This guide is intended to assist students performing research in the areas of Health Sciences. It suggests resources available, but it is by no means a comprehensive list of all materials available in the Library--it is a representative sample.
The Online Catalog is an excellent place to start your research. It will allow you to identify books in the Davis Memorial Library about your topic in the Health Sciences. The Online Catalog is available from any Internet accessible computer. Use the Keyword search to locate materials. Type in the concepts you are looking for, using "and" to combine terms (e.g. diabetes and care).
Electronic databases are used to identify journal, magazine, or newspaper articles on a particular topic. Some databases are designated as full-text, which means that the whole text of the article is available in that database. You can print, save, or email that article. When using a database or any other tool in the Library, always write down the full citation to an article (author, article title, journal title, volume, issue, date, and pages) so you will have this information for your bibliography. If the article is not available with full-text try Journal Finder to see if articles from that journal are available in another database or in print in the Library
Davis Memorial Library Electronic databases are accessible at other campus locations and from off-campus. Please use this link to directions for accessing the databases remotely.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides more than 550 scholarly full text journals. Most of these full-text articles are available in PDF format. Full-text articles date back to 1975. This should be the first place to start your medical research. Remember to use Journal Finder to determine if citation-only articles are available in full-text in another database or in print in the Library.
Science Direct: Health and Life Sciences
Science Direct: Health and Life Sciences contains more than 1,000 full-text journals. Users can browse journsl by title and subject area. When searching, click the "Search" tab for the most precise search. Then click on the "Journals" tab to start your search. To limit to journals with full-text, change the "Source" menu to "Subscribed Journals." Limiting to "Article" will return only original research articles, and limiting to "Review Article" will return only articles containing a review of a significant body of research as well as a bibliography. You may also limit to dates and subjects. Note that the default date range is the last ten years.
CINAHL
The title of this resource, CINAHL, stands for Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. The indexing starts in 1982, and over 500 journals have full-text included, for the most part in PDF format. Use the “Advanced Search” option for more sophisticated searches. Here you can limit to peer-reviewed, research article, evidence-based, publication type, gender, in/outpatient, age groups, and special interest (incl. physical therapy, social work, public health, wound care, and others). You can also use the CINAHL Headings for more precise searches.
Medline (PubMed)
Medline, a service of the National Library of Medicine, currently includes more than 15 million citations for articles back to the 1950's.
There is only a small amount of full-text in Medline. To find citation-only articles, you will need to use Journal Finder to determine if the journal title is available full-text in another database. Type the name of the journal into the Journal Finder search box. The computer icon means it is available electronically, and the open book icon means that the library subscribes to the print or microform version. Make sure to compare the dates available to the dates on your articles. If an article is not available, you can use interlibrary loan to obtain a copy of the article library. Please allow at least a week for the article to arrive.
When conducting searches in Medline, limiting your search is essential. At a minimum, limit to English. You can also limit to human or animal, gender, ages, and more. For clinical work, you should limit to human. MESH, Medical Subject Headings, is the terminology used in Medline. You can use the MESH database to look up the correct terminology or let the system try to convert your search automatically. Converting may miss some concepts.
PsycINFO
PsycInfo is the standard resource in psychology. This database covers journal articles from 1887-present and indexes over 1,900 different publications, and contains a limited amount of full-text. Use the "Publication Year" or "Published Date" to limit the timeframe of your research. Scroll down to choose from additional limits including language, age group, and population. See "Advanced Search" for additional limits. Use the thesaurus to identify the appropriate terms for your search.
PsycArticles
PsycArticles is a full-text database of journals published by the American Psychological Association. Try here for topics such as the psychology of pain or the psychology of injuries and healing.
Health Source: Consumer Edition
This database contains a mixture of full-text health journals and magazines, over 1,000 full-text health pamphlets, thousands of essays from Clinical Reference Systems, full-text books, Stedman's Medical Dictionary, USP Pharmacopoeia DI: Volume II Advice for the Lay Patient, and twenty health research books. This database contains items written in language which can be easily understood by patients who want to know more about their health concerns and conditions.
Medline Plus
This service from the National Library of Medicine provides information about health conditions, drugs and supplements, a medical dictionary, and more. Information has been gathered from national associations and hospitals to provide quality information to patients. Information in Spanish is also available.
Subject |
Call Number Area |
Anatomy |
611 |
Cardiology |
616.1 |
Dermatology |
616.5 |
Diagnostic Tests |
616.07 |
Emergency Medicine |
616 |
Endocrinology |
616.4 |
Gastroenterology |
616.3 |
Gerontology |
618.97 |
Gynecology |
618.1 |
Hematology |
616.15 |
Home Health |
610 |
Immunology |
616.079 |
Infectious Diseases |
616.9 |
Internal Medicine |
616 |
Medical Dictionaries |
610.3 |
Medical Microbiology |
616.9041 |
Nutrition |
613.2 |
Neurology |
616.8 |
Obstetrics |
618.2 |
Orthopedics |
617.5 |
Pediatrics |
618.92 |
Pharmacy/Pharmacology |
615 |
Physiology |
612 |
Primary Care |
616 |
Psychiatry |
616.89 (see also Psychology 150-159) |
Pulmonology |
616.2 |
Rheumatology |
616.7 |
Sports Medicine |
617.1027, R 613.7 |
Surgery |
617 |
Toxicology |
615.9 |