Research Guides: Public Health: Books & Background Information

Search NYU Libraries Resources

Search here for books, articles, journals and other print materials, videos, sound recordings, e-books, e-journals, databases, and indexes in our local libraries and special collections.

Ebook & Reference Collections

Ebook Central
Ebook Central is NYU's preferred ebook provider. Users can search, read, highlight, and annotate full-text books in many subject areas, including the social sciences and humanities.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is a portal for scholarship published in the sciences, engineering, and technology disciplines.
AccessScience
AccessScience is a collection of introductory reference materials relating to the major scientific disciplines. Users will find definitions, articles, images, videos, and curriculum maps drawn from the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, the McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology, and the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms.
Credo Reference
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
CogNet Library
MIT CogNet is a collection of journals, reference works, and books published by MIT Press in the area of brain and cognitive science. The collection also includes conference proceedings.
Oxford Scholarship Online
Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) offers full-text access to scholarly (peer-reviewed) monographs published by Oxford University Press in a range of academic disciplines. Users can discover content that is Open Access and print out PDFs of single chapters for individual use.
Oxford Bibliographies
Oxford Bibliographies presents constantly updated articles that contain citations (with annotations) and commentaries for sources across the disciplines. Users can search topics and gather relevant journal article and book citations, online resources, data sources, and more.

Review Articles

Reading a review article is a great way to gain a basic understanding of a topic - and the list of references at the end can help you get started on further research. Below are instructions on how to locate review articles in several databases.

Web of Science (formerly Web of Science Plus)
On the search results page, select "Literature Review" from under "Literature Types" in the left-hand navigation. Then click "Refine."
Environment Complete
There are no filters for publication type in this database. You can add the term "review" to your search to limit.
Medline via PubMed
On the search results page, click "Review" under "Article Types" in the left-hand list of filters. Or you can include "Review[ptyp]" in the search bar.

You can also search journals that publish reviews directly. Here's a good place to start.

Annual Reviews
Annual Reviews offers comprehensive, timely collections of critical reviews written by leading scientists. Annual Reviews volumes are published each year for 29 focused disciplines within the Biomedical, Physical, and Social Sciences.

Genetics Reference

Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)
Online catalog of human genes and genetic disorders, with good background information and references to foundational studies about the gene/phenotype discussed. Authored and edited at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Genetics Home Reference
Comprehensive consumer-friendly information about the effects of genetic variations on human health. From the National Library of Medicine.
Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms
In addition to definitions, specialists in the field of genetics share their descriptions of terms, and many terms include images and animations. From the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

News & Ideas

Looking for or trying to narrow down a topic? Some places to look for ideas.