Below are links to databases and electronic resources that support the study of international health and welfare and related areas of research.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY DATABASES
Databases that offer multidisciplinary coverage of international health and welfare literature from scholarly and non-scholarly sources.
- Credo Reference -- comprehensive collection of highly-specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks across all subject areas. Good place to go for succinct definitions, explanations, and analysis of concepts, theories, or topics.
- Google Scholar -- the scholarly part of the Google empire. To set up Google Scholar with access to full-text journals and databases, go here.
- JSTOR -- a multidisciplinary archive of scholarly journal articles covering most major disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Useful for identifying historical research on a topic.
- Policy Commons -- platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The database provides advanced searching across millions of pages of books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications, including archived reports from more than 200 defunct think tanks. Coverage is international in scope.
- ProQuest Multiple -- comprehensive, multidisciplinary database of newspaper, magazine, and scholarly journal articles updated daily. Content is more focused and manageable in locating relevant research than Google Scholar.
SPECIALIZED RESEARCH RESOURCES
Key Databases
- Global Health -- comprehensive database for global and public health issues and policies. Content focuses on research about international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene, and more. The database contains more than three million records dating back to 1973. Publications from over 100 countries in 50 languages are abstracted, and all relevant non-English-language papers are translated to give access to research not available through any other database.
- Global Index Medicus -- 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 World Health Organization Regional Office Libraries on a central search platform allowing retrieval of bibliographical and full text information.
- PubMed@USC -- comprehensive open access search engine for archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine. Also covers non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, and much more. Currently contains more than seven million full-text records, spanning several centuries of biomedical and life science research (late 1700s to present). This is an excellent source for global health topics. This version of PubMed is customized for USC users to find the full-text of articles.
Related Research Resources
- CINAHL -- provides abstracts on a wide range of health topics focused on nursing and related medical support staff, including health education, health management, and behavioral sciences and consumer health. Provides some international perspective, with a focus on English-speaking countries.
- Disaster Lit: Database for Disaster Medicine and Public Health -- a clearinghouse of open access guidelines, research reports, conference proceedings, training classes, fact sheets, websites, and similar materials related to the medical and public health aspects of planning, mitigation, response, recovery, and research related to disasters and public health emergencies. Good source for studies regarding health-related issue due to disasters.
- EMBASE -- comprehensive pharmacological and biomedical database that provides access to over more than 29 million citations for journal articles and conference proceedings. Also includes extensive indexing of drug information. Journal coverage from 1947 to the present. This version has been customized for USC users to find the full-text of articles from library holdings.
- Environment Index -- provides access to articles from domestic and international journals, books and conference papers covering applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, marine and freshwater science, geography, pollution and waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. Important source for searching literature on the relationship between health and the environment.
- Global Health Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Registry -- an open access database of cost-effectiveness analysis research studies published since the 1990s that evaluate the economic value of a variety of health interventions worldwide. The Registry focuses on interventions designed to mitigate disease burden in countries at various stages of industrial development, using the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as the primary measure of health.
- Healthcare Administration Database -- this database is a collection of reliable and relevant resources in the field of health administration, including journals and dissertations that cover hospitals, insurance, law, statistics, business management, personnel management, ethics, health economics, and public health care administration.
- The Lancet Global Health Portal – contents include articles from the medical journal, The Lancet, as well as reports, podcasts, and other information produced by an international community of researchers, public health experts, and policy makers focusing on issues and trends in global health for the purpose of advancing the right to health, health equity, and social justice. NOTE: The portal is open access, but you must create a personal account to get that access.
- LILACS: Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Literature -- a cooperative database of peer reviewed journals, thesis and dissertations, government documents, annals of congresses and books published since 1982 by Latin-American writers in the field of health sciences which is not included in other international databases. Twenty-seven Latin-American and Caribbean countries participate in the project under the auspices of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional office of the World Health Organization. Searches can be conducted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
- Sociological Abstracts -- primary resource for accessing the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database draws information from an international selection of over 2,600 journals and other serials publications, plus conference papers, books, and doctoral dissertations. Helpful for understanding the social aspects of global healthcare.
- Water Resources Abstracts -- provides summaries from 1967 to the present of the world's technical, scientific, and public policy literature on water-related topics covering the characteristics, conservation, control, pollution, treatment, use and management of water resources as well as the legal aspects of water supply, use, control, or management. Excellent source for studies about water-born diseases and their effects.
NEWS SITES AND BLOGS
GROUP PERSPECTIVE
Databases that offer the opportunity to understand and contemplate the implications of international health and welfare through the eyes of people who may be most impacted by those decisions.
- AgeLine -- focuses exclusively on issues of aging and the population of people aged 50 years and older from individual, national, and global perspectives. Contents cover the social, psychological, economic, policy, and health care aspects of aging derived from journal articles, books and chapters, research reports, and dissertations.
- Chicano Database -- focuses on the Mexican-American and Chicano experience, and the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants since 1992. Covers Chicano/a art, education, folklore, health. history, labor, language and literature, music, politics, public policy, religion, sociology, and women's studies.
- Child Development and Adolescent Studies -- provides citations to current and historical social and behavioral sciences literature related to growth and development of children through the age of 21, including from scholarly journals, technical reports, books, book chapters, and theses and dissertations. Key database for locating studies about the immigration and forced migration on children, children's rights, and issues such child separation and detention.
- Ethnic NewsWatch -- includes current and archival coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic and minority presses. Very important database for gaining an understanding of immigration from the perspective of underrepresented groups, minorities, and indigenous cultures.
- Family and Society Studies Worldwide -- covers research, policy, and practice literature in family science, human development, child and family welfare, civil and legal rights, and social welfare from a wide range of publications in the social sciences. Includes research about the relationship and impact of immigration and migration on families.
- LGBTQ+ Life -- comprehensive resource to the world's literature regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and transsexual issues. Coverage includes traditional academic, lifestyle, and regional publications, as well as non-periodical content, such as, non-fiction books, bibliographies, and dissertations.
- Women’s Studies International -- an interdisciplinary database that covers issues in women's studies including feminist theory and history and the areas of sociology, history, political science and economy, public policy, international relations, arts and humanities, business and education. Key database for locating studies about the impact of immigration, migration, and resettlement on women.
DATA AND STATISTICS--COMPREHENSIVE
- Google Dataset Search -- facilitates searching approximately 25 million datasets provided by government, public, and private groups. Users can filter results based on the type of data desired [e.g., images or text]. Data availability is based on the original source being formatted using schema.org standards, an open discovery standard for data on the web.
- National Statistical Offices -- a directory of country-specific statistical agencies maintained and updated by the United Nations Statistics Division. Also included is a list of countries and organizations which includes a brief history of the country's statistical system, legal basis, the statistical program and much more.
- UNData -- searchable statistical database provided by the United Nations Statistics Division that provides access to current statistics. The database covers a number of different areas such as employment, industry, and trade. A single interface facilitates the creation of customizable tables and the use of various filters and search options to sort and locate specific statistical information.
DATA AND STATISTICS--SPECIALIZED
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.