PH 210J: MCAH Journal Club: Find Articles and More

PubMed: Citations to journal articles on health and medical topics, with links to full text via .

PubMed searching top tips:

1. Combine terms with AND or OR;
2. Use Filters (eg, Ages, Article types, Languages, etc.);
3. Search for your term as a word in the title or title or abstract (using Filters, Advanced Search, or Field Tags);
4. Use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), with subheadings;
5. Use the Similar articles link located by each citation;
6. Always keep in mind the question you are trying to answer when creating a search strategy and when reviewing the articles you find.

PubMed Help Guide: Getting started guide, with link to PubMed exercise set (docx). Start here to learn how to search PubMed more effectively.

PubMed's Clinical Queries:

• Finding systematic reviews on your topic can help you find more research literature and give you a sense of the body of knowledge on a topic.
• Using the etiology filter is useful a "cause of disease" search.
• A therapy search encompasses any type of intervention (including diet, health education, etc.).

Remember those PubMed "Top Tips"? Many are applicable to the databases below.

Use UC Library Search, the UCB/UC library catalog and more to find books, reports, etc. on your topic. Books, while not often where original research is published, can often provide an overview of a topic and get you started with some key articles.

The above are but a sample of the many databases available to find article and other citations.
See the Public Health Databases guide for more.
Ask a librarian for help if you are having trouble with your topic.

Off-campus access is limited to current UC Berkeley faculty, staff and students. Choose one of the following methods:

Library Proxy (aka EZproxy):
When you click on a link to an article, database, etc., from a library web page. you will be prompted to authenticate via CalNet.
If you click on an article (etc.) link found via a search engine or a non-UCB Library webpage, you should use this bookmarklet to access the licensed resource.

Virtual Private Network (VPN):
Download and install the VPN client to allow access the UC Berkeley licensed resources.
Make sure you select Library Access - Full Tunnel VPN when you log on.
VPN FAQ

Students: Problems setting up Library Proxy or VPN? Contact your librarian, or Student Technology Services: (510) 642-HELP, or sts-help@berkeley.edu.

Online Newspapers & News:
Guide to news sources worldwide. Includes major dailies, local, alternative, and ethnic news sources, and science & health specialty news sources.

Grey Literature refers to publications not produced by commercial publishers: reports (pre-prints, technical reports, market research reports, etc.), theses, conference proceedings, etc. They are often produced by government entities, research institutions, or NGOs/IGOs.

The Guides to Public Health Subjects consists of topical web pages; each consisting of annotated lists of organizations, agencies, databases, and publications. Topics include:
    • Maternal and Child Health;
    • Environmental Health;
    • Health Equity;
    • Food/Nutrition;
    • Health Program Planning, Policy, and Evaluation;
and many more.

Google and other search engines can be useful for finding grey literature. Improve your search using:
Quotes for phrase searching:
"social marketing"
Site: to specify a particular site or domain:
"social marketing" site:.org (for a domain search)
"social marketing" site:cdcnpin.org (for a specific site search)
Boolean search statements (eg, OR):
("social marketing" OR "audience segmentation")

Find Dissertations and Theses, including the full text of most dissertations from 1996 to the present.

National Technical Reports Library (NTRL): over 2 million current and archived technical reports from many government agencies; over 600,000 available full text online.