UC-HBCU Summer Research Program in Social Determinants of Health - Library Resources: 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 Related Articles link, once you find a set of relevant citations
6. Try PubMed's Clinical Queries or Topic-Specific Queries
7. Always keep in mind the question you are trying to answer when creating a search strategy and when reviewing the articles you find

» PubMed Tips & Tricks: Basic search guide: Start here to learn how to search PubMed more effectively

» PubMed 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.

• Use the etiology filter for a "cause of disease" search
• Therapy encompasses any type of intervention

» PubMed Topic-Specific Queries: use "canned" search strategies to fetch a citation subset of PubMed. Topic-specific queries include:

• Comparative Effectiveness
• Health Disparities
• Healthy People

Remember those PubMed "Top Tips"? Many are applicable to the databases below as well as several other databases.    

Global Health
Key Subjects: Global Health; Nutrition; Public Health
Citations in environmental and occupational health, food safety and hygiene, infectious diseases, medical microbiology, nutrition, public health, toxicology, zoonoses, and more. More international coverage than PubMed.
» Global Health does use a controlled vocabulary. Use the drop-down menu and select Descriptors then click to browse the thesaurus.
» What's not in PubMed?
    Search by (relatively narrow) geographic settings, or country in which work published.

Google Scholar
Key Subjects: Multidisciplinary
Citations in all topics.
» Google Scholar does not use a controlled vocabulary. Use Advanced Search by clicking the ▼ in the search box, then search for title words.
» What's not in PubMed?
    Broad topical scope. Be aware that Google Scholar lacks:
    » the ability to use iteration in developing search strategies,
    » any indexing,
    » bulk downloading or saving of records,
    » a complete description of its contents.

PsycINFO
Key Subjects: Psychology; Behavior
Citations in psychology, behavior, and related disciplines.
» PsycINFO does use a controlled vocabulary. Click Thesaurus to search or browse terms.
» What's not in PubMed?
    Economic security, community attitudes, test/measurement index ...

Sociological Abstracts
Key Subjects: Sociology; Demography
Citations in demography, social psychology, and sociology. 
» Sociological Abstracts does use a controlled vocabulary. Click Thesaurus to search or browse terms.
» What's not in PubMed?
    Cultural capital, peer relations, victimization, family structure, strategies, neighborhoods, social constructionism, ...

Web of Science
Key Subjects: Multidisciplinary
Large, multidisciplinary database; links to cited articles and times cited are provided for retrieved articles.
» Web of Science does not use a controlled vocabulary; it uses author keywords and keywords assigned algorithmically.
» What's not in PubMed?
    Scope of database is broad; excellent for cited reference searching.
» Cited Reference Searching exercise (.docx)

Use the library catalogs 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.

• OskiCat: UC Berkeley catalog

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

The animation above illustrates elements of a journal article cited in the APA format.

• You no longer need to configure a browser to use the Library Proxy.
• When you click on a resource link found in OskiCat, via "Start your search" on the Library home page, Databases A-Z or eJournals (UC eLinks), you will be prompted to authenticate. You may authenticate via CalNet, or via your PIN / Cal 1 card number.
• When you click on a resource link found via a search engine or a non-UCB Library webpage, you will need to use a bookmarklet to access the licensed resource.

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 web guide includes topical web pages consisting of annotated lists of organizations, agencies, databases, and publications. Topics include:
    • International Health
    • Environmental Health
    • Food/Nutrition
    • Maternal and Child Health
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")