Library Guides: HPEB 300 Resources: Finding Scholarly Sources

Databases for Scholarly Articles

CINAHL Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Covers the health science literature but is a much smaller database. If PubMed overwhelms you, try CINAHL.
- If you need peer-reviewed articles, be sure to check the box for peer-reviewed!
- Watch your date range.
- Is this applicable to the US population?
ERIC (EBSCO interface) This link opens in a new window
If your population is children, you may want to check out this database.
PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
If you topic is related to mental health or behavioral issues, you may want to explore this database.
PubMed-Medline (with USC links) This link opens in a new window
PubMed is a big database that covers all aspects of health. When searching in PubMed, keep your strategy simple. You do not need to add AND between your search terms. Although PubMed allows for truncation (the asterisk symbol), using the truncation symbol will shut off the automatic mapping. PubMed uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings).
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
All aspects of sports covered including management and administration, sports medicine, exercise science, marketing, physical education, psychology and dance.

General Guidelines

When searching for articles in the databases:

1. Explore articles relevant to the United States

Unless otherwise noted by your faculty, look for articles related to the United States. For certain diseases, risk factors and treatment can vary per country.

2. Look for risk factors related to the United States, not a specific county within the United States. On occasion, you will locate an article about risk factors related to a specific state but risk factors are most frequently researched on a broader regional or the national level.

Sample PubMed searches:

lung cancer AND epidemiology AND United States

depression AND risk factors AND college students

3. Watch the year of publication. You can limit using the date limiters along the left sidebar.

4. If you need some background information about the treatment of a condition, check for a practice guideline, consensus report or position statement for an authoritative source. In PubMed and CINAHL, you can use the limiters.

Examples:

Davies, M. J., Aroda, V. R., Collins, B. S., Gabbay, R. A., Green, J., Maruthur, N. M., Rosas, S. E., Del Prato, S., Mathieu, C., Mingrone,

Rossing, P., Tankova, T., Tsapas, A., & Buse, J. B. (2022). Management of hyperglycemia in Type 2 diabetes, 2022. A consensus

report by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Diabetes

Care, 45(11), 2753-2786. https://doi.org/10.2337/dci22-0034

Google Scholar

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar can help you locate scholarly articles. Remember to watch the dates of your sources. If you are retrieving older materials, change the date range on the left sidebar.
Do not pay for articles. If the article is not part of the University of South Carolina's subscriptions, request the material through our interlibrary loan service.

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