Information Services

Global Health Policy

Some useful resources for Global Health Policy.

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Indexing and abstracting tool covering health, social services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. Updated monthly, ASSIA provides a comprehensive source of social science and health information for the practical and academic professional. It contains records from over 500 journals published in 16 different countries, including the UK and US.

Detailed information about ASSIA

Coverage: 1987-present.
NHS Staff and other authorised users:  The Knowledge Network

 

CAB Abstracts

Access information:

Access on and off campus. Due to a current technical problem with the CAB Abstracts database, any searches performed from 1 February 2024 onwards are unreliable and incomplete, returning fewer results than expected. Ovid have identified the cause of this issue and are working to resolve it as soon as possible. The work is expected to be complete by Monday 8 April 2024.  

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Cookies: Some functions, including use of the Search History, will be disabled if cookies are rejected or no selection is made.
Description: CAB Abstracts is the world's leading agricultural database. Find journals, books, conferences and reports. It covers significant research and development literature in the fields of animal and crop husbandry, animal and plant breeding, plant protection, genetics, forestry, veterinary medicine, aspects of human health, human nutrition, rural development, leisure and tourism and the management and conservation of natural resources.
Coverage:

1973-present.

1910-1972 available by selection from Ovid menu.

Note:

8 concurrent users.

 

China Academic Journals (Simplified Chinese language version)

China Academic Journals (Traditional Chinese language version)

China Academic Journals (English language version)

Access information:

Access on and off campus.  Use this link for off campus access if you encounter difficulties:

https://fsso.oversea.cnki.net/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp.ed.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https%3A%2F%2Ffsso.oversea.cnki.net%2Fsecure%2Fukf.aspx%3Flang%3Den-US 

Due to a change in Chinese law,  there could be some further restrictions on content in CAJ on 31/3/23. For further info, please see Chinese_regulatory_actions_impact_map.indd (eastview.com)

NB: Due to changes in Chinese law, CNKI will be required to update its licenses with Chinese journal publishers to confirm that individual authors affirm their permission for content to be redistributed in database form in certain circumstances. 495 of the total 10,110 journals appearing in CAJ are impacted. A title list detailing the impacted journals can be found on East View’s website here. CNKI has informed us that the contract exercise has commenced, and we are informed that content is being restored to public view as each publisher contract is amended in accordance with the new requirements. This process may vary greatly depending on the publisher and title lists will be updated as each is addressed. 30/01/2023

Description:

Full-text database of 10,243 China academic journals covering all subject areas in science, technology, medicine, arts, humanities and social sciences. The database consists of 10 series which are further divided into 168 subjects. Edinburgh University users have access to all these. Some journals date back to the first issue in 1915.  Articles are in simplified Chinese in PDF format. The database is fully searchable in simplified Chinese by article title, journal title, author, and keyword in the full texts across all the journals and all the subjects. Searching in English will also retrieve a certain number of articles which have English abstracts. The default database platform is in English, but you can easily switch it to the Chinese interface at the top right corner. User Guide is also downloadable from the button at the very top of the database screen.

Coverage: 1915 to present.
Note: The CNKI platform user manual can be found here.

 

Department of Health

Access information: Freely available.
Description:  Use the filters to limit to just DoHealth.

 

 

Global Health (CABI)

Access information:

Access on and off-campus.

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Cookies: Some functions, including use of the Search History, will be disabled if cookies are rejected or no selection is made.
Description: Covers human health and disease, including communicable diseases, tropical diseases, parasitic diseases and parasitology, nutrition, community and public health, and medicinal and poisonous plants, from more than 16,000 journals as well as books and grey literature (dissertations, conferences, patents, standards, annual reports, etc.) from more than 130 countries.
Coverage: 1910 to present.

 

Access information: Access free.
Description: The Global Index Medicus (GIM) provides worldwide access to biomedical and public health literature produced by and within low- and 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. On June, 2015, the initiative formely called Global Health Library, adopted the name of Global Index Medicus. GIM is promoted and led by WHO as part of its strategy of knowledge management in global public health.

