If you are looking for topic ideas or need more introductory information to begin your research, try consulting reference materials like encyclopedias. The links here will connect you with scholarly encyclopedias focused specifically on public health topics - search their entries to learn more about your general topic and use any entry's bibliography to find more sources for further reading.
[In the resources below, click "Access full-text resource" to navigate to the publication. You can see topics covered at a glance by clicking the Table of Contents tabs.]
The PubMed database contains more than 30 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. PubMed was developed and is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). It facilitates searching across several NLM resources, including MEDLINE and PubMed Central. Coverage extends from the 1940s to the present day.
Sociological Abstracts indexes the international literature of sociology, and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
ATLA is an index of journal articles, essays, and book reviews in the areas of biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religious perspectives on social issues, among other topics. The database provides coverage from 1949 to the present and retrospective indexing for some journals as far back as the nineteenth century.
Alumni Access
Alumni of the university and seminary have access to ATLASerials by logging in to their library account using their Alumni library card barcode number.
Public Health research can be very interdisciplinary, so if you find that these databases cover too narrow a field for your topic, try using SearchStart instead, which covers our biggest interdisciplinary databases with a very wide range of subjects.
If you are looking for more introductory information for the faith portion of your research, try browsing theological encyclopedias or dictionaries. Connect to these scholarly resources through the links here - again, you can search their entries to get more background for your topic and use any entry's bibliography to find more sources for further reading.
Dictionary of Christianity and Science by 
Faith-Based Health Justice by 
The Westminster Handbook to Theologies of the Reformation by 
The Anchor Bible Dictionary by
If you're looking for church-based information, you might want to investigate the websites for the major Reformed denominations. In particular, the Christian Reformed Church has extensive resources on social justice that connect to Biblical principles. Use the links below to connect:
Even if Hekman Library doesn't own a particular book or article that you need, you can borrow or get a copy from another library through our MeL and ILL sharing services. If you have any questions or problems, our library staff are always available to help!
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