This guide will show you several tools you can use to find articles that relate to one of the systems of the human body. Medline is the Ferrari of medical databases. You can control your results very precisely. Using the library search to look for articles, on the other hand, is kind of like taking the bus: pretty easy, but you have limited control over the results. Gale OneFile: Health & Medicine is the Ford of the group. It gives you moderate control, and is easier than Medline.
Anatomical figure from Anatomy, physiology and laws of health (1885); Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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Using the library search to find articles on a body system works best if you search for a specific aspect of that system, for example "spleen" instead of "lymphatic system." Because the search is a keyword instead of a subject heading, you may see some results that have nothing to do with anatomy or physiology. For example, a search for "heart" will return "Victorian Poetry and Cultures of the Heart" as well as material that discusses the organ of the body. Results will include many formats, including books, DVDs, and articles.
To tune your results better, follow these instructions: |
1. At the top of the results list, click Peer-reviewed Journals. This should limit your results to peer-reviewed articles. 
2. If there is still a lot of "noise" (non-physiological uses of your term) in your results, try clicking a subject in the Topic menu.
3. Under any result marked Full text available, click Full text available to find a link to the article.
4. If the item says Check Holdings, click Check holdings to see if Chemeketa has the article in paper format.
5. News articles or editorials are not acceptable for this assignment. Your article should