Resource Guides: Pathways Research: Population, Community and Global Health

Relevant Literature Databases 💻

Global Health This link opens in a new window
Specialist bibliographic, abstracting and indexing database dedicated to public health research & practice. Contains many abstracts and a growing number of full text items covering all public health issues on a local, national & global scale.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health This link opens in a new window
Collection of articles, overviews, and key subject works in the field of global public health.

Oxford Scholarship Online - Public Health and Epidemiology
Public health and epidemiology eBooks from the Oxford University Press.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
Public access database to citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
To ensure you see the check for full text at UMass Chan button when you are logged into NCBI, add the UMassMed Outside Tool to your NCBI account. To add: Sign in to My NCBI. >> Click on your username in the upper right corner to access the Account Settings page. >> Click on Site Preferences >> Click Outside Tool under PubMed Preferences. >> Select "UMassMed users can check for full text" from the list of Outside Tool services available.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
The largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.

Library Provided Data Sources 📊

PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
Data and mapping tool for accessing data about communities across the U.S. Data on a range of topics is available including health, quality of life, housing, and demographics.
ICPSR This link opens in a new window
Data archive of research in the social and behavioral sciences including thematic collections on health topics (aging, addiction, HIV, patient-centered outcomes, and others).
Any questions, please contact the UMass Chan Official Representative: Sally Gore, sally.gore@umassmed.edu, or the Designated Representative, Tess Grynoch, tess.grynoch@umassmed.edu.

Freely Available Health and Social Science Data 🌎

International Data

The World Health Organization Global Health Observatory (GHO)
WHO's gateway to health-related data from around the world including important public health issues such as mortality, diseases, health systems, violence and injuries, and equity.

ICPSR This link opens in a new window
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research is a long-standing archive of over 500,000 social science data sets. Topic classifications include Healthcare and Facilities. It also hosts a number of health data collections including the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA). UMass Chan is a member institution.
Any questions, please contact the UMass Chan Official Representative: Sally Gore, sally.gore@umassmed.edu, or the Designated Representative, Tess Grynoch, tess.grynoch@umassmed.edu.

OECD Statistics Portal
Statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Project Tycho
A database of publicly available US and international data on public health, including the entire history of weekly National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System reports for the United States (1888-2014).
Qualitative Data Repository
Housed at Syracuse University, QDR selects, ingests, curates, archives, manages, durably preserves, and provides access to digital data used in qualitative and multi-method social inquiry.
UNdata
Brings together international statistical databases. Maintained by Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) of the UN Secretariat.

United States Data

America's Health Rankings
Reports and ratings of health by state or by measure, from 1990 to 2010.
US Census Data
American Hospital Directory
Statistics for non-federal, short-term, acute care hospitals summarized by state.
Best Hospitals (U.S. News and World Report)
Hospital rankings both by specialty and area. From news source.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (CDC)
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the world's largest, on-going telephone health survey system.
CMS Data Navigator
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) claims and cost data.
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
Health rankings by state and county from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Strategies, guidance and tools to impact health.
Data.gov
Home of the U.S. Government's open data. You can find federal, state and local data, tools, and resources to conduct research, build apps, design data visualizations, and more. Includes health, science, and public safety data.
Disability Statistics (Cornell University)
Online resource for U.S. Disability Statistics from Cornell University.
Food Environment Atlas (USDA)
County-level data on food choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
H-CUPnet (AHRQ)
Data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). It provides access to health statistics and information on hospital inpatient and emergency department utilization.
Healthdata.gov
Managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, this site makes HHS data easily accessible to the public and to health innovators, including data on clinical care provider quality, health service provider directories, consumer product data, and community health performance information.
National Center for Health Statistics
Part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHS is the principal health statistics agency for the United States. Their website includes data sets on a wide range of issues related to public health, from birth control to whooping cough.
National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) AtlasPlus
Quick access to nearly 20 years of CDC’s surveillance data on HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and tuberculosis (TB). Users can also view social and economic data in conjunction with HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB infections.
National Center for Education Statistics (U.S. Department of Education)
NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) (National Science Foundation)
A large body of statistical data resources for science and engineering (S&E) at U.S. academic institutions. NCSES emphasizes S&E, but its data resources also provide information on non-S&E fields and higher education in general. Previously WebCASPAR.
Neighborhood Atlas
The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is based on a measure created by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) for primarily county-level use, but refined, adapted, and validated to the Census block group/neighborhood by a research team at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
State Health Facts (KFF)
State-by-state data. Search specific health facts, choose a health category, or select a location. Provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Massachusetts Data

Massachusetts State Data Center (UMass Amherst)
A program of the UMass Donahue Institute's Economic and Public Policy Research Unit. Part of the Census Bureau’s State Data Center Program, provides an extensive collection of census data in Massachusetts, New England, and the U.S.
Massachusetts Office of Population Health
Facilitates and coordinates the collection, access to, and use of public health data in order to monitor and improve population health.

Healthcare Volunteer Opportunities Locally and Abroad 🩺

International Healthcare Opportunities Clearinghouse (IHOC) This link opens in a new window
Designed for health-care professionals and students who are interested in volunteer work with underserved communities at home or abroad.

International Medical Education Program Global Health Trip Reports
Trip reports from UMass Chan medical students global health experiences including opportunities in clinical medicine, research, public health, community service, as well as cultural and language training. Requires a UMass Chan login.

Citation Managers 📝

Citation managers help you organize and keep track of your references and generate bibliographies. Some also have plugins for in-paper citations, the ability to attach full text pdfs to citations, and tools to share your bibliographies with collaborators.

Full list of citation managers supported by the library

Two of the most popular citation managers at UMass Chan are Zotero and EndNote:

Watch the workshop to find out the difference between them and a quick tutorial of both:

Interlibrary Loan 📙

Instructions for requesting an item through Interlibrary Loan

Pathways Research

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