Google has opened a beta test of its search engine for refereed literature,

http://scholar.google.com/

What is your excuse for being ignorant now?

The Apprentice was on last night. Seems to work for most people.

Thanks for this tool Uncle.

I've made a requiest, works nice but it don't crack de required password for PDF files at the same time.
If there is another version, please let me know.

this is a great site but how do you get the articles? I mean its great, it gives me many more references than proquest does.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Andreea:
this is a great site but how do you get the articles? I mean its great, it gives me many more references than proquest does. [/QUOTE

Most peer reviewed journals require subscription. Sometimes you can find preprints of the article you are looking for. Also, some authors have pdf files their articles on their websites.

There's an extension for the wonderful Mozilla Firefox browser called BugMeNot. It notices when a site requires registration, and can be made to fill in registration fields with someone else's donated info. There is one for the New York Times online version, and there is probably a bugmenot for the peer reviewed journals. Worth looking into, this is.

Yes, sometimes they have the whole compilation in PDF format. I've ventured to contact some authors by mail, asking if they don't have a paper available. I don't know why, but in the field of microbiology, they never reply Emails.

Maybe you should write that you are working on a paper on a related subject. Scientists like to have their papers cited!