Websites
Resources from the Web
Check out this list of websites to get help with research.
Always be cautious when using sites from the open internet, and be sure to read websites critically.
Suggested Websites
- Animal Diversity Web
Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan.
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives.
- Encyclopedia of Life
We work with open-access biodiversity knowledge providers around the world …. Integrators like EOL receive information from many sources, and format and annotate it so that search tools can find similar content from different sources.
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF—the Global Biodiversity Information Facility—is an international network and research infrastructure funded by the world's governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth.
- National Museum of Natural History
The museum’s collections tell the history of the planet and are a record of human interaction with the environment and one another.
- NCBI Taxonomy Database
The Taxonomy Database is a curated classification and nomenclature for all of the organisms in the public sequence databases. This currently represents about 10% of the described species of life on the planet.
- Tree of Life Web Project
The Tree of Life Web Project is a collection of information about biodiversity compiled collaboratively by hundreds of expert and amateur contributors. Its goal is to contain a page with pictures, text, and other information for every species and for each group of organisms, living or extinct.
Read Websites Critically
Anyone can publish anything on the internet.
Use the Spider Method to ensure that your internet sources are appropriate for your research.
- Source
Who wrote the information? Is he qualified? If you can’t find an author, you shouldn’t trust the information until you verify it elsewhere.
- Purpose
Why does this website exist? Is it intended to sell a product or convince readers of something? Can you detect any bias?
- Information
Is the information current? Check for a publication date. If there isn’t one, you need to verify currency with another source.
- Domain
Be aware of the host site. Is the domain .edu or .gov? These domains sometimes have more authoritative or reliable information.
- Educational
Who is the intended audience? Is there adequate depth to the information? Are you sure it’s not a hoax site or satire?
- Reliability
Is the same information available on other websites? Triangulate with other sources to improve the chance of getting complete or accurate information.