LibGuides: Health Sciences: Researching Health Topics

Highlighting a Few Journals on Health

Pediatrics

New England Journal of Medicine
Call Number: online
JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association
Call Number: Online
The Lancet
Call Number: Online
BMJ British Medical Journal
Call Number: Online
American Journal of Public Health
Call Number: Online
Health Affairs
Call Number: Online

Best Databases for Health

PubMed
PubMed contains the MEDLINE database and more.

PubMed provides access to bibliographic information from more than 5,200 journals in the life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.

PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, and provides access to over 14 million citations and abstracts in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences.

Coverage: 1950-present
CINAHL Complete
Nursing and allied health. Covers a very broad range of journals.

Provides indexing to nearly 1,200 nursing, allied health, biomedical, and consumer health journals, as well as publications of the American Nurses Association and the National League for Nursing. It includes healthcare books, nursing dissertations, standards of professional practice, nurse practice acts, and educational software. Abstracts are included for over 250 journals.
Google Scholar
Good for finding full text, for "Cited by," and for topic searches. Not usually used for systematic reviews.

Cochrane Library
Especially for Cochrane's systematic reviews, but this also includes CENTRAL, Cochrane's database of randomized and quasi-randomized trials. Use CENTRAL for doing systematic reviews.

There are many other choices: PsycINFO, SportDISCUS, and more.

APPsearch (on main page) contains most of these, so it's advantageous to search them all together there, sometimes.

It's a good practice to start by looking for reviews. Include the word "review" or the phrase "systematic review" with your other search words. PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO allow you to limit results to only systematic reviews.

Searching For DOIs

Have a DOI and need to find out the article?

Type or paste a DOI name (e.g., 10.1000/182) into the text box below.

Health Reference Sources -- Symptoms & Tests

Lippincott Nursing Manuals
Online and at RT51 .B78 on 1st and 3rd Floors.
Merck Manual
Online
But we also have a copy in 1st Floor Reference RC55 .M4
Merck Manual -- Consumer Version
Free online for consumers. Probably a bit simpler to use.
Also see these books and ebooks on symptoms
Lab Test Information -- Medline Plus
and more Medline Plus links about medical tests

Librarian

John Wiswell

Email Me

Contact:

828-262-7853

Subjects: Communication Sciences and Disorders, eBooks, Exercise Science, First Year Seminar, Gerontology, Health and Medicine, Nursing, Nutrition and Foods, Physics and Astronomy, Recreation Management, Research Tools, Sports

Contact -- John Wiswell

John Wiswell

Health Sciences Librarian

wiswellj@appstate.edu

Click here for an appointment. Contact me by email if these times do not work.

Levine Hall 542F & Belk Library 225 (828)262-7853

Available for students, faculty, and staff.

Grey Literature

The CDC -- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Often a good place to start on any health topic
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Useful data and graphics. Global health.
National Academy of Medicine publications
Lots of useful reports
U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health
An Institute of Medicine report. 2013.
Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
"The Dartmouth Atlas Project has documented glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States."
ATSDR Toxic Substances Portal
Includes ATSDR Public Health Statements

Health Sciences: Researching Health Topics

Other Guides on Specific Disciplines and Topics in the Health Sciences