LibGuides: Cultures and Environments of Health Subject Guide: Online library support

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Subjects: Archaeology, Art History and Visual Culture, Communications, Drama, Engineering, Film Studies, History, Modern Languages and Cultures

Dissertation worksheet

Dissertation worksheet (PGT)

Where to start your search

Library Search

Search across the print and online collections for books, chapters, articles, journals and lots more.

For more in depth research in databases and archives, use the A-Z Databases List.

Key databases

These databases allow you to cross-search thousands of different sources at once. By searching across the world-wide literature on a subject, they effectively broaden your search while also saving you time.

Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts This link opens in a new window Abstracts and indexes to literature across the social sciences.
Humanities Index This link opens in a new window Index to scholarly literature across the Humanities.
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window Index to scholarly literature in the Humanities from around the world.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) This link opens in a new window Abstracts and indexes to literature across the social sciences.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full text archive of back issues of journals and e-books in all subject areas.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window ProQuest Central is the largest single periodical resource available, bringing together complete databases across all major subject areas, including Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Science and Technology, and includes full-text newspapers from around the world.
Proquest Sociology Collection This link opens in a new window Full text database covering sociology and related disciplines.
SCOPUS This link opens in a new window An Index to scholarly literature across the life sciences, medicine, social sciences and humanities, supporting comprehensive literature searching.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window A bibliographic index to the world’s leading scholarly literature in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, supporting comprehensive literature searching. NOTE: not all results will provide the full-text content. Use the "check for this at Exeter" option to find out if the Library provides access to the full text.

These collections focus on healthcare, and evidence based policy and decision-making.

Ageline This link opens in a new window Index to gerontological literature (books, book chapters, journal artciles, reports). Content spans 1966 to the present and focuses on issues relating to ageing and those aged 50+.
AMED This link opens in a new window Index of complementary medicine literature, with mainly UK and European coverage.
Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window Evidence, protocols, trials and Systematic reviews to inform healthcare decision making.
Consumer Health Database This link opens in a new window This database covers a range of health subjects, from sports injuries to women's health, from food and nutrition to midwifery, from eye care to dentistry.
EMBASE This link opens in a new window Biomedical and pharmacological research database. Coverage 1974- present.
EPPI Centre This link opens in a new window Evidence based medicine and Systematic reviews to inform healthcare decision making. Useful for those undertaking systematic reviews.
Global Health This link opens in a new window Literature relating to global public health issues. Useful for research into national and international public health topics.
Global Index Medicus This link opens in a new window The Global Index Medicus (GIM) provides worldwide access to biomedical and public health literature produced by and within low-middle income countries. The main objective is to increase the visibility and usability of this important set of resources. The material is collated and aggregated by WHO Regional Office Libraries on a central search platform allowing retrieval of bibliographical and full text information.
Health & Medical Collection This link opens in a new window Access to journal articles, books, dissertations and other sources relating to clinical and biomedical topics, consumer health, health administration and more.

Health Evidence Network: Sources of Evidence database Set up by the World Health Organisation initiative, HEN acts as a platform, providing evidence in multiple formats to help decision-making in the field of public health.

HMIC This link opens in a new window Healthcare management research database. Covers health policy, quality and safety, management and administration.
Medline (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Research literature database covering all aspects of human medicine and related biomedical research.
Nursing & Allied Health Database This link opens in a new window Healthcare information covering nursing, allied health professions, alternative and complementary medicine, and much more. Provides thousands of journal titles in full-text, plus dissertations and other grey literature representing rigorous scholarship in nursing and related fields. 
Public Health Database This link opens in a new window Journals, news, trade publications, reports and more, covering a wide variety of public health disciplines ranging from social sciences and biological sciences to business.
Social Care Online This link opens in a new window Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) research and publications relating to social care and work in the UK.
Social Policy and Practice This link opens in a new window Evidence-based social science research database for policy-makers and practitioners within health and social care.
TRIP Pro This link opens in a new window Clinical database to support and inform evidence based healthcare decision making and patient care.

