Purpose and scope
I have created this guide to help you as you work on your research assignments for HSCI 822. Some of this I will talk about during my presentation, and some of this are links to resources that you can explore on your own. I am also very happy to provide research assistance in person, via email (
) or over the phone ( ).Databases to search
Think broadly; It's helpful to consider what fields are spanned by your research question, and therefore what databases may contain useful information for your essay. In addition to the health databases, you may also want to consider searching public policy databases and news databases for other perspectives on your topic. As well, different topics may suggest other fields to search, such as urban studies databases for road traffic, political science databases for trade agreements, criminology databases for illicit activities and communication or computing science databases for information and communication technology.
Health databases
- Medline: Detailed help on searching Medline in Ovid, including how to use MeSH terms and when to explode terms.
- CINAHL: Search instructions
- PsycINFO
- Global Health
- SFU Library Databases: Health Policy
- SFU Library Databases: Public Health
Public Policy databases
News databases
Finding grey literature
Grey literature will contain research on your topic that's been done by governments, university research centres and think tanks, that may not be commercially published and/or indexed in databases like Medline. For help on finding and using grey literature, see the Grey Literatures Library guide.
Citation Management Tools
Citation or reference management tools collect your journal article, book, or other document citations together in one place, and help you create properly formatted bibliographies in almost any style — in seconds. Citation management tools help you keep track of your sources while you work and store your references for future use and reuse.