 

 

IBSS (International Bibliography of Social Science) Online

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Produced by the British Library of Political and Economic Science, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) is an essential online resource for social science and interdisciplinary research focusing on the four core social science subjects of anthropology, economics, politics, and sociology. IBSS includes over 2.5 million bibliographic references to journal articles, books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951. Over 2,800 journals are regularly indexed and some 7,000 book and chapter records are included each year. Abstracts are provided for around 80% of all current journal articles and users can link to the full text of articles in journals subscribed to by the University of Edinburgh.

Userguide: http://proquest.libguides.com/IBSS

 

International Monetary Fund (IMF) eLibrary

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Direct access to the IMF’s periodicals, books, working papers and studies, and data and statistical tools. Includes  information and perspective on macroeconomics, globalization, development, trade and aid, technical assistance, demographics, emerging markets, policy advice and poverty reduction.

Note Although free to all from 1st January 2020, some features require creation of a personal account.

 

The Knowledge Network (was NHS e-library)

Access information:

Freely available to search and to read full-text of some content.

Access to NHS Education for Scotland subscribed resources requires an NHSScotland OpenAthens account.

NHSScotland OpenAthens accounts are available to those who help provide health and social care in Scotland in conjunction with the NHS and Scottish Local Authorities, including many in the third and independent sectors.

Description:

The knowledge management platform for health and social care in Scotland, developed and maintained by the Knowledge Services group at NHS Education for Scotland. It is the access route to collections of articles, books and journals, guidelines, policy documents, resources for patients and service users, evaluated websites and e-learning courses.

 

King's Fund Publications

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: London based King's Fund is an independent charitable foundation which undertakes, amongst other things, original research into the assessment of health policies. Some of its publications are freely available online.

 

MEDLINE

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

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Cookies: Some functions, including use of the Search History, will be disabled if cookies are rejected or no selection is made.
Description:

US National Library of Medicine database, covering worldwide medical literature including research, clinical practice, administration, policy issues and health care services. Corresponds to three printed indexes - Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature and International Nursing Index. Covers 5,600 journals published in the USA and about 70 other countries.

Detailed information about Medline

MEDLINE, PubMed, and PMC (PubMed Central): How are they different?

Coverage: From 1946 to date.
NHS staff and other authorised users: The Knowledge Network

 

Newspapers (general)

Acces information:

LexisLibrary - access on and off campus;

NexisUK - access on and off campus;

Factiva - on campus and off campus and via VPN.

Description:

Use LexisLibrary, Factiva or Nexis UK for online access to the full text of the majority of UK national and regional newspapers . Factiva also provides access to full text of the world press. Many titles are archived back to the 1980s. Information on each title is included by clicking the info icon next to the title listing.

Many newspapers also have their own online archive available from their website. Some are free, with others you may have to register or pay a fee to view articles.

The library also has a subscription to the Financial Times online. See separate entry for details.

For historical newspaper content see entries for: Burney Newspaper Collection, Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers, The Historical Scotsman, Palmer's Index to the Times and Times Digital Archive.

Further information: Newspaper content

 

NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) Clinical Guidelines

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description: NICE is an independent UK organisation responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health. It provides guidance for health care professionals and the general public in the areas of public health, health technologies and clinical practice. The guidance is drawn up using evidence from NHS staff, healthcare professionals, patients and carers, industry and academia and made freely available on the web.
Help: Using NICE Guidelines

 

OECD iLibrary

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Subscribed resources available via the iLibrary include the OECD/IEA Energy iLibrary, OECD Observer and OECD Economic Surveys.

The iLibrary also provides access to a substantial amount of free content, including the OECD Factbook, OECD Working Papers, Key Tables, Multilingual Summaries and most 'At a Glance' publications.

Alternative source:

Not all content is subscribed to. An alternative source is the UK Data Service's UKDS.Stat service.

