Library Subject Guides
The amount of information on the Internet is already huge and is growing rapidly all the time. Search engines such as Google can be helpful in some instances but have serious limitations for scholarly research. You will need to plan your searches carefully and precisely to avoid obtaining too many results.
Top tips:
1. Use professional and governmental websites e.g.
NHS Centre for Reviews Dissemination
NHS Evidence Health Information Resources
2. Use specific Internet portals e.g.
The Office of Health Economics
UK Clinical Research Network Portfolio Database
3. Always make sure you evaluate websites that you use:
Accuracy: can you rely on the information provided on the website?
Authority: who has written the webpages and do they have the necessary knowledge or qualifications to do so?
Currency: are the pages up-to-date and regularly maintained?
Objectivity: Is there any inherent bias in the pages that you need to be aware of?
Coverage: Does the website provide enough information or will you need to look at a range of websites?
Centre for Health Economics, University of York - information about research and study programmes, and a full list of publications. See the Health Economics Resource Centre pages for information about resources for staff and students.
ECuity Project - established in 1990 to compare equity in health care across countries. Site provides a history of the project, publications by project officers which are free to download, and links to other related sites.
HealthEconomics.com - Searchable list of links to professional bodies, educational institutions, online publications and databases (some American bias, but a good selection of non-US sites).
Health Economics Core Library Project - compiled for the US National Library of Medicine by AcademyHealth. Provides a core list of books, journals, websites and bibliographic databases in the field of health economics. Websites have a bias towards North American sites.
Health Economics Study Group - exists to support and promote the work of health economists. It was founded in 1972 and is therefore the oldest organisation of its type in health economics and remains one of the largest. It is based in the UK, but this does not restrict its membership and interests.
International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) - Includes information about ISPOR publications, including its Value in Health journal (selected years of which are available online to non-subscribers), and a comprehensive set of links to other pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research websites.
NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination - based at the University of York. Site provides information about the CRD's publications (some full texts available), free access to several databases of reviews and evaluations, a directory of Information Resources in Health Economics, and a further collection of links to websites of other relevant organisations.
OECD Health Policy Unit - provides free news and research articles from OECD staff, who collect a large set of data on health status and health care systems in Member countries, and whose work has become a reference source for researchers and policy makers world-wide.
Office of Health Economics (UK) - Site includes news about recent OHE research and activities, details of publications, and demonstrations of databases produced by the OHE.
York Health Economics Consortium - Owned by the University of York. Specialises in health economics, statistics and health services research. Site includes information about services and publications.