Articles published in journals usually provide a very focused view of a topic. Some articles offer a broader overview of a topic. Journals generally provide more recent information than printed books. Most of the library's articles are available online through subscription databases.
Where To Go
Once you have determined your need to find a journal article, you can use the databases listed to the right to search for citations, abstracts, and full text articles.
To search the databases, try entering a couple of keywords related to your topic (for example, "spinal injury" or "calcium and bone health") and see what comes up. Not sure what database to use? Hover over the links to get a brief description.
Getting Full Text
Most databases allow you to limit your search to articles available in full text. Some databases only provide the citation and abstract (summary) of the article. If you find a citation for an article you would like to have in full text, and TCC does not own the publication, you can request to have it sent to you through interlibrary loan OR you can check to see whether a local academic or public library has the article in WorldCat.
There are a variety of types of articles published in medical journals. Many of the library databases allow you to limit your search to a specific type of article. Note that different databases use different terminology and definitions to describe the articles. For more information, see the National Library of Medicine's list of some common article or publication types used to label articles in MEDLINE.
Try the following databases for scholarly journal articles on health topics. Not sure where to start? Health Source and CINAHL are great databases for health and medicine research with full-text articles. PubMed is excellent for finding articles, but does not always provide the full article for you to read.
