Science

Your librarians and teachers have curated the following resources for ESS, and many are useful in other subjects. Make an appointment with one of the librarians at this link if you need more support.

Online Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia Britannica  Begin here when you are first exploring a topic to get a general overview
• Britannica Science packs  Visual learners benefit from interacting with scientific content that is also found on Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Reference Databases

• CredoSource Reference  Short academic articles, images, videos, and more.
• EBSCO's Science Reference Source (Explora) Hold off on using this database until you have gained a good understanding of your topic
  • You may, for example, come here when you are ready for analytical articles that look at your topic from a specific perspective, e.g.,  nuclear energy in one region of the world; or if you are asking, is it ever ethical to develop nuclear energy? 

magazines and news sources (Great when you are first beginning to explore your topic)

• Sora Science
• Scientific American

Educational Magazine

• Biological Sciences Review  First, go here one time, to register for an account.
• Biological Sciences Review  After creating your account, login here read your magazines here (Bookmark this link to access & read your content).
   

Educational Media - Images and Videos

• Image Quest  A database of images and short videos from Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Alexandar Street   A database with wide ranging academic video collections. Tip: Filter by subject, e.g., "Science."

Global Access News Bank When you are further along in researching your topic, the two Permalinks below may be of interest. The NewsBank Science and NewsBank Stem collections have been selected from news sources published all over the world.

• NewsBank Science

• NewsBank STEM

   

Freely Available Educational Websites

• ACS.org - An Interactive Periodic Table for High School Students
• Science Buddies - Grade 9: Energy and Power
• ThoughtCo - Examples of Chemical Energy

You will learn how to use Zotero and Generative AI (GenAI or AI) to cite any sources that you use for your research in ESS.   

Zotero: A Citation Generator

Zotero is a powerful and user-friendly tool for storing your citation information as well as for citing in Word. If you are using Google Docs, download them into word to start using Zotero for your intext citations and your bibliography. To use Zotero: 

• Download Zotero App onto your desktop,
• Zotero Connector for your browser

Besides Zotero help, this Youtube Intro to Zotero video will get you started.

AI Use in ESS

In this course, we will sometimes use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI or AI) to support our learning. Your teacher will guide you on when and how AI tools may be used to support your research. Always check with your teacher before using AI if you’re unsure. 

When to Cite Generative AI (GenAI or AI)

When you use AI to assist with your work, it’s important to give credit—just like you would with any other source:

• Cite AI when it contributes ideas or content to your work.
• Do not cite AI for common knowledge. E.g., there are 365 days in a year.  
• Cite AI if you have used it (with permission from your teacher) to revise your work. 

How to Cite AI: Formatting Example from APA Style Manual (7th Edition).  

• Format: 

Company. (year, month day). Title of chat in italics [Description]. AI Tool. Chat URL

• Example of a bibliographic entry 

Perplexity (2025, May 20). Atoms [Chat]. Perplexity. https://www.perplexity.ai/ats/a47

• Example of an Intext citation

Perplexity (2025),

Guidelines on how to cite AI are evolving.  For the most current formatting of an AI citation in APA Style Manual, The APA provides an up-to-date guide on Formatting GenAI Citations in APA Style

IB and Research students should review the below resources for academic papers.
Can't find the entire (full-text) of an article? Request the article under our Services tab or here.

WOS - Web of Science (Clarivate)
Examine research trends in science by looking at citations. Research both the authors and their topics through citations. Includes links to free full-text articles (i.e. not just descriptions of the article).

PLOS
Articles by scientists and researchers.

Science Reference Center
Hundreds of full text science magazines, journals, and reference books. Also includes Science experiments, curriculum-aligned lesson plans, videos and a vast image collection. 

Biological Sciences Review Register
Visit to view the magazine: Biological Sciences Review (Hodder Education)

Academic Search Complete
1000s open access academic journals, reports, and conference proceedings from most disciplines including science.

JSTOR
Scholarly full-text journal articles, e-books, and primary sources/historical texts, from the 16^th century to 2019 including science. Click here to see general science publications in JSTOR. Note: Select Content I Can Access (it will NOT be underlined if selected).

Not sure if we have an article or journal?

Check our Journal Finder to find out what journals and years we have. Also under our menu eResources -> Journal Finder.  

Zotero is a powerful and user-friendly tool for storing your citation information as well as for citing in Word. If you are using Google Docs, download them into word to start using Zotero for your intext citations and your bibliography.

To use Zotero, download:

1. Download Zotero
2. Zotero Connector for your browser

Besides Zotero help, this Youtube Intro to Zotero video will get you started.

Popular magazines and news sources

Browse the resources below for popular magazines.

• Sora Science
• NewsBank Science
• NewsBank STEM

ACS.org - Interactive Period Table Activities

ThoughtCo - Examples of Chemical Energy

Sweetsearch - a search engine for students - use keyword searching to find articles and more in the internet.  

To find articles from Scientific Journals you can search our USIC Search and Google Scholar as well as search specific resources. You need to understand how to search these resources. Check out search tips on our Search Page.

Pro tip: Once you know how to use USIC Search, you will be able to search almost any academic online resources.

Remember: If the article is not available through TAS or online, request that we purchase it under our Services tab or here.

Preferred Journals for Health Sciences

Some of these journals have paid content so you might not be able to access the article, but you can request it. If you read the abstract/summary, and want the article,

• Google the title in quotes first to see if it's available elsewhere for free.
•  If the article is not available for free, request that we purchase it. We can usually get the article within 48 hours. Request the article under our Services tab or here.

Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise  Search for articles. Request an article if it is not free (open access).

European Journal of Sport Science Search for articles and read for free (open access).

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports Search thfor articles. Request an article if it is not free (open access).

International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (IJSPP) Search the contents of only this journal. Request an article if it is not free (open access).

Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition Search for articles and read for free (open access).

WOS - Web of Science (Clarivate)
Examines research trends in science by looking at citations, and a great place for to find abstracts/summaries and some full text (entire) of science articles. Research both the authors and their topics through citations. Includes links to free full-text articles (i.e. not just descriptions of the article).

PubMed
The PubMed database contains more than 34 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. It does not include the entire text for many articles; however, links to the full text of the article it's available.

PLOS ONE
Publishes multidisciplinary and, often, interdisciplinary free online academic research articles in more than 200 areas across science, engineering, medicine, and the related social sciences and humanities. 

• Sports and Health Sciences uses MLA style for citations. Purdue OWL's website is a great resource for citing sources.
• Always grab the citation from the article when you find it. There is usually an option on the screen that will give you the full citation you need in MLA format.
• If you can't find the citation, try using the Zotero extension (or Zbib online).
• Make an appointment with Dr. Warrick or Ms. Howard under the Services Tab for help.

Generative AI can be a useful tool for research. However, it's important to know what is acceptable use and what would be a violation of the academic integrity policy. For IB, you MUST cite any AI tool you consult.  You should never turn in anything copied directly from AI as a finished product. 

For a literature review, try Elicit.org. Use it to brainstorm more specific research questions, and find related journal articles on your topic.

To cite AI Tools in MLA Style:

•  
  • "Exact text of your prompt." prompt. AI Tool used, version, Publisher of the tool, date accessed, link.
•  
  • “What is the impact of squats on vertical jump height?” prompt. Elicit, Ought, 22 Aug. 2023, https://elicit.org/search.