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HEAL 4500: Women's Health Care: Find Articles

A guide of library resources to support online coursework in HEAL 4500

Select Research Databases

Below is a select list of research databases from which to begin searching for articles. To view more databases in other disciplines visit OhioLINK Databases by Subject.

What is a Research Article?

Research or scholarly articles generally have several characteristics that define them.  They:

  • are written by and for academic faculty, researchers and/or experts
  • use technical or field-specific vocabulary
  • give full bibliographic references (AKA a "Works Cited List")
  • are published mostly in academic journals, with titles like the American Journal of Sociology
  • are generally sober and serious in tone
  • may have charts, graphs and table but are not glossy and colorful like magazines
  • often report results of research

The most prestigious research articles are "peer-reviewed", meaning they are edited by an expert panel.

How do I Find a Research Article?

BEFORE you jump into a database, critically think about your topic and follow these steps:

1) Identify the key concepts. The databases do not like phrases (ex. how does physical therapy improve shoulder conditions).  Use only the key concepts terms as physical therapy, shoulder.

2) Develop synonyms for your terms.The term shoulder may not be used to represent that concept in every article.  Maybe the term clavicle is used? Or rotator cuff?  Adding these with "or" in between will help you find more items. For example: shoulder OR clavicle OR "rotator cuff"*

3) Combine your terms well, using Boolean logic operators (a fancy way of saying and, or, and not). For example, "Physical therapy" AND (shoulder OR clavicle OR "rotator cuff". * A short video on Boolean logic is linked in the box below.

* Quotation marks force phrase searching

Boolean Searching

Places to go to find articles:

Here are links to resources to help in finding and obtaining articles online:

1) Go here to find articles:

2) To obtain articles not accessible through the UToledo databases: Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) (See also ILLiad LibGuide)

3) Use customized library guides (LibGuides) to find statistics, research Instruments, tips for doing research, and more