These collections provide just a small sample of the history databases available to you.

Historical Texts This link opens in a new window Search across a number of historic book collections in one go. Comprising of Early English Books Online (EEBO), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), the UK medical Heritage Library and 65,000 texts from the British Library 19th Century collection.
In Response to the AIDS Crisis: Records of the National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 1983-1994 This link opens in a new window The U.S. National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (NCAIDS) advised U.S. Congress and the president on the development of a national policy concerning the HIV epidemic. This collection includes briefing books, hearing and meeting transcripts, press clippings and the various reports created by the commission in their investigations into the AIDS epidemic and its impact on society.
Medical Services and Warfare This link opens in a new window Explore multiple perspectives on the history of injury, treatment and disease on the front line. Chart scientific advances through hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts, and discover how war shaped medical practice across the centuries.
Medieval and Early Modern Studies This link opens in a new window The collection covers a range of subject over the time period including sources on the Black Death to the Restoration of the English monarchy and the Glorious Revolution.
Morality and Science: Global Origins of Modern Bioethics This link opens in a new window Journal articles and reports covering ethics and the life sciences during the second half of the 20th century, 1957-1995.
Narcotic Addiction and Mental Health: The Clinical Papers of Lawrence Kolb Sr This link opens in a new window Archive of Dr. Lawrence Kolb, pioneer in the medical approach to narcotics addiction treatment, public health research, and the treatment of mental illness. The collection deals chiefly with the subjects of drug addiction, alcoholism, juvenile delinquency, and mental health.
Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900 This link opens in a new window This collection showcases the development of 'popular' medicine in America during the 19th century, through an extensive range of material that was aimed at the general public rather than medical professionals. It includes printed sources, including rare books, pamphlets, trade cards, and ephemera.
Public Health: Global Origins of Modern Health Policy and Management, 1957-1995 This link opens in a new window Journal articles and reports covering modern Public Health policies during the second half of the 20th century, 1957-1995.
Royal College of Physicians, Part 1: 1200-1862 This link opens in a new window The Archive of the Royal College of Physicians of London covers the history of medicine, medical humanities, medicine and culture, religion, and government, the establishment of public health systems, and the policies governing medical education and practice, with content spanning from ~1200 to the nineteenth century. It contains monographs, rare books, manuscripts, correspondence, reports, conference papers, medical reports, medical education textbooks, proceedings, lectures, anatomical drawings, public health surveys, photographs, drawings, data and ephemera - all presented as fully searchable digital images that can be analyzed, downloaded, manipulated, and compared with content from other societies and universities in the Wiley Digital Archives programme.
Sex & Sexuality This link opens in a new window Access to collections from prominent sex researchers and sexologists. Papers from Dr. John Money and Dr. Harry Benjamin document advances in areas such as diverse as biology, health and medicine, sociology, anthropology, and psychology, whilst collected research from Alice Withrow Field and James W. Edwards offer important investigations into criminology and global attitudes towards sex. Covering early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.

Use the A-Z Database List to access the full list of databases the library subscribes to.

You can browse by subject e.g. History, Medical Sciences or Nursing, or type (e.g.maps, news, images etc.) or search to find your required resource.

Explore the full A to Z Database list:

Explore research materials available elsewhere

Library Hub Discover - Search the catalogues of over 100 major UK and Irish national, academic and specialist libraries to find books, journals and other materials
WorldCAT - Search the collections of over 10,000 worldwide libraries
The European Library - Access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.
The Library of Congress - Catalogue records of the print and digital resources held in the Library of Congress collections (USA)
LibWeb - Find online library catalogues worldwide
CORE - Search the world's largest collection of open access research papers

Primary Source collections

The University has access to an extensive range of online primary source materials. These contain digitised copies of documents, letters, books, photographs and other primary sources.

