Research Guides: *History: HIS 3491: Medicine & Society

Looking for topic ideas?

Not sure what to research? Try browsing a specialized encyclopedia for topic ideas. Each entry is written by a scholar in the field and may include citations to important books and articles.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology by Hugh Richard Slotten
Call Number: *Online*
ISBN: 9780199766666
Publication Date: 2014
The entries in this encyclopedia explore the changing character of science, medicine, and technology in the United States; the key individuals, institutions, and organizations responsible for major developments; and the concepts, practices, and processes underlying these changes
The Cambridge History of Medicine by Roy Porter (Editor)
Call Number: R 131 .C232 2006 (Dirac Library)
ISBN: 9780521682893
Publication Date: 2006
The Cambridge History of Medicine, first published in 2006, surveys the rise of medicine in the West from classical times to the present.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
This database is a collection of many encyclopedias. Start with a keyword or entry and use the Mind Map to connect to related concepts and expand your view of the topic.
Abbreviation: credo
Vendor: Credo Reference
Subjects: *General / Multi-Subject
Type: Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Images, Streaming Video

Now what?

Once you have a topic you'd like to research, and perhaps have read some basic information, think critically about what we know and how we know it.

What is sickness? What is healthy?
Who gets sick? Who has access to medical treatment?
What role do institutions like hospitals, government agencies, or businesses play in medical decisions?
How do ideas or practices of medicine change over time? Why?
Who are considered medical professionals? How do they relate to patients? Other types of professionals?
What is considered ethical? How have ethics changed over time?

Try to challenge your own preconceived notions about medicine. Challenge the terminology you use, and brainstorm new questions.

Ready for research?

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine This link opens in a new window
Contains records describing journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, medicine and allied historical fields. Citations reflect the contents of more than 1,000 journals, and partial contents of several hundred more.
Abbreviation: hist-scitech
Vendor: EBSCO
Subjects: *General Science, History
Type: E-Journal Collections, Indexes / Catalogs
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
An archive of the back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Consider using historical issues of medical journals as primary sources to examine the ideas of doctors and medical researchers in the past.
Tutorials:
How to search (04:20)
Primary Source Collection: 19th-Century British Pamphlets (00:51)

Abbreviation: jstor
Vendor: JSTOR
Coverage: 1665-present
Subjects: Arts Administration, Art History, *General / Multi-Subject
Type: E-Book Collections, E-Journal Collections
PubMed (NLM) This link opens in a new window
PubMed, is a service of the National Library of Medicine, which provides access to over 16 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's and additional life science journals. MEDLINE is the primary database used for getting to the subject content of articles in medicine. There are several ways to get to MEDLINE, including OVID and PubMed. The FSU customized version of PubMed links directly from the article reference to the full article for all electronic journals available at FSU.
Tutorials:
PubMed Online Training

See also: MeSH (Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus and will assist you in formulating your successful searches.)

Abbreviation: pubmd
Vendor: National Library of Medicine
Subjects: Biological Sciences, Engineering, Communication, Communication Disorders, Medicine, Music Therapy, Nursing & Integrative Physiology, Public Health, Urban and Regional Planning
Type: E-Journal Collections, Indexes / Catalogs