Nutrition Subject Guide.

This browsable subject guide list is organized by broad disciplinary categories:  Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Biological Sciences, Engineering & Transportation, General & Multidisciplinary Sources, Government Information, Health Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences

Peer-Reviewed Journal Databases

Peer Review

A process through which manuscripts submitted to a journal are evaluated for quality — by one or more subject experts in addition to the editor — before being accepted for publication.

ProQuest article databases (such as PsycINFO) include a checkbox to limit to “Peer Reviewed” articles. For journals retrieved from other databases, use the online Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory to locate your journal and then look for the black and white striped symbol or referee shirt  Refereed  indicating the publication is “Refereed” or peer-reviewed.

  • Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory  Icon

    The standard source for information on virtually every active and ceased periodical, annual, irregular publication, and monographic series published throughout the world (plus thousands of newspapers). Indicates whether a publication is a refereed (peer-reviewed) title.

    NOTE: search by journal title, NOT article title. Ulrich’s provides information on the entire publication (journal, magazine, newspaper, annual review) NOT on the work within.

Journal Ranking

Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports is a comprehensive tool for assessing the importance of research journals in disciplines and subdisciplines including medical specialties.

NOTE that *review* journals tend to be listed as top ranked titles, taking space away from original research titles, so use with caution. Typical review series may have the following words in their title: Advances in … ; Annual Review of …; Critical Reviews in … ; Current Opinion in … ; Expert Reviews in … ; International Review of … ; Progress in … ; Trends in …

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is an annual publication by Thomson Reuters with each yearly data analysis being completed in the summer of the following year. JCR indicates: most frequently cited journals in a field: highest impact journals in a field; and largest journals in a field. JCR Science Edition contains data from over 7,300 journals in science and technology. JCR Social Sciences Edition contains data from over 2,200 journals in the social sciences. NOTE: For disciplines that have longer timespans for citation, consider sorting for ranking by using the 5-year Impact Factor sort.
Release Coverage: published 1997-2018 (for 1996-2017 data)
•Impact Factors in Wikipedia: validity, manipulation, and misuse of Impact Factors
•Using JCR Wisely