Health and Behavior Studies Research Guide
This virtual handout is intended as an overview of of library resources and services of particular relevance for students in the Health and Behavior Studies at Teachers College. The resources, primarily electronic and accessible on and off campus, have been selected as ones supporting research in the topical areas the courses in the department’s programs encompass. This blog post also includes a library services and publications section describing research consultation/assistance and document delivery/retrieval options available to all members of the Teachers College community.
Library Resources
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
E-Collections (Text, Images, Sound)
Library Services and Publications
All students, faculty, and researchers also have access to a number of important library services and publications provided to support and facilitate research and study in their particular programs and disciplines.
Online Catalogs
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are the official subject terms prescribed by the Library of Congress for the cataloging of books and are in use in essentially all academic libraries. To find works pertaining to subjects relating to topics in health and behavior studies and related subjects, it may be useful to use some of the subject terms, or combinations of terms, listed below when searching the online catalogs of libraries at Teachers College, Columbia University, and other institutions.
- Anorexia nervosa
- Bulimia
- Compulsive eating
- Diet
- Dietetics
- Eating disorders
- Food
- Food habits
- Low-carbohydrate diet
- Low-fat diet
- Nutrition
- Nutritionists
- Obesity
- Obesity — Nutritional aspects
- Obesity — Physiological aspects
CLIO – The union catalog of Columbia University Libraries (exclusive of the libraries of Teachers College, the Columbia Law School, and Jewish Theological Seminary), providing the most definitive record of individual libraries’ holdings of books, e-books, journals, e-journals, dissertations, media, and other specialized collections of all kinds.
- See our library’s video tutorial on searching CLIO.
See also Columbia University Libraries’ video tutorials on CLIO search protocols and other features and functions:
- CLIO: Find Books by Title, Author, Subject
- CLIO: Guided Keyword Searching
- CLIO: Placing a Recall Request
- CLIO: Requesting Books Through Borrow Direct
- CLIO: Requesting Offsite Items for Viewing Online
WorldCat – The union catalog of the contents of over 10,000 libraries worldwide, providing the means to do exhaustive searching by author, title, subject, and numerous other criteria and to find locations for specific items in libraries nearby and elsewhere.
- See our library’s video tutorial on searching WorldCat.
APA PscyNET – Single search interface for PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, PsycCRITIQUES, and PsycEXTRA (see E-Collections below).
Academic Search Premier – A multidisciplinary database providing full text for more than 4,600 journals, including nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals. See also Academic Search Complete, a scholarly, multidisciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887.
Biological Abstracts – An index with abstracts to periodicals in biology and the life sciences. Provides access to biological and medical research findings, clinical studies, and discoveries of new organisms. Coverage is international, and includes biochemistry, biomedicine, biotechnology, genetics, microbiology, and pharmacology.
BioMed Central – Provides access to 207 open access biological and biomedical research journals, as well as current reports and meeting abstracts. BioMed Central offers information about current controlled trials, as well as topics in modern biology.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text – The online version of the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, providing full text for more than 750 journals indexed in CINAHL from 1981-present.
Cochrane Library – A collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making: the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; the Cochrane Methodology Register; the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects; the Health Technology Assessment Database; and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database. There is a a seventh database that provides information about groups in The Cochrane Collaboration.
ERIC – Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide extensive access to educational-related periodical literature, ERIC (which stands for Educational Resources Information Center) provides coverage of conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books, and monographs. In addition to this version, made available via the CSA Illumina platform, also accessible via the U.S. government ERIC site, through Ebsco ERIC, and via ProQuest ERIC on the Columbia University Libraries website.
Education Full Text – Provides comprehensive coverage of an international range of English-language periodicals, monographs, and yearbooks. Indexing coverage begins June 1983; abstracts are included beginning spring 1994; full text of some journals is available beginning in January 1996.
Education Index Retro – Provides cover-to-cover indexing for an international range of English-language periodicals and yearbooks; coverage from 1929 through mid-1983.
Education Research Complete – Provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,100 journals, as well as full text for more than 1,200 journals, and includes full text for nearly 500 books and monographs.
