Guides: First Aid: Find Scholarly Resources

Information Seeking Strategy

Step 3

At this stage, you should have a well defined question or questions that you are looking for answers about your health topic.

Think about the type of information you will need to answer your question. Do you know the pathology (cause and effect) and the epidemiology (incidences, distribution, and possible control) of a disease? Do you need statistics? Historical information on the medical research and treatment ? Current medical developments?
Identify the key concepts or keywords, they will be the terms you use in your search. (Do not type your question into the search box. You will not get the best results.)
Think about where you will need to look to find this information.
- Books
- Medical research journals
- Medical magazines
- Health-specific websites

Health and Medicine Databases

CINAHL Plus with Full-Text (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) (EBSCO)
Major full-text database for nursing and allied health professionals; use the CINAHL headings to quickly find the correct terminology for a disease or syndrome and add subheadings for a more focused search - find out how!
Academic Search Complete
Multi-disciplinary database; full text of articles from over 5300 journals magazines and newspapers plus image collections.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition (EBSCO)
Full text from some 550 scholarly medical journals plus citations and abstracts from 850 others.
Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine
Use this database to find articles on: Fitness, Pregnancy, Medicine, Nutrition, Diseases, Public Health, Occupational Health and Safety, Alcohol and Drug abuse, HMOs, Prescription Drugs, etc.
Medline with MESH (EBSCO)

PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
PubMed includes MedLine, a comprehensive database of medical research, along with citations from other sources. Don't forget to use the limits on the left column of your search results to limit by year, free full-text available, type of article and more! Learn how to search using Medical Subject Headings for even faster search results.

How do I get into the databases off campus?

Don't have a barcode number? Apply online and our circulation staff will email you a barcode number to your Lone Star College email address. Need it sooner? Call our reference librarians at 281.312.1693 during library hours.