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Health Care Management: Overview

Summer 2020

Quick links to:   PubMed     CINAHL     PsycINFO     SPORTDiscus     Web of Science     Google Scholar

Need help? I'm available: email wiswellj@, Zoom, chat, appointment, (with 6 ft. spacing) at Levine 542F or Library, wherever.   Zoom by appointment, but almost any time.

Selected Journals

Also useful for HCM

Best Databases for Organizational Behavior, Management, Economics, and Policy

ABI/Inform and Business Source Complete are important general databases for business.  They include a lot of scholarly, trade, and popular articles.  APPsearch includes Business Source Complete and PsycINFO but not ABI/Inform.

Best Databases for Health Sciences

Google Scholar is good too. So is APPsearch, on main Library page.

Business News Databases

Some advice on searches

Use PubMed.  But also, HCM is so interdisciplinary that it makes sense to use interdisciplinary tools.  So use APPsearch and Google Scholar.  You can also selectively use more focused databases.

Try searching on a specific practice, process, structure, or characteristic of organizations.  Or choose a specific outcome or indicator.  Or include a specific setting.  Scientific or insider terminology will eliminate lots of unwanted results.

When not in a health-related database (e.g., CINAHL, PubMed), I like to include in searches: (healthcare OR "health care").  This will allow you to narrow your search to your field.  Don't do this all the time, because you will also want to know how your topics are seen outside health care.

Variables:

  • Which keywords/phrases/subject headings? 
  • Which database/catalog/search engine? 
  • Boolean logic: AND, OR, NOT, "quotation marks" UNC's explanation. 
  • Limiting your search: by years, by subject, by type of publication, by population, etc. 
  • Relevance ranking.  In PubMed, be sure to ask for Best Match.  It's the default in other databases.
  • Track citations: when you find one good source, who does it cite and who cites it?  Google Scholar is good for this.  Cited by.
  • Browsing journals helps sometimes.  See links to left on this page for some of our journals in HCM

Watch for review articles

Try including the word "review" in your search.  (You might get a few book reviews that you don't want.)  Recent review articles are very useful.  They will give you a good overview of the topic and have a comprehensive list of references.  (The health science databases will allow you to limit results to "systematic reviews" as well.)

One example.

Contact -- John Wiswell

John Wiswell  
Health Sciences Librarian
wiswellj@appstate.edu
Levine Hall 542F and Belk Library 225   (828)262-7853
Available for consultations with students, faculty, and staff. 
I work with distance and on-campus students.  Web conferencing is available, by appointment.  I can also do workshops for groups.

Health Services Research

Also See our Guides to Company and Industry Information

GuideStar -- Information on Nonprofits

Faculty -- Preparing Annual Reports

If you need to make arguments about journal quality, we subscribe to the Journal Citation Reports (Incites).  You can also look at at Eigenfactor, Scimago, and Google Scholar -- Top Publications.

Of course, be skeptical of all ranking systems. 

You might also refer to Cabell's Directories of Publishing Opportunities (covers some disciplines: Nursing, Health Administration) and UlrichsWeb for information that might be useful.  For open access journals, check if they are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals.  You might also search WorldCat to see how many libraries say they have a journal.

Contact me if you would like to discuss this or need help using the resources.  We have a library guide about Scholarly Communication, including topics such as measuring impact.