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Literature searching and gps mapping are two ways to learn more. This page contains tips and resources for conducting literature searches. A few library resources useful for finding literature or creating maps with data on your area and topic of interest are included as well. This guide, Public Health, contains more recommendations. If you have recommendations for this guide or need additional help, please contact the librarian.
Lauri Fennell, l.fennell@northeastern.edu
Preparing for your search
Starting your search effectively means taking some time before you start. Plan, practice, revise.
- What is your topic? Can you define it with a question? Think about what aspects of your main topic you are interested in.
- In order to decide which database to search you will want to think about what subject/category/health condition or problem it includes. Databases will have the publications that cover your subject of interest.
- Select the database to search based on the subjects it covers.
- Are you looking for diseases or medical conditions PubMed, which contains Medline, would be a good choice.
- Are you looking for information related to medical records, telehealth or mobile health applications? Inspec (an engineering database) or Web of Science (broad coverage of sciences) are good places to start.
- What about social determinants of health? These could show up in a variety of publications from economics to public health to environmental factors. Proquest has a Public Health database dedicated to it's interdisciplinary nature.
- When researching public health, PubMed is a great place to start. However, with 100s of databases to choose from you might find there is another one that contains articles from a specific disciplines that are not covered as well there.
Selected Databases
Deciding where to start your search is one of the first things to consider. Google and Google Scholar can find some useful content but there is much more contained within library subscription databases. Each may cover specific subjects and therefore publications that you may not find in others. Below are good databases to start with.
- PubMed (NU customized) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive source of journal literature in the life sciences and biomedicine from the National Library of Medicine. Includes selected full text from PubMed Central, and NCBI Bookshelf. PubMed is a free web resource, however this version contains links to Northeastern-subscribed journals that require a login.
- Public Health Database (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowCore public health literature with access to 500 full-text publications and 9,000 dissertations as well as research reports and newspaper articles.
- Health Administration Database (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowCollection of 800 key journals plus dissertation and other publications covering the field of health administration: management, insurance, ethics, and more. Mostly full text or with links to full text for Northeastern-subscribed materials.
- Engineering Village This link opens in a new windowCombines the citations and full text links of Compendex and Inspec with full text books from Knovel, for a more comprehensive search on computer science and engineering topics.
- Web of Science, Core Collection 1975-present This link opens in a new windowCovers a wide variety of science topics. Great for discovering articles that reference/cite an older article.
Journals Covering Rural Topics
Peer Reviewed, NU signin required .Explore issues for rural health topics
- Online Journal of rural nursing and healthcareOfficial journal of the Rural Nurse Organization
Telehealth/Telemedicine
Maps
- PolicyMap This link opens in a new windowPolicyMap is a mapping tool for accessing data on demographics, real estate, health, jobs, and more. Supports research about communities across the U.S.
- USDA Economic Research Service Atlas (placeholder)Find a variety of maps on rurality, employment and other factors in the U.S.
