I'm looking for articles on a particular topic. Where do I look?

You can search different databases to find journal articles.  Use any of the search terminals in the Health Sciences Library to access a number of health-related databases.  On the HealthLinks frontpage (healthlinks.washington.edu) there is a link to 'Reference' under the Resources tab. Key databases are linked from this page, or go to Databases for a complete list of health sciences databases (healthlinks.washington.edu/databases).

PubMed

The premier health sciences database is PubMed.  PubMed, produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, indexes more than 5000 biomedical journals.  Access PubMed under the Resources drop-down menu.

For help, see 'PubMed at the UW' (healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/pubmed).

Nursing Journals

Major nursing journals are indexed in PubMed.  CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is a more comprehensive index of nursing literature.  CINAHL is listed on the HealthLinks Database page (healthlinks.washington.edu/databases). For help, see 'Searhing CINAHL: Nursing & Allied Health' (healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/cinahl/).

Consumer Health Information

PubMed's primary audience is health practitioners and researchers.  If you prefer less technical articles you might try the database, MedlinePlus (medlineplus.gov). Another useful resource is the HealthLinks MyHealth Toolkit (healthlinks.washington.edu/myhealth). The MyHealth Toolkit contains a short list of health 'mega web sites'. MyHealth is one of the tabs at the top of the HealthLinks page.

I've got an incomplete article citation. How do I find the complete citation?

In PubMed go to the 'Single Citation Matcher'.  With Single Citation Matcher you can fill in the blanks with the information you do have to complete the citation.

I've got the abbreviated journal title. How do I find out the complete title?

In PubMed go to the 'Journals in NCBI Databases'.  Type the abbreviated title in the search box and click the 'Search' button.

If the journal is not included in PubMed try 'Biological Journals and Abbreviations' (home.ncifcrf.gov/research/bja/).  Or look in HSL's Reference Books section for Chemical Abstracts Service source index (Location: Health Reference Books Z5523 .A242)