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Medicine and Health

The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in Medicine and Health. For further assistance, contact a Science Reference Librarian.

Starting Your Research

These titles are all located in the Science Library Reference area. They will provide short articles and some will have a bibliography or suggestions for further reading. This list refers to general sources only. In the Science Library there are also specialized references works for many branches of medicine, including genetics, neurology, orthopedics, and toxicology.

  • General Reference
    • Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide. Anthony L. Komaroff, ed. [SCI. REF. RC81 .H38 1999]
    • Merck Manual of Medical Information, 2nd home ed. M.H. Beers, ed.[SCI. REF. RC81M535 2003]
    • Oxford Textbook of Medicine. D.J. Weatherall et. al., eds. [SCI. REF. RC46 .O995 2003]
    • Women's Health Care. Catherine Ingram Fogel & Nancy Fugate Woods, eds. [SCI. REF. RA564.85 .W66684 1995]
  • Dictionaries
    • Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. [SCI. REF. R121 .D73 30th Ed.]
    • Oxford Reference Online: Medicine.
    • Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine. Nigel Wiseman & Feng Ye. [SCI. REF. R601 .W57 1998]
    • Spanish-English, English-Spanish Medical Dictionary = Diccionario Medico Espanol-Ingles, Ingles-Espanol, 3rd ed. Onyria Herrera McElroy. [R121 .M488 2005]
    • Stedman's Medical Dictionary. [SCI. REF. R121 .S8 2000]
  • Drug Information
    • Physician's Desk Reference. [SCI. REF. RS75 .P5 60th ed. 2006]
    • Physician's Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines. [SCI. REF. RS75 .P554 2nd Ed.]
  • History of Medicine
    • Chronology of Medicine and Related Sciences. Leslie T. Morton & Robert J. Moore. [SCI. REF. R133.M717 1997]
    • Dictionary of American Medical Biography. Martin Kaufman et. al., eds. [SCI. REF. R153 .D53 1984]
    • Encyclopedia of Medical History. Roderick McGrew. [SCI. REF. R133 .M34 1985]
  • Journals
    In each issue of the Journal of the American Medical Society (JAMA) there is a research news section called "Medical News and Perspectives", in which the latest information is reported at a readable, non-specialist level. Try browsing these sections for "hot" topic ideas.

Finding Articles

To find articles in journals, newspapers or magazines, you will need to search in an index. You can search a topic using keywords, or by author or title if you already have a citation. Once you know the journal title and volume you need, you will need to check the UO Library Catalog to see if we own it. The Science Library shelves all journals alphabetically by title, in either the Bound Journals or Current Journals area. Remember that the Reference Librarians are always happy to assist you if you have any questions!

  • Academic Search Premier
    An interdisciplinary article index with many full-text articles. Features include 'peer reviewed only' and 'full-text only' search options. The mix of scholarly and popular journals makes it a good place to search for opinion or controversy papers.
  • AgeLine
    American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) resource for articles and other publications on health and medicine, particularly good for age-related topics.
  • Health Source: Consumer Edition
    Provides full text from nearly 270 periodicals covering nutrition, exercise, medical self-care, drugs and alcohol, and much more.
  • Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
    Provides nearly 540 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for over 570 journals.
  • MEDLINE or PubMed
    This online database from the National Library of Medicine incorporates the print Index Medicus. All areas of biomedical research are covered including clinical medicine, genetics, and cell biology, from 1966 to the present. From within this database you can check if UO owns the journal containing an article you want, and if not, request an interlibrary loan. You also can click on the button (found in the Full Record of a citation) to see if the UO has the article in electronic full-text.
  • Web of Science
    The web version of the Science Citation Index (as well as the Social Sciences Citation Index) from 1996 to the present. This interdisciplinary database allows you to find out who has cited a known reference, as well as searching for current research articles by author, topic, etc. Click on the button to see if the UO has the article in electronic full-text. If not, you can check if the UO Libraries own a print copy of the journal containing an article you want, or request it from another library. Earlier years of the Science Citation Index can be searched on CD-ROM or in print [Z7401 .S365] in the Science Reference area.

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Finding Books

  • UO Library Catalog
    Identify books by topic, title or author; identify journals and magazines owned by the UO Library. To find journal articles on your topic, use the databases listed in the section above. Once you have a citation, you can check the library catalog by doing a title search on the name of the journal to see if we have it here.
  • Summit: The Orbis Cascade Alliance Union Catalog
    A library catalog that combines information from Northwest academic libraries into a single unified database, putting millions of items at your fingertips. Look here first for books the UO does not own or that are not available for checkout. UO students and faculty may borrow books from Orbis-Cascade institutions by selecting the 'Request Item' option. Within 3 days the book requested should be on hold for you at Knight Library. You can request books and some other types of material, but not journal articles.
  • WorldCat
    WorldCat provides access to library catalogs from around the world. The database contains bibliographic records describing books, dissertations, journals, maps, electronic and internet resources, manuscripts, and more. From within this database, you can check if UO owns a book of interest, and if not, request an interlibrary loan. (Always check Orbis Cascade first, though.)

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Web Resources

  • Health Finder
    An award-winning U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, HealthFinder links to the Internet sites of over 1,800 health-related government and non-profit health and human services organizations.
  • HealthWeb
    The Greater Midwest Region of the National Network Libraries of Medicine developed this site "to provide organized access to evaluated non-commercial, health-related, Internet accessible resources."
  • Librarian's Index to the Internet - Health & Medicine
    Sponsored by the Library of California, LII is a searchable subject directory of Internet resources that have been selected and evaluated by librarians.
  • MEDLINEplus
    A National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website, MEDLINEplus includes reliable information on diseases and conditions, a medical encyclopedia and dictionaries, health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs, and links to clinical trials.
  • Citing Electronic Documents
  • Searching the Web
  • "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, or Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources"

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Prepared by Victoria Mitchell
(541) 346-3076• vmitch@uoregon.edu
Last modified 14 August 2006
http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/medicine/index.html