I will probably spend more time talking about the importance of reading and staying current with research and programmatic and clinical developments tomorrow, but for now, let me just say that based on the emails I have been getting, there is still a lot of confusion about where to find articles, including peer-reviewed research. Allow me to assist with a couple suggestions:
- PubMed: This is still my #1 go-to resource for any research articles. There are some full-text articles, even if you’re not connected to a university or teaching hospital (and if you are, you should be able to find most recent literature as full-text). Easy to search, easy to use. It’s bookmarked in my toolbar. I’m there at least weekly, often much more.
- SafetyLit: SafetyLit is the Injury Prevention Literature Update and Archive Database. It’s described as, “the online source for current and past scholarly research about all aspects of injury prevention and safety promotion”. Note that this is a service in collaboration with WHO, so it is not US-specific.
- VAWnet: Across the top nav are tabs to connect to applied research papers, special collections and more. If, after reading FHO, you still haven’t been there, please make a point to visit them. They have some of the most practical and clinically-applicable resources on issues related to our work. And all in full-text.
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS): NCJRS is a resource from the US Department of Justice that offers “justice and drug-related information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide”. You’ll find federal reports on statistics, research, policy and practice, the vast majority of which is full-text and downloadable in PDFs.
- Foundation Center’s PubHub: This is more of a resource for programmatic information and assistance in building a case for support, and not all of it is related to healthcare. But you can narrow the search fields down and find some valuable full-text publications from organizations like Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust. A great resource for grant writing and fundraising.
What are some of your go to sites for staying current? Have I left off any of your favorites?
One reply on “Staying Current”
If you work for a hospital-whether it is a large university system or smaller system-it is likely you have access to full text journal search engines as well. Look for or ask about access to OVID or CINAHL or EBSCO Host to name a few common ones.