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PHI 367 Philosophical Theories in Bioethics

Other types of resources

You don't always have to be weary when visiting websites and other non-library resources on the quest for valid health science information. The key is being aware of trusted sources that provide legitimate and reviewed evidence. These are great websites and other ways to find answers to your research question. 

Websites

The World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations that coordinates responses to international public health issue and defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."  

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) the leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects our country's public health. Consult CDC publications and alerts for the latest health science information and guidelines. 

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) offers health science and public health recommendations, reports, continuing education, metrics, surveillance summaries, and visual abstracts to any information seeker. 

MedlinePlus is an online information service provided by the National Library of Medicine to bring text- and video-based health information and tool in an easy-to-use, consumer-centric format. 

ClinicalTrials.gov is an online database consisting of both publicly and privately funded studies conducted around the world (and right in your home town). Users can see trial status - including opportunities to participate in recruiting studies - and results. 

Grey literature & hand searching

Grey literature refers to literature not published in a traditional manner (like in a peer-reviewed academic journal) and often not retrievable through large databases like: 

  • Theses & dissertations
  • Preprint articles
  • Government Reports
  • Conference proceedings
  • Technical papers
  • Clinical trials
  • Datasets
  • White Papers

Researchers should consider how grey literature can fit into their project; including grey literature can help reduce bias and increase comprehensiveness with the study.

 

Learn more about searching for grey literature sources on the University of North Carolina Health Sciences Library's Finding Grey Literature research guide. 

Hand searching is a way to supplement literature searches.

A few ways to hand search are to: 

  1. Review the reference lists (backwards citation searching) and citing articles (forward citation searching) of studies included in the review.
  2. Manually browsing key journals in your field to make sure no relevant articles were missed.
  3. Check out clinical trial registries, white papers, pharmaceutical or other corporate reports, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, or professional association guidelines (all of these are otherwise known as grey literature).