Research Guides: HLTH 115: Introduction to Health Studies (BMC): Journal Articles

What's a Journal?

Scholarly journals are written by and for experts in a field. The articles tend to be long and contain many citations and footnotes.

Popular magazines are written for a more general audience, and authors tend to be journalists or staff writers. The articles usually don't provide footnotes or detailed citations.

For a more detailed analysis of the differences between these types of publications, see these sites:

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals video (Vanderbilt University)
This short video introduces the main differences between these two types of publications.

Scholarly vs. Popular Materials (NCSU Libraries)
This page compares popular, scholarly and trade journals.

Multidisciplinary Databases

These databases cover a wide range of topics and would be helpful for Mechanisms, Social Determinants, and Representations.

ProQuest Research Library
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Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Some health and medicine titles are included.
TIP: Be sure to limit your search to scholarly articles. That way you'll avoid getting articles from popular magazines.
JSTOR
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Provides full text articles from selected scholarly journals in a number of fields, including the life sciences.
NOTE: Journals in JSTOR usually do not include the most recent three to five years. For more recent articles, use one of the other indexes listed on this page.

Mechanisms

These databases and journals will be useful when you are researching for Essay #1 and examining mechanisms of disease.

Databases (i.e. search multiple journals at once)

Web of Science
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This database is composed of both the Science and Social Science Citation Indexes. In Web of Science you can:
1) Use the Search tab to search for articles by topic or author.
2) Start with a known article and use the Cited Reference Search tab to find other articles that cite it.
TIP: To bring the articles most relevant to the topic to the top of the results list for a subject search, change the "Sort By Option" to "Relevance".
PubMed
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Includes citations to biomedical articles from the 1950's to present. These citations are from MEDLINE and additional life science journals.
TIP: You can also search Medline journals using the Web of Science interface. Simply log on to Web of Science, then under "SELECT A DATABASE" choose MEDLINE.

Individual Journals

Once you have constructed your search, you'll want to search various journals or databases to see what articles have been written on your topic.

The following are just a few of many journals that can be searched or browsed independently.

Science
JAMA
Nature
Lancet
New England Journal of Medicine (all but the most recent 3 month is available to us online)
American Journal of Public Health

You'll find many other journal titles in Tripod.

Also, Science and Nature have put together comprehensive coverage of a number of topics, including several on various diseases and conditions.

Science Magazine: Topics A to Z

Find important news and research articles published in Science Magazine. A number of topics are included, including Zika Virus, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Infectious Diseases and Cancer are included.
Nature Magazine: Special and Supplements Archive

Special issues from Nature Magazine on various biological and health topics.

Social Determinants

This database will be useful when you are researching for Essay #2 and examining social determinants of disease.

ProQuest Social Science Database
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This database, formerly known as "ProQuest Social Science Journals" provides citations and abstracts to articles from about 450 social sciences periodicals. Full-text/images are available for over 200 of the periodicals indexed. Coverage from 1994 to present.
ProQuest Political Science Database
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Provides access to over 240 leading political science and international relations journals. This collection provides full-text of many core titles included in Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Coverage from 1985 to present.
AnthroSource
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Provides full text articles from American Anthropological Association journals, newsletters, and bulletins. Covers 1888-present.
Anthropology Plus
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Indexes journal articles, reports and commentaries in many fields including social, cultural, physical, biological and linguistic anthropology, archaeology, ethnology, folklore and interdisciplinary studies. Covers the late 19th century-present.
Sociological Abstracts
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Find journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and conference papers in the fields of sociology, social work and related disciplines as far back as 1963. Includes Social Services Abstracts journals.

Also try Google scholar and search by country and disease or condition.

Individual Journals

Here are links to some individual journal titles that you might find useful:

Representations

For cultural representations, you won't so much be looking for journal articles. See the "Books, Films, and More" tab for help finding appropriate resources.