The Primary Sources Libguide will help you identify the best databases for your research. The collections have been categorised by Country, Time Period and Theme so that you can quickly find the most relevant collections for your research.

Our comprehensive online news collections range from local news to news publications from around the world and span a wide range of dates.

Find out more on the Archival News LibGuide

The Library's Special Collections department houses primary sources in many formats including letters, diaries, manuscripts and photos, which can be accessed via their dedicated reading room in the Research Commons, Old Library.

Visit the Archives and Special Collections LibGuide for more information.

Find out how to search the archives for rare books and materials here.

Use the Archive Catalogue Search to find out what is available.

Devon & Cornwall have a number of local archives that you can use when searching for primary sources. Find out more here.

These databases are nationally significant archives of the UK, covering many different themes, subjects and sources.

Archives Hub This link opens in a new window
A gateway to archive collections held in UK universities. Subject coverage includes the arts, humanities, social science, sciences and health, and source materials include personal writings, documentation, images and ephemera.
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue This link opens in a new window
Search for information about the British
Library’s rich and unique archive and manuscript collections.
The catalogue contains descriptions of the majority of the British Library's manuscripts,
paper-based archives, photographs and an increasing number of digital archives.
The Library's sound archive collections and moving image collections are not included and Asian and African manuscripts are only partially represented.
British Library Digitised Manuscripts This link opens in a new window
A collection of digitised manuscripts and archives in the British Library’s collections.
British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full text UK and Irish national, regional and local newspapers from the mid 18th to the mid 20th century. Cross searchable with other newspaper archives via Gale NewsVault. We have access to the full collection (parts 1-6). Digitised article and full page scans and OCR text. Date coverage: 1714-1950
View more info about the collections
British Library Sounds This link opens in a new window
Sound recordings from the British Library collections. Recordings include music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds as well as an interactive sound map of regional accents and dialect.
Digital Bodleian This link opens in a new window
A collection of primary and contemporary material across a wide range of subjects, with scanned images of the Bodleian Libraries special collections, including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera.
Discovery, the National Archives Catalogue This link opens in a new window
Full catalogue of the holdings of the National Archives and thousands of other archives in the UK. The National Archives is home to millions of historical documents, which were created and collected by UK central government departments and major courts of law. Wide subject coverage.

National Register of Archives for Scotland
The NRAS provides details of papers of historical significance in private hands in Scotland. The Register now contains over 4,200 surveys of private papers including the records of landed estates, private individuals, businesses, law firms and societies.

UK Government Web Archive This link opens in a new window
Archive of UK government information published on the web, from official documents, policy and acts, to a twitter archive.

Effective Searching & Referencing

It is important to plan your search strategy, and manage your search results so that you get the most from your online searching.

Keep a record of all the material you need to cite in your assignments, papers, projects etc.

Use the Search Techniques and Referencing guidance to assist you.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of information available to you.

Invest time in planning an effective online search strategy so that you can quickly and easily discover relevant and high quality information.

Use the Search Techniques LibGuides for lots of hints and tips on successful online searching

As you search you need to keep track of all the material you will be using in your academic work so that you can cite and reference it appropriately.

Top Tip

Always check your module handbook for specific departmental guidance on the style required for your assessed works and dissertations. Check with your personal tutor or dissertation supervisor if you need clarification.

For more guidance take a look at:

Library's Referencing LibGuide: includes guidance on referencing styles and referencing software

Cite Them Right This link opens in a new window
Use this online referencing tool to create citations and reference lists . Cite Them Right provides comprehensive practical tips and examples on a wide range of referencing styles.

Academic Skills: Skills for Referencing online support

Find out more about the skills support available to help you develop a range of study skills including essay writing, referencing, critical reading and getting the most out of lectures.

Study Skills Support

SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) is a great resource to use when you are planning and conducting your research.

It is targeted at social science researchers but is useful across all subject areas as it covers key research methodology topics that are applicable across the research spectrum.

Sage have produced a comprehensive LibGuide to help you get the best from the resource.