Welcome
This guide will introduce you to Gleeson Library resources that are essential for graduate public health students. It includes links to select databases, as well as tutorials and guides.
Articles/Databases
- PubMed
PubMed provides access to more than 23 million bibliographic citations primarily drawn from MEDLINE, as well as publisher-supplied citations, in-process and "ahead-of-print" citations.
- Scopus
Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
- CINAHL Ultimate
CINAHL Ultimate is the definitive resource for nursing and allied health research, providing full text for the most used journals in the CINAHL index. It covers more than 50 nursing specialties and includes quick lessons, evidence-based care sheets, CEU modules and research instruments.
- APA PsycInfo
APA PsycInfo is the American Psychological Association's renowned resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations. It is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health, and contains over 3 million citations and summaries dating as far back as the 1600s, with one of the highest DOI matching rates in the publishing industry. Ninety-nine percent of its content is peer-reviewed. Formerly called PsycINFO. - SocINDEX with Full Text
SocINDEX with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. The database features more than 2.1 million records with subject headings from a 20,000+ term sociological thesaurus designed by subject experts and expert lexicographers. - Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of primary research in human health care and health policy, and are internationally recognized as the highest standard in evidence-based health care resources. - Fusion
Fusion allows you to search, in one place, the majority of the library’s books, articles, videos, etc. It includes all the materials in our library catalog Ignacio, as well as the content of the majority of our many databases.
- Opposing Viewpoints
"Pro" and "con" arguments on controversial issues. Includes full-text materials drawn from print series such as Opposing Viewpoints, Current Controversies, At Issue, Contemporary Issues Companion, and Gale Information Plus series. It also provides full-text periodicals, newspapers, journals, pamphlets, primary source documents, statistics, images, web sites, and student research tools.
Books
- Ignacio: Library Catalog
The library catalog lets you search across the holdings of Gleeson Library and Zief Law Library, including books, videos, and other materials.
Accessing Print and E-Books from Gleeson Library
APEX/ILEX/Capstone Projects
Past capstone projects from the Masters in Public Health Program can be found in the USF Institutional Repository.
- SONHP Theses, Projects, and Dissertation Submission GuideSubmission guide for the USF institutional repository.
COVID-19
Select COVID-19 related literature and data
- Rapid Reviews: COVID-19An open access, rapid-review journal will accelerate peer review of Covid-19-related research and deliver real-time, verified scientific information that policymakers and health leaders can use. MIT Press and UC Berkeley
- LitCovidA comprehensive curated literature collection regarding the 2019 novel Coronavirus from the National Library of Medicine.
- COVID-19 and Health DisparitiesA collection of articles, podcasts, webinars, and additional resources on health disparities and COVID-19. From Harvard Medical School.
Web Resources
Google Search Tip
The open web (the web that is searchable using Google) is an excellent resource for health data. Limiting to .gov sites using the "site:" operator can be particularly helpful. For example, the following Google search heart disease epidemiology site:gov will bring back results about the epidemiology of heart disease from the CDC; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; MedlinePlus; as well as state and local public health departments.
Watch the brief video below for more Google search tips
Finding Community Health Needs Assessments
You can find local community health needs assessments using Google (or any other search engine) by searching the phrase "Community health needs assessment" and either your city of interest, or the closest hospital. For example, to find a needs assessment that includes the USF Hilltop Campus neighborhood, you could search "Community health needs assessment St. Mary's Medical Center San Francisco"
Fact Checking Online Information
Lateral Reading is a great strategy for critiquing online information : review this brief document on lateral reading
General Data and Statistics
- PolicyMap
Thousands of U.S. data indicators for demographic and socioeconomic analysis. PolicyMap data can be presented as maps, tables, charts and pre-built reports that can be incorporated into papers, presentations, blogs and websites. In addition, students can upload unlimited amounts of their own address-based data, and can share these maps with others.
- Data.census.gov
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. It replaces the American FactFinder website, which was retired in 2020. - Statista
Easy to use statistics search engine with access to more than a million statistics and facts.
Health Related Statistics and Data Sources
National and International Data and Statistics
- RestoredCDCMany CDC pages were made inaccessible in late January, 2025. Some of those pages have been restored, some fully, some with notable changes. RestoredCDC is a mirror site, hosted in Europe, that provides the same information and user experience as the previous CDC website. Some functionality, such as videos, was not archived and therefore will not work on our site.
- CDC FastStatsprovides quick access to statistics on topics of public health importance and includes links to sources of more data.
- CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance SystemData from the world's largest, on-going telephone health survey system.
- DHS Program (Demographic and Health Surveys)Ready-to-use data for over 90 countries from over 300 surveys covering the topics of demographics, health, and nutrition. The DHS Program is a USAID-funded project implemented by ICF International.
