Public Health: Searching for Articles

Before you actually start searching any of the databases, you should think about what you're going to be looking for. Generally speaking, research papers require you to cite sources in a couple of places, typically in the introduction and discussion, and occasionally in the methods and results sections.

The articles you cite are meant to provide context and background information to the evidence and conclusions you present. You will need supporting information for two, possibly three, things:

1. Background. This should answer the question "Why?" Why is this research topic important? Why should you or anyone else care about it? 
2. Evidence. This should answer the question "What?" What evidence have others put forth that supports (or refutes) your conclusions? What conclusions have others come up with that supports (or refutes) the research you're writing about?
3. Methodology. This should answer the question "How?" How have others conducted similar research? (This question is not usually as important as the other two unless your topic uses a novel methodology or adapts an existing methodology.)

The trap that many researchers fall into is trying to find articles that match up with theirs almost exactly. They will search for all of their subtopics at once and despair because they can only find a handful of articles that match all those terms. Don't fall into this trap. Search using a couple of subtopics at a time, and mix and match them as you go. Realize that some articles may look at first as if they are not useful because they do not exactly match your topic, but don't automatically discount things that only match a portion of your topic. If you're studying flu vaccines, an article about COVID vaccines is still going to be useful in providing background information for your paper.

The databases listed below are the that are likely to be the most useful for the largest number of researchers in your discipline here at Miami. If you are having trouble finding what you need from these, you can either check out the full list of public health databases we subscribe to on our Databases A-Z page, or you can contact one of your subject librarians (Ginny or Megan) for help.

PubMed is an important database for the life and health sciences.

This first video below will show you how to best search for relevant articles using a sample topic.

This next video will show you around the PubMed interface, including how to use filters to narrow your results and how to access the full-text (video will start at 1:37).

CINAHL Plus is a nursing and allied health database, and is one of our best options for healthcare and related research. The video below will show you some best practices for searching using the subtopics and keywords you selected for your research question.

BIOSIS Previews, a Web of Science database, is probably going to be one of your best options for biological and environmental research. It has broad coverage for lots of areas in the life and health sciences, and also has some important citation tracking capabilities.

This first video will show you some best practices for searching using the subtopics and keywords you selected for your research question.

This next video will provide some additional information about what you'll see on the search results page and how to access the full-text for the articles you want to read (video will start playing at 2:50).

The Web of Science Core Collection is another great database for scientific research. It uses the same interface as BIOSIS Previews, above, but allows for the use of an additional filter: Review Articles.

Review articles are great to look at if you are unfamiliar with a topic and want to get a sense of the current state of research, or if you are interested in trying to find gaps in the literature. You can refine your search to only include review articles using the filter.

On the other hand, if you need primary research and want an easy way to exclude secondary research from your search results, you can use the filter to exclude review articles.

The BIOSIS Previews videos above will help you get familiar with the interface for both BIOSIS Previews and the WoS Core Collection.