- Grand Valley State University
- Subject Guides
- Health Communication
- Articles/Databases
Health Communication: Articles/Databases
Understanding health information
- Databases, journals, & articlesVideo defines each and explains how they fit together
- Evidence Based PracticeGuide to reading and evaluating medical information: what is the evidence?
- Consumer Health Complete This link opens in a new windowSupports the health and wellness information needs of patients. Covers mainstream medicine as well as complementary and holistic medicine.
- Sage Research Methods This link opens in a new windowArticles, books, & videos that explain qualitative research methods.
Health databases
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window4 evidence-based medical resources: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, ACP Journal Club, & Cochrane central Register of Controlled Trials.
- DynaMed This link opens in a new windowEvidence-based descriptions of medical conditions & treatments.
- ProQuest Medical Database This link opens in a new windowarticles on all the major healthcare specialties, including nursing, pediatrics, neurology, pharmacology, cardiology, physical therapy, etc.
- Psycinfo This link opens in a new windowjournal articles on medicine, psychiatry, education, social work, law, criminology, social science, & organizational behavior.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowPubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, is a publicly available online database of biomedical and medical journal records. It includes MEDLINE content.
- Campbell Systematic ReviewsLike Cochrane but open-access. Use the search box and the "refine search" option.
Communication databases
- Communication Source This link opens in a new windowJournal articles & more on all aspects of communication. Click Choose Databases to add: Academic Search Ultimate and any other relevant databases.
Policy databases
- PAIS International This link opens in a new windowHealth communication policy journal articles, etc.
- Public Administration Abstracts This link opens in a new windowHealth public policy journal articles & reports. Search: communicat* AND health or medic*
- Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new windowjournal articles & more on health education communication & social policy.
- Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new windowjournal articles, book chapters, & more on health/medical communication and patient education
Search tips for finding articles
- use "quotation marks" around phrases
- truncate - shorten a word to its trunk or root to get alternate endings - with an asterisk * (shift 8), e.g., truncat* finds truncate, truncated, truncation
- apply Boolean connector AND to combine unlike ideas, e.g., dance AND promotion
- apply Boolean connector OR to connect synonyms, e.g., advertisements OR campaigns
Put it all together:
- "hip hop dance" in one box
- AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns) in the next box
- use parentheses in single-box searching - when you don't have another set of boxes, e.g.,:
- "hip hop dance" AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns)
Use the left or right menus to narrow your results, e.g., by language, date, subject, etc.
Databases have a citation (information about an article such as the title, author, name of the journal or magazine, volume and issue (which correspond to the date), date, and pages) and sometimes they will also contain an abstract, or summary, of the article.
Databases also often cite multiple types of resources - books, essays or chapters, government documents, etc.
Some databases will also have the complete item (called the full text): you should see a link to an HTML or PDF document. Or click on - this will check the other library databases for the full text of the article.
- Last Updated: Oct 26, 2023 10:49 AM
- URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/healthcommunication