Library Resources for
Human Disease and Society Learning Community
Off Campus Access
Most of the library resources you will need to use will require you to
sign in for off campus access. You will simply need to sign in with your ASURITE ID and password.
Finding Background Information
Using encyclopedias and handbooks can be a good way to get background information and a basis for your topic. This will help you build your knowledge and vocabulary to make further refining of your topic more efficient. Some options include:
Access Science
To browse articles on broad topics, choose from the list of topics in the middle of the first screen, such as Biological and Biomedical Sciences and Medicine. These will lead you to more specific topical areas such as research updates on cloning and predictive genetics of cancer, among many other topics.
Tip: Each entry includes instructions on how to cite the article at the bottom of the page.
Encyclopedia of the Life Sciences
This is a comprehensive online biological science encyclopedia. Try both searching by topic as well as browsing (look for Subject Browse option on the navigation bar).
Tip: Look for the "how to cite" option on the left hand side of the screen.
CQ Researcher
The CQ Researcher Online provides original, comprehensive reports and analyses on current issues.. Controversial topics are addressed in a balanced, unbiased manner. Reports generally include bibliographies for additional information.
Some of the paper topics will have relevant reports available. Be sure, however, to note the date of the report. Remember, currency for science topics is important.
Opposing Viewpoints
A full-text database providing differing points of view on current social issues. The database brings together viewpoint articles, contextual topic overviews, government and organizational statistics, biographies of social activists, court cases, profiles of government agencies and special interest groups, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as links to more than 1,800 reviewed and subject-indexed web sites.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
This is the complete encyclopedia online which also includes links to associated articles within the encyclopedia as well evaluated web sites.
Gives citation format for MLA, APA, and Britannica citation styles.
Finding books in the online catalog
Search the online catalog to find information about books, journals (but not articles), newspapers, microforms sets, reference works, sound recordings, videos, government documents and Special Collections materials, and other items the library owns.
Tip: Books can be very helpful to provide background information for your topic, even if your assignment requires you to use journal articles.
The easiest way to start searching for materials in in the online catalog is to do a keyword search. Remember to combine your keywords with appropriate connectors (and, or, not), and to search for alternate endings by truncating with an asterisk (*).
ethic* and cloning
You can then examine the records to see if there are specific subject headings that would lead you to other relevant items in the catalog.
Cloning - moral and ethical aspects
Be sure to note where the book is located (SCIENCE 3rd Floor or HAYDEN Stacks), as well as the call number. You'll need these to find the book on the shelf in the library.
Finding Articles
Be sure to follow the
button to find the full text of articles online or in the library.
Searching for popular articles on a topic
Academic
Search Premier Includes some full text
A great place to start to search for magazine and journal
articles on almost all topics. Includes includes popular magazine and scholarly journal articles.
Tip: Check "peer reviewed" box to limit your search
to scholarly journals.
LexisNexis Academic Includes full text
LexisNexis Academic is a great place to search for full text news articles.
Tip: Use the "Quick Search" tab to search for news items from a variety of sources. Use the "Guided News" tab to limit your search to a particular set of newspapers or region of the country.
New York Times: Science Section
Current NYT articles require a free registration to access articles.
Searching for scholarly scientific articles on a topic
PubMed
PubMed provides access to citations to thousands of biomedical journal articles, including bioethics topics. Enter your search terms without combining with an AND for maximum results: gene therapy ethics
To limit to "Review" articles and Engligh, click on LIMIT under search box
Then choose REVIEW from "Publication Type" drop down menu and ENGLISH from "Languages" drop down menu:
To find full text: When using PubMed from off campus, enter the journal abbreviation from the citation in
the Journals Database to determine the full title of the journal.
Then look for full text access on the library's Find Journals page, under "Electronic Journals". If you don't do this step when working from off campus, the publisher will ask you to pay for the articles you want.
BIOSIS
Links to some full text
BIOSIS is the primary index to search for articles
on topics related to biology and biomedicine.
Tip: Look for the at
the end of the information for each article to link directly to the
full text of it online.
Web of
Science Links to some full text
The Web of Science is a good place to search for articles on
most science subjects. You can search by subject, or author, and the
reference lists for each article are included. You can also find out
who has cited a particular work (Cited Reference Searching).
