English 207 - Health Science Writing
Spring 2008

Library Instruction Program - Research and Instructional Support
For more information about this topic contact Mary Boulanger

Table of Contents

  1. Research tips
  2. Library and Research Assistance
  3. Finding Life and Health Sciences Information
    1. Library catalog [PantherCat]
    2. Indexes and Databases
    3. Life and Health Sciences Related Internet Resources
  4. Using the Web Wisely

Research Tips

Tips for Constructing a Search

For example: What ethical questions are raised by human cloning?

Sample searches:   human cloning and ethics                  human cloning and morality

Library and Research Assistance

Proxy Server
This link allows UWM students, faculty, and staff with Internet access to connect to most of the Libraries' subscription databases and electronic journals from home (a few titles are licensed for on-campus or in-library use only).
AskaLibrarian
An email and at times chat service, AskaLibrarian provides a forum for questions at all hours. Check this web page for chat room hours.
Electronic Reserve
E-reserve materials generally consist of scanned journal articles, book chapters, lecture notes, and sample exams. These printable materials may be accessed from off-campus computers using the proxy server [see above].

InterLibrary Loan
When materials cannot be found at the UWM Libraries, there are many options available for obtaining those items. ILL office hours are 10:00am to 4:00pm, Monday-Friday, but most requests are made through the online system, ILLiad, available 24 hours a day. There are links to ILLiad on many UWM Libraries web pages, and in article databases through the Find It! button.

Research Consultation
This is an in-depth advisory service about specific library research processes offered by librarians of the RIS Department to the students, staff and faculty of UWM. Use this link to find out more or to request an appointment.
Finding Life and Health Sciences Information

The Library Catalog

PantherCat
Truncation symbol is ?    For example work? searches work, works, working, worked...
Sample Keyword (and, or, not) search in the catalog:   "family stress" and work?

Selected Indexes and Databases

On the UWM Libraries home page under "Find Articles", the Resources A-Z link leads to an alphabetical list of databases. Some index journals, magazines and newspapers from various subject disciplines. Others are collections containing the electronic full text of such journals. The ones listed below relate to the Life Sciences. They each have online guides.
Academic Search
1984-present; indexes over 3,400 scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers in the areas of business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, education, and multi-cultural studies. Full-text is available for 2,000 journals starting with January 1985. Guide
MEDLINE via PubMed FREE ACCESS
MEDLINE via EBSCOHost
1950-present; indexes over 4,800 journals in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine and the preclinical sciences. PubMed is the National Library of Medicine's search service that provides access to over 14 million citations in MEDLINE, and other related databases, with links to participating online journals. Guide | Tutorial
CINAHL Plus with Full Text [Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature] Tutorial
Dates vary; CINAHL Plus with Full Text provides indexing for over 3,000 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing back to 1937. CINAHL Plus with Full Text also contains searchable cited references for more than 1,155 journals and provides full text for hundreds of journals, plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. PDF backfiles to 1937 are also included. Guide
MEDLINEplus
MEDLINEplus brings together, by health topic, authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other government, non-profit and other health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MEDLINEplus and give easy access to the medical research literature. It also provides you with a database of full-text drug information and an illustrated medical encyclopedia.

Life and Health Sciences Related Internet Resources

There are many places to get life and health Sciences information on the Internet. Deciding what is reliable, however, is a critical distinction in the health fields. The following resources offer a sampling of critiqued web sites.

Life and Health/Biological Sciences Subject Guide
One of over one hundred subject guides created by UWM Libraries staff, the Life and Health/BiologicalSciences guide lists indexes, databases, other research guides, and selected web sites in various biological sciences, medicine, nursing, and other health fields.

Healthfinder.gov
Healthfinder.gov is web site for consumers, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services together with other Federal agencies. Since 1997, healthfinder.gov has been linking to carefully selected Web sites from over 1,500 government and nonprofit health and human services organizations.

Using the Web Wisely

Though not specifically related to the health fields, the first three resources are Subject Directories to web sites evaluated by people (as opposed to "selected" by a computer). The other sites listed give some general guidelines to evaluating and citing web sites.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
Search by keyword or look through the directory - keyword can lead to directory sections to search further

Internet Scout Report
Subject Directory maintained by UW Madison

Infomine - Scholarly Index Resource Collections
Contains over 20,000 well-selected and described links to scholarly resources on the Internet. Searchable. 

How to evaluate and cite Web Sites

Evaluating Websites (from Colorado State University Libraries)

Citing Web sites  (from Bedford / St. Martin's)

Citation Style Manuals
Contains links to manuals for citing both print and online resources. Includes APA, MLA and more.