LibGuides: BUS 537: Survey of U.S. Healthcare System: Scholarly Articles

Finding Scholarly Articles

Article searching is a great way to learn more about a research topic, companies and industries. Articles can often help fill in the gaps between when annual reports, company profiles, and other items are published. They can also cover certain research topics more in depth than a general overview.

Databases for Finding Articles

PubMed This link opens in a new window
Global database of articles related to medicine, including health care management.
CINAHL This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of topics, including nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Includes science, medical, social science and business full-text journals.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Scholarly literature of the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. A unique feature of this resource is the ability to locate all articles that cite a particular article.

Business Source Elite This link opens in a new window
Includes scholarly articles, business news and reports. Provides access to company profiles and SWOT analyses.

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Covers all areas of psychology as well as psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law. Some linked full-text is available.
PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
A source of searchable full-text articles on all aspects of psychology including general psychology and specialized, basic, applied, clinical and theoretical research in psychology.

Search Tips

Your search strategies will depend partly on the research tools you use. Here are some search tips to get you started.

Limit the number of search terms that you use. Start with only 2 or 3 search terms.
Use search terms that best express your topic. Avoid non-essential terms like "the" and "of."
Try multiple searches. Experiment with related terms, including broader or narrower terms.
Explore the database's Advanced Search options.
On the search results page look for ways to refine your search.

Developing Search Terms and Keywords

1. Identify the important nouns or main ideas in your research question.

Research Question: What is the effect of incorrect health information on social media?

2. Generate synonyms for each main term, along with words that are narrower, broader, and related.

Incorrect information: deceit, manipulation, lies, false, slander, misinformation
Social media: online, web, internet, web 2.0, online social networks
Health: wellness, doctor, physical wellbeing, medical

3. Start searching and modify your keywords (also known as search terms) as necessary.

Pay attention to titles, abstracts, and headings used in the results you find helpful.
Some databases provide lists of subject terms, subject headings, or keywords for individual sources. See if you can find those to help add to your own list.

Watch this video from the University of Houston Libraries to learn more about this process: