Research Guides: Public Health: Books & Background Information

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Search for books, journals, videos, etc. in our local libraries and special collections.

Books & More

Ebook & Reference Collections

Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
ScienceDirect is a portal for scholarship published in the sciences, engineering, and technology disciplines.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
CogNet Library This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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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.
Users can create an account and view ebooks
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
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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.
We are working to resolve intermittent access issues to this resource.

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) This link opens in a new window
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On the search results page, select "Literature Review" from under "Literature Types" in the left-hand navigation. Then click "Refine."
Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
There are no filters for publication type in this database. You can add the term "review" to your search to limit.
Medline via PubMed This link opens in a new window
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 This link opens in a new window
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.