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Drexel Library

Guide for Health Equity Scholars: PubMed and other databases

Review of the literature

Many topics in women's health are multidisciplinary in nature. In addition to searching the PubMed database, you may find it helpful to search some specialized databases that provide good coverage of psychology, sociology, public policy, economics, public health, and education.  

Your literature review must only use primary sources. Primary sources are hypothesis driven and contain original research data typically found in peer-reviewed journals. Such sources include original research articles, conference papers, dissertations, and technical papers. Secondary sources are derived from primary sources and help interpret, evaluate, or summarize original research. Secondary sources include textbooks, narrative review articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, and should only be used to gain background information for your research.

PubMed

PubMed keywords and MeSH terms

Web of Science

PsycINFO

Proquest Research Library

Analyzing articles

  • What was the central question?
  • Did the study design make sense in relation to the question?
  • Did the sample of subjects make sense (inclusion/exclusion criteria)?
  • Were the statistics reasonable based upon the question and design?
  • Do you buy the results? Why/why not?
  • What are the limitations of the study?
  • Are there any good articles in the bibliography that would help with the topic?
  • How does this article change or influence the question?