Specific popular science magazines
Bioethics Scholarly Journals
You can search for bioethics articles by visiting the individual journal article sites listed below. You can also search for articles in all medical journals by going to PubMed and searching for your topic plus the word "ethics". If the journal article you'd like to use does not appear in one of the journals listed below, please consult Prof. McGregor or Prof. Woein for approval.
Finding Opinion/Editorials
It may be useful to find speicically opinion articles or editorials. To do this search in LexisNexis to find newspaper opinion articles, you should follow these steps:
Go to Guided Search. Choose "General News" (or US News to focus on a specific geographic region), then "Major Papers" (or the region you are interested in). In the search boxes, enter your terms in the top box, and then this string in the next:
section(editor! or opinion or op-ed) in Full Text
Remember this will retrieve both editorials written by newspaper staff and letters to the editor written by the general public. Be sure to evaluate which type you find.
Do we have the journal? : Locating specific articles
If you already have information about a specific article (author, title,
journal title, volume, etc.), you need to find out where the journal is
available.
Find Journals
Search both for Ejournal and Print format. Some journals are not available online!.
Tip: Be sure to search for the journal
title, not the article title.
Citation Linker
Enter in the citation information about the article and see if the search can find it for you
Getting articles not available at ASU
The library can get you a copy of an article that is not available electronically
or in print through the Interlibrary
Loan service. This service is free, and takes between
one and three days for your article to arrive.
Evaluating Journal Articles
Most instructors request that peer reviewed articles in scholarly journals
rather than popular magazines be used. These resources will help you in
figuring out if the article you found meets these criteria:
Resources for HDSII Definitional Argument Paper
Multidisciplinary
Native American
Medical
Anthropology
Sociology
Web Site
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Finding information on the web
The Web can provide a wealth of information, from up-to-date news stories
to individual opinions on every topic imaginable. There are several reasons
to use the Web for research such as to find current information, to find
facts quickly, and for easy access to information. It is important to
be aware that not all information on the Web is accurate and to not rely
on the Web for all of your research - good research requires the use of
different types of resources.
Recommended Web Sites
MedlinePlus
MEDLINEplus serves as a gateway to information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources on over 650 diseases and conditions. Also include a medical encyclopedia dictionary, prescription and non-prescription drug information, health information from the media, and links to thousands of clinical trials. MEDLINEplus is updated daily and includes no advertising.
Searching the Web
Google - the best all around search engine to find information on the Web.
Tip: put phrases in "quotation marks"
Like Google? Try Google Scholar!
Google Scholar has the easy Google search interface but finds only scholarly material.
Evaluating Information on the Web
Evaluating Information
It's important to evaluate the information you find to decide whether
or not to use it in your research.
Citing your sources
It is important to cite the resources you use properly and consistently. There are many different types of citation styles, but the goal of each citation is to list the important information which allows other researchers to locate the original article.
For this class we will be using APA style.
Citation Examples:
Book
General format:
Author(s). (Date). Title. Place of publication: publisher.
Example:
Devine, R. J. (2004). Good care, painful choices : Medical ethics for ordinary people (3rd ed.). Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press.
Magazine or
Journal Article
General format:
Author(s). (Date). Article title. Journal title, volume, (issue number), page number-page number
Specific examples:
Ashley, S. (2005, March 2005). On the road to fuel-cell cars. Scientific American, 292 (3) 62-69.
Jordaan, D. W. (2003). Preimplantation genetic screening and selection: An ethical analysis. Biotechnology Law Report, 22 (6), 586-601.
Note: You may run into abbreviations for journal titles. You can use the PubMed: Journal Database .to enter the abbreviation and find out the full title of the journal:.
Web Sites
When citing web sites, the important elements to include are: author's name, date of publication or last revision, title of document, URL, and date accessed.
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services . National Library of Medicine. (2005, August 22). MedlinePlus: Head and Brain Injuries. Retrieved August 24, 2005 from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/headandbraininjuries.html.
RefWorks! (It's Better than Chocolate!)
Refworks lets you keep track of all of your references, cite your sources, and format your bibliographies automatically! It's easy to use and will save you lots of time.
Library Information
Page last modified: July 11, 2008
