Welcome to the Library's course page for Advanced Writing in the Health Sciences.
As students of the health sciences and future healthcare professionals, writing—and communication by extension—is an essential skill. Improving one's writing skills can help improve one's wider communication skills. Regardless of your career path, you will benefit from strong writing skills as you communicate to your professional peers, patients, and the wider community.
In this guide, you can find resources to help you succeed in Advanced Writing in the Health Sciences.
Having trouble coming up with a topic for your project? Try browsing:
Medpage Today, a source of clinical news coverage across many specialties, written for healthcare professionals in the US.
Global Issues in Context, a resource offering international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events.
The articles in a recent academic journal in your discipline. You can find academic journals in your disciplines by searching your on Scholar OneSearch. Use the advanced search options to search for journals.
To make an appointment for a research consultation, please click on the name of your subject specialist:
Philip Espinola Coombs (Nursing, Nutrition, Physical Therapy, Movement & Rehabilitation Sciences, Physician Assistant, Gerontology & Geriatrics, Communication Sciences & Disorders)
Looking for articles but not sure where to start? For articles describing primary research, written by experts in the field, try the nursing and medical databases listed below.
The brief videos below will help you develop your research question, choose keywords and offer tips for improving your search results!
1. Search nursing and health-related databases to find peer reviewed or scholarly articles on your topic.
2. Choose keywords for your topic.
3. Learn the shortcuts: use advanced search techniques to search databases more effectively and find the full text.
4. Interlibrary Loan: Use ILLIad, our interlibrary loan service to request articles not owned by Snell Library. HINT: click on the PDF link or the "Check NU LIbrary" in your database search results. If the article is not available, you will be prompted to link to ILLiad to submit your request.
5. Organize your citations using citation management tools such as RefWorks, EndNote, Mendeley or Zotero. Import your citations from your database search, then autoformat them into your preferred citation style, and insert the reference list into your paper.
If you need an overview of a topic, try searching an encyclopedia.
Need a refresher on scholarly vs. non-scholarly sources, or primary vs. review articles, or the differences between qualitative and quantitative research? You can find PDF tutorials on these topics below.
Scholarly vs. Non-Scholarly Sources
Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Comparing Two Kinds of Research
For improved results and to use advanced features, search a specific database. Some of the more frequently used databases are listed below. Additional databases can be found in individual subject pages.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism are all important topics which cannot be properly attended to in one small section. Instead, this section serves to connect you to relevant Library guides and webpages on these topics.
The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Guide (DEI) seeks to connect students, staff, faculty and community members to resources related to DEI work that is available throughout Northeastern University Library, Northeastern University, and the surrounding community.
The Anti-Racism Guide seeks to connect students, staff, faculty, and community members to resources related to anti-racism work that are available through Northeastern University Library and Northeastern University.
The Diversity and Anti-Racism in STEM page provides resources for promoting anti-racism and supporting diversity and inclusion in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
The Diversity and Anti-Racism in the Health Sciences page provides resources for promoting anti-racism and supporting diversity and inclusion in the health sciences.