University Library of Bern UB

Subject information

Portal Natural Sciences

Our "Portal Natural Sciences" offers library support for your studies, research, and teaching. Here, you find information about current events, courses and support services for scientists, useful tools for academic work, entry points to start your literature search with and contact details for consultations.

Coffee Lectures

Coffee Lectures Science & Medicine

Useful information perfect for a coffee break – join our Coffee Lectures

We offer news and valuable information for your scientific work, covering topics from searching to writing. Short and to the point, in English and without registration. When? We offer two Coffee Lecture sessions per year, one in spring and one in autumn. Time? From 1 to 1:15 pm. Where? Online on ZOOM (details below) and also "on demand" at your institute.

Coffee Lecture Autumn Series 2024

All lectures are now available online as pdf and/or videos on this page.

Get your Coffee Lectures on demand

Do you already know this service? Book your personal, customized Coffee Lecture on demand, for example for your next group meeting: Coffee & Bit(e)s (pdf) 

Previous Lectures

Have you missed one of our lectures? Check out our YouTube playlist for previous lectures since spring 2023.

Subjects

Research support

General Literature search

Are you starting a basic literature search for your studies or research?

Get an overview of relevant tools, i.e., literature search websites, for finding scientific literature at the University of Bern.

Tools for scientific literature search

For further information, one-to-one teaching or group courses and literature searching for the sciences, please contact us.

Systematic literature search

Are you starting a systematic search for writing a review paper?

We provide information on the main steps for conducting a systematic literature search.

How to conduct a systematic literature search

For further information and one-to-one coaching, please contact us.

Reference management

Reference management software and courses

Manage your papers and citations professionally. Courses in reference management offered by the University Library can be found here:

Geodata

Spatial information for research and studies

We provide a variety of Swiss geographic data for members of University Bern. Get access here:

Open Science

Online publication of scientific articles and research data

Do you have questions about Open Science standards and Open Access publishing? Do you need guidance on how to fulfill the Open Science and Open Research Data requirements of the Swiss National Science Foundation or other funding agencies? The University Library provides information, consulting and courses on online publication, open access, research data management and more:

Consultations

Subject-specific and personal support

Our team of subject librarians for the sciences supports you in getting the information you need for your studies and research. We offer consultations and courses upon request.

Feel free to contact us.

Tools

Tools und software for your studies and research

The tools and software presented here are free of charge, at least in their basic version. 

Are you missing a specific tool for your studies or research? Do you have questions regarding the tools presented below? Just let us know: tools.ub@unibe.ch.

Analysis, statistics, graphics and data management

The R Project for Statistical Computing

R is a powerful and free software environment and programming language for statistical computing and graphics.

Computer program: Download R
Useful graphical interface for R: Download R Studio
Information for beginners: Getting started with R
E-book (in German): Angewandte Statistik, Methodensammlung mit R, J. Hedderich & L. Sachs, Springer Spektrum 2016 (full text within Uni Bern network)

ANACONDA data science platform

Anaconda package manager and environment manager for Python and R: Anaconda is a free, multi-functional toolset for data science applications. It facilitates package management of Python and R libraries and enables the effective use of programming environments and software packages.

Documentation and installation: Anaconda Individual Edition

 

Scientific writing

SciFlow

SciFlow makes it easy to write and format scientific texts - whether for a specific journal or as a student paper. The University Library of Bern has licensed SciFlow for the entire UniBE campus.

LaTeX

LaTeX is a text processing software which allows for clean formatting and embedding formula in your text. Especially useful for writing research articles in the exact sciences.

Computer program: Download LaTeX
Introduction and documentation: see The LaTeX Project documentation website

E-Book: LaTeX Beginner's Guide, S. Kottwitz,  2011 (full text available for users within the university network)

 

PlagScan

Plagscan is a plagiarism checker tool, which can be accessed via Campus account. It is able to scan all common file formats for potential plagiarisms.

BioRender

BioRender offers thousands of icons and many templates for creating scientific figures in minutes. Ideal to illustrate, e.g., cellular processes, lab techniques and experimental settings.

Literature search

Literature search tools for the sciences

Here, we provide an overview of relevant tools, i.e., literature search websites, for finding literature in the sciences.

Tools for Scientific Literature Search

For group courses and one-to-one teaching in literature search in the sciences, please contact frnat@ub.unibe.ch.

Reference management

Reference management software

These computer programs assist you in literature reference management and citation:

*Full version: members of University of Bern use their Campus-Licence (Citavi) or get discout for licences in the softwareshop.

Courses in reference management offered by the University Library can be found here.

Publication

Open Access

Useful links for Open Science and open access journals

ORCID

Distinguish yourself in research! ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a unique identifier for academic authors.

Altmetric

The Altmetric-Plugin allows you to easily display altmetric data for electronic articles that have a DOI. Using the Altmetric Explorer you can get detailed information about the online dissemination of research at article, author, group and institutional level.

  • The different tools of Altmetric are shown here.
  • Use the Altmetric Explorer here.
  • A recent screencast about Altmetric is avalable here (Coffee Lecture from November 2021).

Contact and consultation

Contact

Our subject librarians for the sciences

If you need further information regarding library services for the sciences, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Consultation

We provide personal consultations upon request

Our consultation hours provide individual and subject-specific support, on site, by phone, email or videoconference.

Team subject librarians for the sciences