General Science Full Text – The H. W. Wilson science database comprised of abstracts, bibliographic indexing, and full text material from scholarly sources and specialized magazines. Indexing begins in 1984; full-text coverage in 1995.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts – Abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language science, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics; coverage from 1973 to present.
MEDLINE – MEDLINE covers the international literature on biomedicine, including the allied health fields and the biological and physical sciences, humanities, and information science as they relate to medicine and health care. Information is indexed from approximately 3,900 journals published world-wide. Our library makes the database available via the Ovid platform; ISI Web of Knowledge MEDLINE and Ebsco MEDLINE can be accessed via the Columbia University Libraries website.
MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and MEDLINE – This database consists of In-Process and PubMed-not-MEDLINE records from the National Library of Medicine. The In-Process records are ones that will be put into the MEDLINE database after they have been enhanced with MeSH headings. PubMed-not-MEDLINE records are records from journals found in PubMed but not selected for MEDLINE.
Professional Development Collection – Designed for professional educators, this database provides access to a highly specialized collection of nearly 520 high-quality education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles. The database also contains more than 200 educational reports.
ProQuest – Provides broad multidisciplinary coverage of scholarly journals, newspapers, dissertations, and other types of publications; for international coverage and access to full texts of dissertations only, search Digital Dissertations, a subset of ProQuest.
PsycINFO – Covers the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
Social Sciences Full Text – Provides coverage of English-language journals across social science disciplines, with indexing from 1983, abstracting from 1984, and select access to full text from 1984 to the present.
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
Child Development – An extensive collection of articles covering human development from conception through adolescence, summarizing the latest research on physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development and behavior, including areas of law, medicine, psychiatry, and demography among others.
Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History and Society – Presents the social and cultural history of childhood from antiquity to the present; examines this history through articles on education, parenting, child labor, economics, images of childhood, children’s literature, play, toys and games, health, physiology, law, the criminal justice system, and social welfare.
Encyclopedia of Disability – With contributions from more than 500 scholars, the work comprises some 1,000 entries that discuss issues of accessibility, arts, language, children and infants, deafness and deaf culture, disability studies, economics and employment, education, ethics, the experience of disability, health and medicine, politics, organizations, and sports, among other topics.
Encyclopedia of Education (2nd Edition) – The 2003 version of the classic resource in education and related fields.
Encyclopedia of Food and Culture – A survey of food and its place in human culture and society, presented through 600 alphabetically sorted entries; features multidisciplinary coverage of such topics as comfort food, ethnicity and food, medieval banquets, and nutrient composition, among many others.
Encyclopedia of Health and Behavior – Includes more than 200 entries on topics such as physical activity, stress and health, smoking, pain management, social support and health, cardiovascular health, health promotion, and HIV/AIDS.
Encyclopedia of Nursing Research (2nd Edition) – The 320 articles by 200 expert contributors include topics such as nursing services, electronic networks and technology, nursing education, nursing care, specialties in nursing, patients’ reactions and adjustments, historical, philosophical, and cultural issues, and nursing organizations and publications.
Encyclopedia of Public Health – Examines a broad range of topics such as environmental health, drug abuse, epidemiology, nutrition, demographics, and diseases. Includes overviews, definitions, and biographical entries.
Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders – Provides detailed information on mental disorders and conditions, including entries for all 150 disorders classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, text revision (DSM-IV-TR). It also features entries for prescription, alternative, and over-the-counter drugs, as well as the various therapies used to treat mental disorders.
Encyclopedia of Special Education: a Reference for the Education of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Disabilities and Other Exceptional Individuals – The third (2007) edition offers a thoroughly revised, comprehensive A to Z compilation of authoritative information on the education of those with special needs.
Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health (2nd Edition) – Provides more than 850 entries covering topics in nursing and allied health, including body systems and functions, conditions and common diseases, issues and theories, techniques and practices, and devices and equipment.
Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2nd Edition) – In more than 650 entries covers the entire spectrum of psychology, including notable people, theories and terms; landmark case studies and experiments; applications of psychology in advertising, medicine and sports; and career information.
Historical Encyclopedia of School Psychology – Comprises about 500 entries dealing with the following “information domains” in the field: assessment; interventions; consultation; research, evaluation, and accountability; in-service education; administration and supervision; major events; significant persons; training and practice settings; organizations and regulatory agencies; and professional issues.
