Choosing a database
Selected Databases
Public health is an interdisciplinary field that crosses many subject areas. Use several different databases for the most comprehensive search results. Selected databases are group in broad subject categories below.
Consider what telehealth might include; policies, technology or engineering, usability studies and of course health outcomes. Coverage on telehealth could be found in publications for each of these disciplines, therefore multiple databases may be needed.
Core databases for public health researchers (good starting place):
- PubMed (NU customized) This link opens in a new windowPubMed is commonly used as the platform to search Medline. This link is customized to include links to the full text articles available through library licenses.
- Public Health Database (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowThis database covers journals with a focus on public health topics, which includes dissertations, reports and newspapers along with scholarly journals.
More medical, environmental and chemical
- Embase (Elsevier) This link opens in a new windowIncludes international biomedical literature from 1947 to the present day. Structured and natural language searching.
- SciELO Citation Index This link opens in a new windowScientific research citations from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, the Caribbean and South Africa.
- GreenFILE (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowenvironment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology
- SciFinder-n (CAS) This link opens in a new windowCan be used to find literature related to PFAS chemicals and others
PFAS
*Looking for health and toxicology studies on PFAS chemicals? Try the PFAS-Tox Database, a living systematic evidence map and database of studies. The PFAS-Tox Database was developed by a multi-institutional group of researchers, funded and supported by several organizations, including Northeastern University's Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute.
Behavioral, Social Science
- Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowA select collection of full-text articles in psychology from chiefly peer-reviewed journals.
- PsycInfo (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowAmerican Psychological Associations flagship database includes citations and abstracts of peer reviewed articles, books, and dissertations from 1888 to present
- HAPI (Health and Psychosocial Instruments)(EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowInformation about behavioral measurement instruments, abstracted from hundreds of leading journals covering health sciences and psychosocial sciences.
- Religion Database (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowPrimarily full-text academic articles on religious and spiritual studies, covering theological studies and social issues from the perspectives of many worldwide religions. Also professional information and titles from religious publishers.
- Social Sciences Premium Collection (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowcovers politics and public policy, sociology, social services, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, information sciences and education.
Mutli and Interdisciplinary
- Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowmutli-disciplinary, includes titles like Academic Medicine
- Web of Science, Core Collection 1975-present This link opens in a new windowUse for citation tracking, finding seminal literature, data visualizations, author alerts, institutional affiliations, and impact factors. LInks to full text for Northeastern-subscribed journals.
Education, Technology, Global
- Engineering Village This link opens in a new windowgreat for Health IT when considering publishing from a tech ore engineering perspective.
- Education Research Ultimate (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowPeer-reviewed journals in education, most with full text. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing.
- Gale In Context: Global Issues This link opens in a new windowCourtesy of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System
Global Issues in Context offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events.
Populations and Groups
- AgeLine (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowAgeLine focuses on those aged 50+ and the literature of social gerontology. Covers aging-related content from the health sciences, psychology, sociology, social work, economics, and public policy.
- What this includes: over 600 journals, books, book chapters, reports, dissertations, consumer guides, and educational videos..
- GenderWatch (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowFull articles from women's studies magazines and newsletters (including some that are hard to find in print), as well as some scholarly journals. Some articles go back to the 1970's.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar can be a good source, but know that it does not have access to all the content that specific databases has.One of the great things about Google Scholar is that the public has access to the information about various publications.
- If you are doing a literature review, you will want to use at least one database that is specific to your topic
- Take a look at the tutorial on Searching Google Scholar by my colleague Tamara Uhaze.
Journals, books and more
If you know of a specific journal that publishes on your topic, you can start there. Search for the journal through our Journal Finder on the library website. We also have many ebooks, videos and more. Use our library search engine to find them.
Ebooks at NULibrary are available through a variety of platforms. Some are contained within a database with other content, such as the McGraw-Hill Access resources and some are dedicated ebook collections only such as OVID Ebooks and R2Library ebooks.
- Ovid Ebooks This link opens in a new windowBooks and book chapters on health care and related topics. Online reading only, mostly text but with some figures and illustrations.
- R2 Library This link opens in a new windowCollection of full text reference books and textbooks in pharmacy, nursing, and pharmaceutical sciences from key health science publishers.
You can search Scholar OneSearch for specific titles or subject areas. Results will pull from all of our sources.