Health and Human Sciences (HHS)

The All-in-One HHS Search box searches health, psychology, science, education, and related resources including MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, SocINDEX, SPORTDiscus, Academic Search Complete, and more. Use whenever you need to find articles. You will find many e-books, too.  

1. Search using 2 to 4 important words or concepts about your topic. Focus on a word or phrase related to the primary focus of your research and practice – the person, priority, patient, population, problem, plan, practitioner, or professional.
2. Go through your first page or two of results and find results that seem like what you need. 
3. Look for title or subject words in articles you like and use those to further refine the search. If you need more information on specific issues within your wider topic, add in or change search words to reflect what need to find.
4. If you need to limit your results by peer review status or date, look to the left of your results and locate the REFINE RESULTS column.  Under the column in a section called “Limiters,” click boxes and make date changes as needed.
5. To get at the full text of things you like, do the following. If you get a "PDF Full Text" image, click that and full text should open. If you only get the purple "Find Full Text" link, click that. A link to get at the electronic full text or, in some cases, information on how to find the print version in the library appears. If such links do not show, click the "No full text available? Try Interlibrary Loan" link that shows after clicking "Find Full Text." If prompted to log into Interlibrary Loan, use your Catamount (student) or WCU (employee) ID and password.
6. To save citations, click “Add to folder” beside the article titles. Click the top folder icon to email or download selections before exiting. When emailing, specify a citation format (AMA, APA, etc.) by selecting the "Citation Format" option - do not trust 100%!

If you need to write up what resources you are searching, you may want to adapt the following text. Please note that you'll find much more detailed suggested text specific to different review methodologies at https://researchguides.wcu.edu/HHS/publicationandpresentation.

Healthcare and social sciences-focused resources searched included the research databases APA PsycInfo, APA PsycTests, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Cochrane Collaboration's systematic reviews, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Education Source, Environment Complete, ERIC, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, SocINDEX, and SPORTdiscus as well as multidisciplinary resources such as Academic Search.

What databases/resources does the All in One HHS Search box search?

The All in One HHS Search box searches approximately 40 distinct research databases at one time. Of those, the databases most relevant to the Health and Human Sciences are CINAHL, MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, SportDiscus, APA PsycTests, and ERIC. The following provides a complete listing of databases searched as of May 2022.  

Academic Search Premier, American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 3, American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1, American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 2, American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 4, American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 5, Art & Architecture Complete, Art Index Retrospective (H.W. Wilson), Biological & Agricultural Index Plus (H.W. Wilson), Business Source Premier, Child Development & Adolescent Studies, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Communication & Mass Media Complete, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EconLit with Full Text, Education Source, Entrepreneurial Studies Source, Environment Complete, ERIC, Essay and General Literature Retrospective (H.W. Wilson), Gender Studies Database, GeoRef, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Historical Abstracts, Hospitality & Tourism Complete, Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 (H.W. Wilson), Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text, Literary Reference Center Plus, MasterFILE Premier, MEDLINE Complete, Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print, Military & Government Collection, MLA Directory of Periodicals, MLA International Bibliography, Newspaper Source Plus, Philosopher's Index, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, APA PsycTests, Public Administration Abstracts, Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson), Regional Business News, Scientific Periodicals, 1771-1901, SocINDEX with Full Text, SPORTDiscus with Full Text, Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide

Can't get at the full text of something? 

• Find the article in the HHS All-in-One Search box. 
• If you already have the title of an article you want, search using a few words from that title.
• When you find the title, there will be a "PDF Full Text" or "Find Full Text" link.
• If you get the "PDF Full Text" link, click that and full text should open right up.  
• If you only get the purple "Find Full Text" link, click that. A link to the electronic full text or, in some cases, information on finding the print version in the library appears. 
• If such links do not show, click "No full text available? Try Interlibrary Loan" after clicking "Find Full Text." 
• If prompted to log into Interlibrary Loan, use your regular Catamount (student) or WCU (employee) ID and password.

Create an NCBI Account to link WCU library resources to your PubMed searches. When "Selecting Outside Tool," WCU's Outside Tool name is "Western Carolina University Linksource."