- Kaiser Family FoundationAn endowed, independent, non-profit (with no link to Kaiser Permanente) that serves as an independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
- ICN: The International Council of NursesThe International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of over 130 national nurses associations (NNAs), representing the over 28 million nurses worldwide. Founded in 1899, ICN is the world’s first and widest reaching international organisation for health professionals.
- Global Health ObservatoryThe World Health Organization's portal for providing access to data and analyses for monitoring the global health situation.
- PAHO: Pan American Health OrganizationThe Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is the specialized international health agency for the Americas.
- Consortium of Universities for Global HealthThe Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) is a rapidly growing Washington, DC based organization of over 190 academic institutions and other organizations from around the world engaged in addressing global health challenges.
State Level Data and Statistics
- California Department of Public Health: Vital Records Data and StatisticsThe Vital Records Data and Statistics cover a wide variety of health topics suitable for community health assessments, research for government and private studies, and public inquiry. Further, the programs within the Vital Records Data and Statistics include the Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program and the End of Life Option Act.
- State Cancer Profilesfrom the National Cancer Institute.
- California Health Interview StudyThe California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) is the nation's largest state health survey and a critical source of data on Californians, as well as on the state's various racial and ethnic groups.
- California Environmental Health Tracking ProgramProvides data and information on diseases and environmental threats to inform environmental and public health programs, research, and policies.
- California Overdose Surveillance DashboardThis Dashboard provides data on state and local level drug-related overdose outcomes for California, including deaths, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations, as well as opioid and select other drug prescription data.
- California Department of Health Care Services Data and Statistic ReportsStatistics on Medi-Cal eligible Californians, Medi-Cal and Covid, Medi-Cal access, Medi-Cal & women's health, and more.
City and County Level Data
- PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthPLACES is a collaboration between CDC, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the CDC Foundation. PLACES provides health data for small areas across the country.
- County Health RankingsThe annual County Health Rankings measure vital health factors, including high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income inequality, and teen births in nearly every county in America.
- San Francisco Department of Public Health Population HealthDrawing upon community wisdom and science, we support, develop, and implement evidence-based policies, practices, and partnerships that protect and promote health, prevent disease and injury, and create sustainable environments and resilient communities.
- San Francisco Health Improvement PartnershipGet a snap shot of the health status and quality of life in San Francisco. Some variables are available at the zip code or neighborhood level.
- Alameda County. Public Health Dept. Data & ReportsCity and county level reports, within Alameda County, on a number of health indicators
- CalSHARE Data HubCalifornia Safety, Health, Resilience and Equity (CalSHARE) Data Hub provides current health and safety insights to better understand strengths and challenges in local communities across California. CalSHARE brings together data from 20+ sources to allow state and local practitioners and other data users to view over 80 indicators of health, safety, and wellbeing at the neighborhood, county, and state level.
- California County WebsitesListing of all California counties with links to each county's main website, and a list of cities within each county. County reports and statistics are available through individual county sites.
Laws, Legislation, & Policy
- ProQuest Congressional
ProQuest Congressional is especially useful for performing legislative histories and locating Congressional documents. It is also very useful for tracking legislation and major public policy issues, locating recent Congressional documents and related material in full text, and learning more about Congress and the legislative process. - ProQuest Legislative Insight
Congress produces a variety of publications as a bill moves through the legislative process on its way to becoming a law. A compilation of these full text primary source publications produces a legislative history that is valuable to a wide variety of researchers. Legislative Insight offers a research citation page that not only links to the full text of the associated primary source publications, but allows the user to do a Search Within from that very page that searches the full text of all the associated publications with one-click.
- Kaiser Family FoundationAn endowed, independent, non-profit (with no link to Kaiser Permanente) that serves as an independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
- National Academy for State Health PolicyProviding nonpartisan support for the development of policies that promote and sustain healthy people and communities, advance high quality and affordable health care, and address health equity.
- Public Policy Institute of California - HealthTheir mission is to inform and improve public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research.
- California Legislative InformationThis site has been updated to include legislative publications starting with the 2017 session and forward.
A "Daily Updates" report feature has been added. The report displays, by house, measures for which there was activity the previous day such as new analyses, hearings, placement on the Daily File, amendments, History actions, or votes.
Measures prior to 1999 can be still be found at http://leginfo.ca.gov which will remain as an archive for legislative information.
Videos
- Films On Demand
Films On Demand delivers more than 90,000 educational online videos ideal for students and faculty. - Counseling & Therapy in Video
This series contains more than 2,500 hours of footage from actual therapy sessions, training videos, and reenactments conducted by renowned counseling professionals.
Refworks
- RefWorks
RefWorks allows users to create personal databases to manage, store, and share the information citations/references. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds. See our RefWorks Guide for information about creating accounts, adding references, and using add-ons.
