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Finding the full text of an article
When you retrieve search results in the library's databases, click on the Find It! button to go to a page that lets you know whether the library owns the article in electronic full text, in print, or whether another library might own the journal.
Articles that display the "PDF Full Text" link have an electronic version of the article available. Click on this icon to view or print the article.
Use the Journal Title List to find out whether Hunter owns a specific journal.
Search from home
To search any of the library's databases from off campus, simply log in with the same username and password that you use for your Hunter e-mail account (as per the following instructions).
Recommended Resources for Public Health Research
Public health research may comprise interdisciplinary approaches, necessitating searches in multiple databases. Different databases may have different content and different algorithms for ranking the relevance of results; try searching multiple databases to gain a more complete view of the available literature related to your research objectives.
This page offers links to key literature databases for Public Health Research. The links are collected in boxes for "essential resources," "medical science resources," and "social science resources." These are loose distinctions intended to provided some initial direction for conducting exploratory research; they are not exclusive classifications of the database contents, there can be significant overlap in coverage between any of the resources listed here.
Essential Resources
Search these for every research problem involving public health.
- PubMedThe flagship bibliographic database of the National Library of Medicine. PubMed is a comprehensive database of biomedical and health related literature. Articles in MEDLINE are indexed with medical subject headings and may be found within PubMed. The full text of NIH funded research articles may be found in PubMed Central. The link here is directed through the Hunter Libraries proxy so that you may take advantage of links to the full text of subscription-only articles that Hunter Libraries provide.
- MEDLINE (via EBSCO)This is essentially the same database as PubMed, but you can search it using the EBSCO interface, which has some nice features for saving and exporting your search results. You can also search in multiple EBSCO hosted databases (like SOCINDEX or PSYCARTICES) at the same time.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowThe Google search engine for searching scholarly literature. Google Scholar searches PubMed and also JSTOR, repositories, journal websites, and individual websites. It also offers citation indexing, which allows researchers to link to articles that cite an article of interest. "Full text at Hunter" links appear next to articles provided by Hunter Libraries.
Medical Science Resources
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a comprehensive interdisciplinary database with particularly excellent coverage of sciences. It also features extensive coverage of social sciences, citation indexing, and limiters for categories of scholarly literature; for example, you may focus your search within "public, environmental, and occupational health" journals.
- Science DirectGood coverage of public health, nutrition, and epidemiology. Some coverage of environmental and occupational health. If you have already searched PubMed and Web of Science, this is a good resource to add to your search in order to be thorough.
- CINAHLThe "Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health" features good coverage of public health topics, particularly issues dealing with disease outbreak, patient care, health communication and promotion, and policy and administration.
- The Cochrane Database of Systematic ReviewsSystematic reviews provide a summary of the evidence related to a specific problem or question. Cochrane reviews adhere to a rigorous standard of methodology. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews is indexed in PubMed and Cochrane reviews will appear in PubMed search results. Visiting the Cochrane online library itself may be useful for researchers specifically interested in locating a Cochrane systemic review. The Cochrane library also provides resources for learning about the Cochrane methodology and for locating reports on clinical trials that are included in systematic reviews.
Social Science Resources
- Social Sciences PremiumSocial Sciences Premium is a collection of databases; including the public policy database, PAIS International; the education database, ERIC; and several sociology databases. Social Sciences Premium also features some coverage of language and applied linguistics and political science.
- SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowSocINDEX is a comprehensive database of sociological research with good coverage of public health topics. It indexes some of the major journals found in PubMed and also includes journals focused on ethnic and urban studies that are not included in PubMed.
- PsycINFOPsycINFO is a key database of literature in psychology. Search here if you are doing anything related to mental health.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowSome good coverage of operational research, program planning, and economics perspectives on public health topics.
- The Campbell CollaborationThe Campbell Collaboration provides systematic reviews of interventions in education, crime and justice, social welfare and international development.