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences – This key reference work comprises 4,000 articles, commissioned by 52 Section Editors, and includes 90,000 bibliographic references as well as comprehensive name and subject indexes.
OED Online – The electronic version of the Oxford English Dictionary, which is “the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium . . . an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past . . . traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books” (publisher’s description).
Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America – Contains 770 articles on the social and economic history of food in the U.S.; covers the significant events, inventions, and movements in American history that have affected the way Americans view, prepare, and consume food and drink.
Ebrary – Online books across a range of subject areas; searchable, under All Subjects, by Education, Medicine, Science, Social Sciences, etc. and various sub-topics, and by author, title, and other criteria.
Health Reference Center Academic – Multi-source database providing access to full-text of nursing and allied health journals, plus a wide variety of personal health information sources that offer reliable health information to researchers, including nursing and allied health students.
JSTOR – An online archive of over 1,200 leading scholarly journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. Journals are always included from volume 1, issue 1 and include previous and related titles. Tthe most recently published issues (the past 3-5 years) are generally not available through JSTOR, though they usually are through other e-sources.
PsycARTICLES – A full-text database of journals published by the American Psychological Association and other publishers in subject areas such as applied psychology, health, theory, research, social/personality, and more.
PsycBOOKS – A full-text database of books published by the American Psychological Association, classic books, and entries from the Encyclopedia of Psychology.
PsycCRITIQUES – Full-text reviews of current books and some popular films, videos, and software, as well as comparative reviews of books in the field of psychology.
PsycEXTRA – A gray literature database comprised of material written for professionals and disseminated outside of peer-reviewed journals; documents include newsletters, magazines, newspapers, technical and annual reports, government reports, consumer brochures, and more.
SAGE Education Full-Text Collection – A subset of Sage Journals Online, this database provides access to and advanced searching of the full text of 36 education-related journals.
SAGE Psychology Full-Text Collection – Provides access to the full text of 34 psychology-related journals from SAGE Publications.
SAGE Sociology Full-Text Collection – A subset of Sage Journals Online, provides access to and advanced searching of the full text of 36 sociology-related journals.
Blackwell Reference Online – Provides full-text access to reference works in the social sciences and humanities; see research handbooks and companions in Psychology, Medicine, and other subject areas. Notable titles include The Handbook of Education and Human Development and The Science of Reading: A Handbook.
Lenses on Reading: An Introduction to Theories and Models (2nd Edition, 2012) – Offers a thorough review of educational and psychological viewpoints on reading; addresses why theory matters in designing and implementing high-quality instruction, how to evaluate critically the assumptions and beliefs that guide teachers’ work with students, and the benefits of approaching everyday teaching situations from multiple theoretical perspectives.
Annual Reviews – Reviews of topics in biomedical, physical, and social sciences published as annual journals; see series for Medicine, Nutrition, Public Health.
Review of Educational Research – A publication of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the RER publishes quarterly critical, integrative reviews of research literature bearing on education, including conceptualizations, interpretations, and syntheses of scholarly work.
Review of Research in Education - A publication of the American Educational Research Association, the RRE provides an annual overview and descriptive analysis of selected topics of relevant research literature through critical and synthesizing essays.
Scopus – Abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources with smart tools to track, analyze, and visualize research.
- See a video tutorial from Columbia University Libraries at Using Citation Analysis Tools in Scopus.
Web of Science - Comprising the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Science Citation Index Expanded, this database supports searching by topic, author, or publication name, and is also a major means for doing cited reference searching, to find articles that cite a person’s work.
- See a video tutorial from Columbia University Libraries at Using Citation Analysis Tools in Web of Science.
Google Scholar – Provides the means to search by author or publication title, and indicates and provides links to works that have cited the documents retrieved.
- See our library’s Citation Indexes video tutorial on citation searching via the Web of Science and Google Scholar.
Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) – Information on approximately 15,000 measurement instruments (i.e. questionnaires, interview schedules, checklists, coding schemes, rating scales, etc.) in the fields of health and psychosocial sciences.