Access to full content available from the National Library of Scotland. Registration required. Please note your main address must be in Scotland

 

Overton

Access information:

Access on and off-campus. New users can access the platform by using the link https://app.overton.io/ui/auth/register?group_code=unie61b0. Users will be prompted to create an account with their institutional email and then can login at app.overton.io.

Description:

Overton is the world’s largest searchable index of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers. Overton’s dataset can help you find documents from sources that are typically difficult to find. Overton parses each document, finding references, people and key concepts, and linking them to the relevant news stories, academic research, think tank output and other policy.  The full text indexing of policy documents can help you find additional citations.

Coverage:

Over 11M full text policy documents and grey literature from 32,000 organisations in 188 countries

 

Access Information: Access on and off campus
Description: PAIS (originally, the Public Affairs Information Service) was established in 1914. There are two databases created from the files: PAIS International and PAIS Archive. This resource covers issues in the public debate through selective coverage of a wide variety of international sources including journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more. PAIS International is the current file covering 1972 to present. Topics covered include: Economic conditions, Education, Energy resources and policy, Government, Health conditions, Human rights, International Relations, Labor conditions and policy, Politics, Social conditions, Civil rights movement. PAIS Archive is a retrospective conversion of the PAIS Annual Cumulated Bulletin, volumes 1-62, published 1915-1976.
Access Information:

Access on and off campus.

Description:

Difficult to find publications in one place, built around a directory of over 21,000 policy organisations. Provides access to 2.4 million books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications from organisations including inter-governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, think-tanks and other research centres.

The search interface also enables searching for tables within reports.

Registered users can receive alerts of material added to the database.

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Practical Action is a specialist peer-reviewed and evidence-based online book and journal collection for International Development policy, practice and research professionals. The collection reflects the learning of multiple agencies and development professionals across a variety of specialist subject areas.

Note: Green indicators show which content we have access to.

Roper iPoll

Access information:

Access on and off campus. 

Optional individual registration. Click the login button, find the University of Edinburgh from the drop-down menu and use your University email address to register.

Description: The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is one of the world's leading archives of social science data, specialising in data from surveys of public opinion. The data held by the Roper Center range from the 1930s to the present. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented. You can search for datasets by keyword, country, surveying agency, timeframe and type of sample.
Note: Some datasets require a separate agreement with the individual researcher(s) requesting access and are unrelated to institutional membership.Specific requirements vary across studies.

 

Access information:

Russian Science Citation Index is not presently included in the Web of Science.

  Since 1st May 2022, access to the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) has been removed from the product due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The only thing that remains are the citations from RSCI content so the citation count would not drop. This citation count from RSCI will not be clickable and will have the following message next to it: "The Russian Science Citation Index was removed from the Web of Science platform in May 2022. Citations shown here are from items indexed before May 2022"--Clarivate
Description:

Details of Russian science, technology, medical, and education journals selected and provided by the Scientific Electronic Library (eLIBRARY.RU)

Searches can be in English or Russian

Coverage: 2005 - present.

 

Access Information: Access on and off campus
Description:

Content from SAGE publisher (some unique to SRM) on the steps involved in a research project. Full range of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods for the social and behavioural sciences, as well as many methods commonly used in the hard sciences.

Topics: Key concepts in research, Philosophy of research, Research ethics, Planning research, Research design, Data collection, Data quality and data management, Qualitative data analysis, Quantitative data analysis,  Writing and disseminating research.

Userguide: http://sagepub.libguides.com/research-methods/researchmethods
Coverage:

1000+ books, case studies, datasets, encyclopaedias and journal articles, as well as features, such as the Methods Map visual browse tool using a custom taxonomy of 700+ methods terms.  Over 900 videos.  

 

SciELO

SciELO Citation Index via Web of Science

Access information:

Freely available.

Access to SciELO Citation Index require a University Login.

Description:

Open access collections of peer reviewed academic journals, published by institutions from Ibero-American countries and South Africa.

