Services for Students
Services for students include Course Reserves; training sessions on software, datasets, systematic reviews and more; appointments with Informationists; and how to find articles.
To access Course Reserves, login with your University NetID and password.
Course Reserves provides electronic access to posted course materials for students use. Class Reserves are physically located in the Health Sciences Center Library; print copies of books are available to students for short term loan for use in the library. Additional information on adding materials to course reserves can be found here.
Classes and workshops offered by the WHSC Library Informationists are listed here. Upcoming sessions can be found on the workshops calendar. A customized session can also be requested for groups of 3 or more.
Please use Ask a Librarian to request a customized session.
Informationists provide specialized services to individuals or groups to support research, teaching, and patient care. To schedule an appointment or request a service, please contact Ask a Librarian. Some of the services offered are:
- Development of literature review strategies for thesis topics or special project.
- Systematic review consultation or literature searching.
- Identification of specialized information resources or databases for research proposal.
- Animal alternatives assistance for IACUC review
- Resident Reports.
- NIH Public Access assistance.
- Publication reports.
- Citation analysis; h-index calculation.
- Finding health data sets.
Describe Your Topic
Describe the main topic as specifically as you can, then focus it by considering these factors:
- What are the age groups, geographic locations, socio-economic considerations that you want to include?
- Will comparisons be made with other diseases, conditions, methods?
- What potential outcomes do you want to consider? (cost reduction, improved communication)
Think about the scope of what you need: a few recent articles from major journals or a comprehensive search of publications? Do you need evidence-based information from clinical trials?
If your topic is too broad or you cannot clearly define what you want, look for background information, an overview, or a few good review articles to help clarify the concepts.
Search Databases
Databases such as PubMed or Web of Science are organized collections of citations of articles from peer-reviewed journals. The information is organized to allow comprehensive searching of millions of publications, with the objective of identifying a focused list of the relevant citations.
Select database
Emory Libraries subscribe to over 1000 databases, spanning may topics, but the three databases listed below are the best sources to find biomedical literature.
- PubMed - premier biomedical database which covers clincal, public health, basic science, health care and other categories
- EMBASE - broad biomedical coverage with more emphasis on pharmaceutical and drug literature; complements PubMed
- Web of Science - multidisciplinary database using key word searchng and which features cited reference searching
To explore more databases, click here.
In order to access full text articles from database search results use the Find It @ Emory button. Start at the library's website to access a database to ensure the button will be displayed either next to the citation or on the abstract.
If the article is available electronically, there will be a link beside "Full text available at."
If the article is not available electronically, select "Request via ILLiad." ILLiad is the name of the Emory Libraries' Interlibrary Loan service. Read below for more information on Interlibrary Loan.
Articles may also be located by looking for a specific journal title in Browzine or Library Search, the university libraries catalog.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Current Emory University faculty, staff, or students may request copies of articles or loan of books not available at Emory Libraries by using the Interlibrary Loan service. Articles will usually be delivered electronically within 1-2 business days, and books delivered within 10 days. Below are criteria for using the ILL system:
- Make requests via the ILLIad Interlibrary Loan system.
- Course textbooks cannot be requested via this service.
- Requested items must be for private study and individual research only.
- Requests for copies are limited to one article per issue of a journal or one chapter per book.
- Requests can be made to borrow complete books.
- All requests must comply with current United States copyright law (Title 17, United States Code).