Mental Measurements Yearbook (Ovid) – Produced by the Buros Institute, this database contains extensive information about and reviews of English-language, commercially available, standardized tests covering educational skills, personality, vocational aptitude, psychology, and related areas, as included in the printed Mental Measurements Yearbooks.
For further information on access to actual tests, measurements, instruments, scales, etc., see our Knowledge Database entry at http://library.tc.columbia.edu/kb/idx.php/0/196/article/.
MedlinePlus Health Statistics - Provides helpful links to various types of health and vital statistics for consumers and health professionals. Contents include Overviews; Latest News; Specific Conditions; Related Issues; Research; Journal Articles; Directories; Organizations; Newsletters/Print Publications; Law and Policy; Children; Teenagers; Men; Women; and Seniors.
National Center for Health Statistics – A product of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this database provides U.S. public health statistics, covering diseases, pregnancies, births, aging, and mortality. Public use data files are available for download. Includes important statistical subsets and reports, including NCHS Data Briefs; NCHS Health E-Stats; Health, United States; and many others.
World Health Organization Data and Statistics – Comprised of several key databases, including the Global Health Observatory, the WHO Global InfoBase, the Global Health Atlas, and Regional Statistics; also data by categories, including mortality and health status, diseases, coverage of services, risk factors, and health systems.
Find Articles (via Columbia University Libraries) – To search multiple periodical indexes simultaneously within a variety of subjects and disciplinary subcategories.
- See our library’s Find Articles video tutorial.
Super Search (via Gottesman Libraries) – To search some or all of our periodical indexes, plus EDUCAT and CLIO, simultaneously for books, journal articles, reports, dissertations, etc.
- See our library’s Super Search video tutorial.
Google Scholar – Provides the means to search for scholarly research across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites.
- See our library’s Google Scholar video tutorial.
Academic Commons – Columbia University’s online repository, where current faculty, students, and staff can deposit the results of their scholarly work and research.
PocketKnowledge – The social archive of Teachers College, including unpublished manuscripts and archives from the library’s collections, documents from other departments and administrative offices College-wide, and the work of TC students, faculty, and researchers.
Library Services and Publications
Ask a Librarian a Question – To explore a variety of kinds of research support: enlist basic library assistance via our 24/7 online chat service; submit an email reference query to librarians onsite; request a research consultation with a Gottesman librarian; review frequently asked questions via the library’s Knowledge Database.
E-Reserves – Provides online access to digital course readings, including e-journal articles and book chapters, as well as call numbers for physical course reserves materials (books, DVDs, videos, etc.).
Document Delivery – Interlibrary services for the retrieval of content (books, book chapters, journal articles, etc.) not available through the Gottesman or Columbia University Libraries.
Borrow Direct – Enables Columbia University and TC students, faculty, and staff with library borrowing privileges and active e-mail accounts to borrow books directly from the libraries of Brown University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University; beginning in Summer 2011, select libraries of Harvard University and the libraries of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will join the Borrow Direct partnership. There is a 6-week loan period, plus one 6-week renewal, subject to possible recall by the lending library.
Learning at the Library – The Gottesman Libraries’ blog via the Pressible platform, including content in many topical areas contributed by library staff members.
This is a great addition to the TC website. There are some resources on here I was not aware of and I’m glad to know of them.
I didn’t see a link to the Oxford Online Dictionary, which I use a lot and which others may find helpful. Not sure you want to do dictionaries since they are not subject specific…
Thanks for putting this together.
Thanks for your kind words, Kathleen. I’ve really enjoyed assembling these guides and I plan to continue to expand and update them, in the hope that they’ll benefit students, faculty, and researchers who happen upon them.
I personally love the OED and will on your recommendation happily include it. There’s a link to it on the top page of our website and on the Databases by Genre: Dictionaries page, but I’m of the opinion that the more access points the better when it comes to core resources like the Dictionary.
Hi Allen,
Love this site!
Just reporting a dead link: Lenses on Reading: An Introduction to Theories and Models under Handbooks of Research brings to a page with, “Document Unavailable.”
Hi Miguel,
Thanks for your kind words and thanks for pointing out the dead link. I’ve updated the entry to the 2nd, 2012 edition of the work, and the citation now links successfully to the e-book. I greatly appreciate your thorough review of the post!
Allen