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Help for Public Health Students

Last update: 17 September 2007,
by Maureen Bell



LIST OF TOPICS

Evaluating Sources

Finding Examination Papers

Finding Theses

Help for Essay Topics

Remote Student Services

Reviewing the Literature

Searching the Journal Literature

Survey Methods

Writing and Citing (includes links to style guides for listing references, and a warning about plagiarism)

On this page are some resources which you may find useful for essay writing, including guides to evaluating literature and Internet resources, and guides for constructing essays and citing references correctly. I am not including print resources from the library's own collection as they can be found by consulting the catalogue.

There are also links to notes which will help you to search specific databases.

Using Library Resources

Click here to go to a simple tutorial which will help you to master the basics of using the Library's web site and catalogue. There are explanations of basic skills required, some simple examples, and questions (with answers provided !)

Searching the Journal Literature

Notes and tutorials for PubMed (Medline) can be found here
I've also given some examples of Medline searching techniques for broad subject areas on my individual topic pages. Subjects include cancer, adolescent health, environmental health, bioethics, and evidence-based medicine. Click here to go to the complete list of subjects.

There is a useful NICS Guide to the Cochrane Library which explains the purpose of the Cochrane Library, and how to search it.

Click here to go to my alphabetical list of databases of greatest relevance for public health.

Help for Essay Topics

The links below are to pages which will give you some hints for searching Medline (and sometimes other databases) for specific essay topics. You can either print them out, so that you can have them in front of you while you work, or open a second browser, so that you can flip between the screen where you are doing your search, and the screen with the instructions.

Lung cancer in foundry workers

Health of young Australians - General help for multiple topics

Stress and cardiovascular disease in civil servants

Remote Student Library Service

The library operates a special service for country, interstate and overseas students. For details click here

Finding Past Examination Papers

As past exam papers tend to be kept in a variety of locations, and in different formats we have created a web page which explains How to find exam papers

Finding Theses

There is a special section of the library's web site which provides information on locating both Adelaide University theses and theses from other universities by using the Library catalogue, relevant databases and web sites, and the Interlibrary loans service.

Evaluating Sources

Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources
This bibliography comes from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and was originally created for a panel discussion at a regional conference in Wisconsin. It has grown with the increasing number of documents which address the problems and issues related to teaching and using critical thinking skills to evaluate Internet resources, but is not intended to be comprehensive.

How to Read an Article (pdf 17kB)
Our own tips on evaluating journal articles.

How to Read a Medical Journal Article
By Steve Simon, a biostatistician at the Office of Medical Research, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City.

How to Read a Paper - A Series of Articles from the BMJ
This series of articles by Trisha Greenhalgh was published in the BMJ in 1997 to assist readers in evaluating journal literature.

Making Sense of Research
From the Global Health Council, an overview of critical appraisal skills.

Published criteria for evaluating health related web sites: review
Kim et al. Published criteria for evaluating health related web sites: review
BMJ 1999, 318 (7184): 647-649

The what-is methods download page
From Bandolier, an independent journal about evidence-based healthcare. Downloads are available on a variety of topics including QUALYs, confidence intervals, critical appraisal, and meta-analysis.

Reviewing the Literature

How To Do A Literature Review
From the Ferdinand D Bluford Library, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

The Literature Review
From the Universiy of Southern Queensland Library. Some sections of this page apply specifically to University of Southern Queensland students, but most are generic references to useful websites and sources of information.

The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It
From Health Sciences Writing Centre at the University of Toronto.

RMIT - Literature Review
From the RMIT UNiversity Library.

Survey Methods

Conference on Health Survey Methods, 7th, Williamsburg, Virginia, Sept 24-27, 1999
The Seventh Conference on Health Survey Research Methods (HSRM) was held in Williamsburg, Virginia, on September 24–27, 1999, continuing a series of meetings that began in 1975 to discuss new, innovative survey research.

Papers were presented in five topical sessions:
1. Collecting Data from Children and Adolescents
2. Racial and Ethnic Populations: Cross-Cultural Considerations
3. Comparability of Data across Different Modes of Data Collection
4. Validity of Results
5. Needs for State and Local Data of National Relevance

Sites Related to Survey Research
From the Survey Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago.

What is a Survey
From the American Statistical Associaton's Survey Research Methods Section, a booklet which is designed to promote a better understanding of what is involved in carrying out sample surveys - especially those aspects that have to be taken into account in evaluating the results of surveys.

Writing and Citing

The Library has a general Style Guides page, as well as a detailed introduction to the Author-date (Harvard) referencing system. Other sites of interest are listed below.

A Guide to Harvard Referencing (Leeds Metropolitan University)
The Harvard or author-date system of referencing is described here. It is one of the commonly used systems, but there are several versions which differ slightly from one another. Included is a section on citing electronic resources.

Harvard Style examples
From Monash University.

Plagiarism - Advice to Students
From the University of Melbourne.

Plagiarism: What it is, and How to Recognize It and Avoid It
From Indiana University.

Public Health Image Library, CDC, Atlanta, GA
A collection of images on a wide variety of topics. Many of them can be downloaded.

Purdue Online Writing Lab
This site from Purdue University has some useful features including over 130 instructional handouts including Help with English as a Second Language (ESL).

Plagiarism Online Resource
From the University of South Australia.

Referencing guides
Guidelines, from the University of South Australia's Learning Connection, for using various referencing conventions.

Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals also referred to as the Vancouver Guidelines.

Vancouver Style examples
From Monash University.