Research Guides: *Public Health: Find Sources

What's On This Page?

On this page you'll find databases, books, web resources, and other resources we recommend to find information on public health We have organized the resources on this page by type of content. Depending on your specific project, you may find some resources more useful than others.

Find Peer-Reviewed Articles

PubMed (MCPHS link)
PubMed is a free place to search for articles and books on health, medicine, biology, and psychology. It includes information about law, climate, and other topics related to public health. Some of the articles and books you can find in PubMed are free to read in full. Others require a subscription. You will continue to have access to the search feature, the free articles, and the free books after you graduate. From the National Library of Medicine.
Scopus
Scopus is one of the largest databases at MCPHS. It has citations to articles on health, science, social sciences, and humanities. It is a great place to find information on public health because it covers all of those areas. Scopus includes a lot of articles by international authors. Scopus also has useful features for going from one article you like to newer articles on the same topic. From Elsevier.
Google Scholar (MCPHS Link)
Find U.S. court cases and scholarly articles on almost any topic. Google Scholar is free to search. When articles are freely available, the system also displays a link to the free version. If you use the library's link, you will also get "Get Full Text (MCPHS)" links. Those links give you access to the content for which the library pays.

MCPHS Libraries Finding Peer Reviewed Sources Research Guide: Is it Peer Reviewed?
Learn how to tell if an article is peer reviewed, and the elements of a peer reviewed article.

Find Additional Articles

New York Times (news section)
Learn about public health trends as they happen and how people react to those trends. These articles are not peer-reviewed. If an article refers to a study, find and use that study instead of citing the article. You will need to use our registration link to create your account. Then, you can access the articles.

Full List of Public Health Databases at MCPHS
Recommended databases for Public Health topics. "Best bets" work for most topics. Use the other databases for additional information. Many of these databases include peer-reviewed articles. They may also include articles that are not peer-reviewed.

Find International Data and Statistics

Note: For graduate public health courses, you often need raw datasets so that you can run your own analyses. For example, you would need to be able to access each participant's response. A single data point, statistic, or summary is not enough for that purpose.

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
This institute collects and analyzes health data across the world. The research topics covered vary from year to year. Search for datasets and access data visualizations, such as graphs or charts. Access snapshots of health in different areas of the world. From UW Medicine at the University of Washington.
Global Health Data Exchange (also known as GHDx).
Locate raw datasets that you can download for free. The datasets include health information from around the world. Search by topic ("keyword"), organization, series, or location. Use RSS feeds to learn about new datasets that are added about your topic of interest. From the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at UW Medicine.
Global Health Observatory
Explore health data by country or by indicator. The page for each country provides charts and graphs to summarize important details about that country. It includes lists of the top causes of death as well as information about economic measures. Use the Data search form to find statistics on specific topics. From the World Health Organization.

Find (U.S.) National Data and Statistics

CDC's Data and Statistics
The archived version of CDC's data and statistics page. Find data and statistics by topic including alcohol use, life expectancy, oral health, etc.
CDC Guidelines Substack
A site that captures data that used to be on the CDC's website.
Internet Archive's list of CDC Datasets
The Internet Archive's records of datasets that used to be on the CDC's website.
National Center for Health Statistics
Health datasets from the U.S. Government's own health surveys. These surveys are repeated regularly. Learn about health behaviors, nutrition, hospital care, births and deaths, and more. Part of the CDC.
Association for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Data Tools
Graphs, charts, and reports about the use of health care facilities in the U.S.
CDC Wonder
A search tool to find epidemiological data on many health topics. From the CDC.
Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Provides data on the number and rates of injury and illnesses by industry, details on the injured worker, nature of the disabling condition, and the event resulting in the disabling condition, and details on fatal incidents.
HealthData.gov
Datasets from several levels of the U.S. Government. Most of the data is currently about COVID. You can browse or search for other topics. Labels tell you which file format(s) are available for that dataset.
Harvard Library Innovation Lab's Data.gov Archive
Harvard Library Innovation Lab has created a copy of information from Data.gov. You will need to construct the URL for a specific file to be able to download it. The page provide instructions and an example. Each file name will start with https://source.coop/harvard-lil/gov-data/. Use the rollup file to access a list of files and the information you will need to complete the URL.

Find State and Local Data and Statistics

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
Search or select a state and a county to get a summary report of the health in that community. Data comes from multiple sources. Counties are ranked by "Health Outcomes" (actual health status) and by "Health Factors" (anything that affects health outcomes). Click on a specific item to see the source of that data. From the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA)
Find many different types of data about health care in Massachusetts, including health care costs, insurance information, hospital performance, and more. Some data comes as interactive maps, broken down by region. Other data comes as tables and charts.
Health of Boston Reports
This annual report describes different aspects of health for people living in the Boston area. Find statistics about many aspects of health. Read overviews of those aspects and learn about contributing factors. From the Boston Public Health Commission.

Find Other Datasets

Re3Data.org's List of Data Repositories for Public Health, Health Services Research, Social Medicine
Find several data storage sites that focus on public health data. Filter by content type and or by country. Each repository listed has a short description. Icons show if the repository has general information, is open access, has licenses, has persistent identifiers, has certificates and standards, and has policies. From Re3Data.org Project Consortium.

Google Dataset Search
Search for your topic (for example, "car accidents"). The first column will show a list of datasets related to your search. The second column will show more details about the result you have selected. The details will include a link to the actual dataset. The definition of "data" is very broad. You will find statistical information, texts (such as an electronic copy of Frankenstein), and more. The information is pulled from existing data platforms, such as Figshare or Data.gov.

Databases on FAIRsharing.org
Use the subject filters to find sites that have datasets you can use. Public health is not a main subject, but is an option you can choose once you have applied a main subject such as "Social Sciences" or "Social Science." The datasets in this list follow the FAIR data principles: they are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable.

Get Your Source

Looking for the full text? Either of the following symbols will take you to the full text of your item:

PDF or Get Full Text (MCPHS)

If the item you want is not available directly from MCPHS:

Check to see if the item is freely available online. Use the links in the "Try to get a free / open access version" section.
Is the item you are searching for not in our collections and not freely available online? Book chapters and articles not available from MCPHS’ print and digital collections can often be obtained from other libraries via our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service. Requests for Interlibrary Loans can be made by submitting this form, or by accessing the “Get Full Text” links from citations available from our databases. This service is provided for MCPHS faculty, staff, and students only.