Overview
This page contains core resources for conducting research in Public Health, including databases, guidelines and systematic reviews, filtered searches, and additional resources.
Databases
General Medicine/Health Research
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PubMedPubMed is a database maintained by the National Library of Medicine. It contains over 30 million citations from various biomedical and health science fields and other related disciplines.
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EmbaseEmbase is a biomedical database that includes sources on drugs and pharmacology, medical devices, clinical medicine, and basic sciences relevant to clinical medicine. It contains over 46.5 million records, 5.1 million conference abstracts, and over 8,400 journals.
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Web of ScienceWeb of Science was originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information and is currently maintained by Clarivate Analytics. Web of Science provides subscription-based access to multiple, interdisciplinary databases, and contains citations for traditional scholarly articles and gray literature.
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CINAHLHealth Sciences database (EBSCO) that covers literature in the fields of medicine, nursing, and related allied health disciplines. Also contains care sheets, education modules, research instruments records, standards of practice, and educational software.
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Google ScholarGoogle Scholar contains articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.
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ScopusLarge, multidisciplinary database that covers science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Other Subject Databases
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SocINDEXCovers all aspects of sociology, including abortion, criminal justice, ethnicity and race, gender studies, politics, religion, social work, substance abuse, urban studies, violence, welfare, and more.
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Health and Safety Science AbstractsThis database covers public health, safety, and industrial hygiene including aviation and aerospace safety, environmental safety, nuclear safety, medical safety, occupational safety, and ergonomics. Produced in conjunction with the University of Southern California's Institute of Safety and Systems Management, it indexes over 13,000 research journals and numerous government reports, conference proceedings, and books in the field of public health and safety. (Updated quarterly)
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PsycInfoDatabase on mental health, psychological, and psychiatric research.
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PAIS InternationalPublic Affairs Information Service indexes more than 900 journals; books; government documents; statistical compilations; committee reports; directories; serials; reports of public, intergovernmental, and private organizations; and most other forms of printed literature from all over the world. Its subject matter covers public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general.
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Education SourceCovers research in the field of education from early childhood through higher education.
Not finding what you're looking for? Check out Ebling Library's Health Sciences Databases A-Z, or the UW Library's Database Search to find more databases. Note that some databases in the UW Library's Database Search may be inaccessible to you due to subscription restrictions.
Guidelines and Systematic Reviews
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The Campbell CollaborationThe Campbell Collaboration is an international social science research network that produces high quality, open and policy-relevant evidence syntheses, plain language summaries and policy briefs. The Campbell Collaboration promotes positive social and economic change through the production and use of systematic reviews and other evidence synthesis for evidence-based policy and practice.
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Cochrane LibraryEvidence-based medical information, clinical trials, and systematic reviews on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions.
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ECRI Guidelines TrustECRI Guidelines Trust is a publicly available online repository of objective, evidence-based clinical practice guideline content. Its purpose is to provide physicians, nurses, other clinical specialties, and members of the healthcare community with current clinical practices to advance safe and effective patient care. This centralized repository includes evidence-based guidance developed by nationally and internationally recognized medical organizations and medical specialty societies.
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Guide to Clinical Preventive ServicesThe 2014 Guide to Clinical Preventive Services includes U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening, counseling, and preventive medication topics and includes clinical recommendations for each topic. This pocket guide provides family physicians, internists, pediatricians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians with an authoritative source for making decisions about preventive services.
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Health EvidenceSearch healthevidence.org for access to 6,644 quality-rated systematic reviews evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions, including cost data.
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MMWR Recommendations and ReportsThe MMWR Recommendations and Reports contain in-depth articles that relay policy statements for prevention and treatment on all areas in CDC’s scope of responsibility (e.g., recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices).
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TRIP DatabaseTrip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care. In addition to research evidence TRIP allows clinicians to search across other content types including images, videos, patient information leaflets, educational courses and news.
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U.S. Preventive Services TaskforceThe U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine. The Task Force works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services.
Websites
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Association of State and Territorial Health OfficialsASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing public health agencies in the United States, the U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia, and over 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO's primary function is to track, evaluate, and advise members on the impact and formation of public or private health policy which may affect them and to provide them with guidance and technical assistance on improving the nation's health.
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Evidence-based Practice PortalThis website provides free online access to evidence-based public health (EBPH) resources, knowledge domains of public health, and public health journals and databases. The resources are arranged along a pathway of evidence to allow public health practitioners to easily find and use the best evidence to develop and implement effective interventions, programs, and policies.
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Office of Adolescent Health (US Dept of Health & Human Services)The Office of Population Affairs (OPA), in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, administers the Title X family planning, Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Pregnancy Assistance Fund, and Embryo Adoption Awareness programs. OPA advises the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Health on a wide range of reproductive and adolescent health topics, including teen pregnancy prevention, family planning, and sterilization, as well as other population issues.
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Public Health Image Library (PHIL) - CDCreated by a Working Group at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the PHIL offers an organized, universal electronic gateway to CDC's pictures. Public health professionals, the media, laboratory scientists, educators, students, and the worldwide public may use this material for reference, teaching, presentation, and public health messages.
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Red Book Online (AAP)From the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Red Book provides access to information, news, and clinical guidelines relating to pediatric infectious diseases. It contains point of care information and the latest developments on more than 200 childhood infectious diseases.
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SAMHSAThe Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities.
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Wisconsin State Law Library - healthThe Wisconsin State Law Library exists to serve the legal information needs of the officers and employees of this state, attorneys and the public by providing the highest quality of professional expertise in the selection, maintenance and use of materials, information and technology in order to facilitate equal access to the law.
Filtered Searches
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PubMed Health Services Research (HSR) QueriesThis page provides specialized PubMed searches on healthcare quality and costs.
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PubMed Health Disparities SearchThe MEDLINE/PubMed health disparities search retrieves citations to journal literature, combining subject terms and title & abstract words.
Additional Resources
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Global Health Research GuideThis research guide contains resources specific to Global Health.
Accessing Articles
LibKey Nomad 
The LibKey Nomad browser extension looks for DOIs and PMIDs on any website you visit, and if it finds them, provides buttons and pop-ups to connect you to the full text through Ebling Library. Check out the LibKey Nomad video tutorial to learn how to install and use.
Find It @ UW 
Find It @ UW provides links from a citation in a database to the full text of that article, if available, and to other helpful resources and services such as an automatic search of the Library Catalog, a direct link to an interlibrary loan form, and a link to ask for additional assistance from a librarian.
Interlibrary Loan and Article Delivery
If the library doesn't have access to a full text article you can request the full text through the library's Interlibrary Loan and Article Delivery Service.
Citation Finder
Locate articles when you have a citation using Citation Search.
Download BrowZine for e-journals
You can use Browzine to browse journals. Your UW NetID login is required after downloading the software. Apple, Android, and Kindle readers are supported. Note that not all Public Health journals are included in this tool.