Search for Articles & E-Resources
Use the Library's subscription databases to locate journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.
Looking for a particular journal or magazine? Use our journal locator.
Research Tips
Not familiar with researching for professional or evidence-based health information specific to global health? Ask COD Library Reference Staff for help or take a look at these useful resources:
-
Research in 10 STEPS Using CINAHLFollow these steps to successfully locate journal articles in CINAHL.
-
COD Library's Research FundamentalsResearch is a process and although it seems to have a starting point and an end point with several discrete steps in between, the process is more like a map that asks you to retrace your steps now and then in order to reach your goal. These pages help you find strategies and resources to help you every step of the way.
-
Evidence-Based Practice: an Interprofessional TutorialAfter 8 introductory slides, this evidence-based practice tutorial from the University Of Minnesota Health Sciences Libraries links to individual tutorials describing each of the 5 steps of evidence-based practice [Step 1 contains excellent examples of formulating PICO questions. PICO is an acronym for population, intervention, comparison, and outcome.] Example cases and questions are presented from dentistry, medicine, public health, nursing, physical therapy, and more medical disciplines.
-
Evidence-Based Practice TutorialThis tutorial was developed by staff at Duke University Medical Center Library and the Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Database (and Library catalog) Advanced Search Tips
- Use the features of the database (print, navigation) before using your browser's back or print buttons
- For keyword searching, use the advanced search feature so that you can use multiple terms and set limits (date range, peer-reviewed, full text, etc)
- Remember that databases require you to spell correctly
- To limit your search results to journals with editorial boards (or some type of review process by health professionals) look under the “limit” section of the initial search page. Select the option to limit to peer reviewed (some databases also call them refereed publications). Refereed publications and peer reviewed are synonyms for board-reviewed or scholarly journals.
- Don’t forget to set publication date limits
- When creating your search strategy, take a moment to write down your key words and any synonyms (alternative words meaning the same thing) that might be used. Also think about how you connect your key words together.
- put phrases in quotation marks to search for the words together. For example, "low and middle income countries"
- Connect different concepts with the word AND indicating that you want both concepts to appear in each retrieved article.
- Connect variations (different words could be used for the same thing) with OR indicating that at least one variation should occur in the articles retrieved.
- Put parentheses around actions that you want to be done first (just like you may have done in an algebra class).
- Here are some examples of synonyms and “nesting” (using parentheses):
- (aged OR geriatric OR old* OR elderly)
- ("global health" OR "world health")
- Put the key concepts together like this example:
(age" OR geriatric OR old* OR elderly) AND ("global health" OR "world health")
- capitalize connecting words (AND, OR) to let the database know that you are giving a command not just listing a word to be found
- Use an asterisk (*) to find all possible endings. For example, countr* finds country, countries
Sample search strategies involving global health concepts (copy/paste into CINAHL):
-
(MH "Cultural Competence") AND "developing countries"
-
( (MH "Developing Countries" OR "developing countr*") OR (MH "Low and Middle Income Countries" OR "low and middle income countr*") ) AND "dominican republic"
-
MH "Social Determinants of Health"
-
( (healthcare AND united states) ) AND ( healthcare AND ((MH "Developing Countries" OR "developing countr*") OR (MH "Low and Middle Income Countries" OR "low and middle income countr*") ) ) AND compar*
Look below for recommended article databases!
Recommended Databases
Curious about what global health journals are available via the COD Library? Browse this list from our Journal Locator!
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is the best place for you to begin searching for journal articles because:
-
it is the only database that has health & medical specific subject headings. It also allows you to limit to patient age, articles published within the last 5 years, as well as type of article (CEU, research, case study)
-
Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete provides both popular and scholarly journal coverage and video clips for nearly all academic areas of study including: social sciences, humanities, education, technology, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences and ethnic studies. Academic Search Complete is a great starting point for most general research.
-
CINAHL Complete
CINAHL is the go-to journal article database for Nursing & Health Sciences students. It covers nursing, allied health, biomedical and consumer health journals, publications of the American Nursing Association, and the National League for Nursing. Use the subject headings and limiters to refine searches and access full-text nursing and clinical journals.
-
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides researchers, allied health professionals, nurses and medical educators with access to full-text, scholarly journals focusing on many medical disciplines. It provides indexing, abstracts, and full-text for hundreds of nursing and allied health journals, many of which are peer-reviewed.
-
PubMed - National Library of Medicine
The PubMed database, freely available via the Internet, provides citations and abstracts to articles in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, allied health, and the pre-clinical sciences; it also indexes articles from the Index to Dental Literature and the International Nursing Index. PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine. Citations may include links to full-text articles from PubMed Central or publisher websites.
Need help searching in PubMed? Click here for a helpful tip sheet.
-
Science Direct
Science Direct provides indexing and full-text journal articles in the sciences and social sciences, including chemistry, medicine, computer science, earth science, economics, business, engineering, energy, environmental science, life science, materials science, mathematics, physics, and astronomy. This is a good source for scholarly research in those subjects.
View all of the COD Library's Health & Medicine Databases