The SciELO Citation Index via Web of Science provides another method of searching for the content on the SciELO platform - against each search result, there is a button which will link you out to the full text on the SciELO platform.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources.  Contains over 16 million author profiles, 70,000 institutional profiles, 5000 publishers, 70 million records, 1.4 billion cited references, covers over 20,000 journals from health, life, physical and social sciences and the humanities.
Coverage: For some subject areas, from 1788 onwards.  
User guide: https://elsevier.libguides.com/Scopus/home
Note: The University of Edinburgh's Affiliation ID is 60027272 (used for configuring Papers 3 for Mac to work with Scopus).
Note: If you would like to register to receive personalised searches, alerts etc then select "Other Institution login", then add "Edinburgh" to the search box to find the University of Edinburgh log in link, select the Shibboleth option if requested.

 

UNESCO Documents and Publications

Access information: Freely available
Description: Education, social and natural science, culture and communication database of bibliographic records which also provides access to the full text of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) documents, publications, periodicals.
Coverage: From 1945.
Additional information: UNESCO thesaurus

 

US Congressional Budget Office Publications

Access information: Freely available
Description: US healthcare. The US Congressional Budget Office (US CBO) has a mandate to provide US Congress with "Objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on the wide array of programs covered by the federal budget and the information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process."

 

U.S. Office of Public Health and Science Publications

Access information: Freely available
Description: US Office of Public Health and Science's full-text publications online from the US Offices of: Surgeon General, Disease Prevention & Health Promotion, Research Integrity, Minority Health, Population Affairs and Women's Health. Also the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports.

 

Virtual Health Library

Access information: Freely available
Description: Specialised, especially non-English language, databases for health research in South America. Also research from the Caribbean. MEDLINE may be searched by default.
Coverage: Includes LILACS and MEDCARIB

 

Web of Science Core Collection

 
Access information:

Access on and off campus.

  Russian Science Citation Index is not presently included in the Web of Science.
Description:

Citations and abstracts to millions of journal articles and conference proceedings from all subjects. Cited reference searching, Impact Factors, h-indexes and email alerts available.

Coverage:

Arts & Humanities (1975 onwards), Science and Social Sciences Citation Indexes (both 1900 onwards), Conference Proceedings in Science and Social Science & Humanities (both 1990 onwards).

Also: Book Citation Indexes in Science and Social Sciences & Humanities (both 2005 onwards), Current Chemical Reactions (1986 onwards), Emerging Sources Citation Index (2015 onwards), Current Chemical Reactions (1985 onwards), Index Chemicus (1993 onwards).

Change "Search in:" to use: BIOSIS Citation Index (1926 onwards), Current Contents Connect (1998 onwards), Data Citation Index (1990 onwards), Derwent Innovations Index (1966 onwards), KCI-Korean Journal Database (1980 onwards), Medline (1950 onwards), PrePrint Citation Index (1991 onwards), ProQuest Dissertatoins & Theses Citation Index (1637 onwards), SciELO Citation Index (2002 onwards), Zoological Record (1864 onwards).

Help:

Publisher userguide

Finding articles which have in their reference lists a work you found useful ('cited reference searching'):

Cited Reference Searching (pdf)

 

Journal Citation Reports (JCR): 

Journal Impact Factors and other measures on JCR (pdf)

 

Access information: Freely available
Description: For global economic policies. Using Documents & Reports (previously known as World Development Sources (WDS)) search and a browse the full-text of 27,000 World Bank publications:
  Analytic & Advisory (in-depth background, strategic priorities, and direction for lending activities).
  Project Documents (loan documents released to the public according to the project cycle; Publications & Research (Formal publications, working papers & informal series from departments around the Bank).
  The Data & Research section provides access to statistics and research output, including: research briefs, policy research reports, World Bank economic classification of countries, Global Economic Prospects online.

 

World Health Organization (WHO) Institutional Repository (IRIS)

Access information: Freely available
Description: Search the entire collection of WHO publications. Access to online publications in full where available.
Additional information:

WHO's Regional Offices' web pages have links to full-text of their publications, their library services and information listed under health topics:

 

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