research paper about history of medicine

Library Home
Library Guides

History of Medicine

Journals and Articles
Books, Manuscripts and Archives
International Resources
Chicago Medical History
Images and Portraits
Biographical information
Historical Statistics
Organizing and Presenting Research
Osteopathic Medicine
Race & Medicine
Tuberculosis
Yellow Fever

Selected Journals

History of medicine articles can be found in a wide variety of medical and other journals. There are also journals specializing in the history of medicine, a selection of which are listed here.

JSTOR journals in the history of science Several full text core journals in the history of science and medicine, including Isis, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, and more.
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Medical History
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Social History of Medicine

Article Index Databases

PubMed This link opens in a new window Covers Medline 1950-current. Limit your subject search using the "history" subheading (e.g., "surgery/history [MESH]" retrieves articles in the history of surgery. & more less... Provides access to citations and full text articles from the biomedical literature (medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care, and the preclinical sciences). PubMed includes MEDLINE (mid 1960s-present), OLDMEDLINE (1950-1965), in-process citations (not yet indexed).
MEDLINE (Ovid) This link opens in a new window Covers Medline 1950-current (same as PubMed). Use subheading "history" or use MeSH search term browser to see additional terms under "History." & more less... MEDLINE is the United States National Library of Medicine's (NLM) bibliographic database providing information from the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, allied health, and the pre-clinical sciences. It is also a primary source of information from the international literature on biomedicine, including the following topics as they relate to biomedicine and health care: Biology, environmental science, marine biology, plant and animal science, biophysics, and chemistry.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Discover articles published in journals and other publications from 1955 to present on world history since 1450. Includes history of medicine and related subject areas. & more less... Historical Abstracts is an exceptional resource that covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more - essential for libraries supporting upper-division and graduate research. This authoritative database provides indexing of more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955. (Description taken from EBSCO website.)
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window Includes Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, Wellesley Index, Poole's Index and Periodicals Index Online, along with full-text resources, for integrated bibliographic coverage of books and official publications, archives, and articles published in journals, magazines and newspapers. Years of coverage: 1790-1919. & more less... The Nineteenth Century Index (C19 Index) draws on the strength of indexes such as the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, Palmer's, and Periodicals Index Online, along with full-text resources, to create integrated bibliographic coverage of books and official publications, archives, and articles published in journals, magazines and newspapers. Years of coverage: 1790-1919. Collections expand with each release of the database.
History of Science, Medicine & Technology Bibliographic database of journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, and medicine and allied historical fields. Updated quarterly. 1975-present

Librarian Tips and Tricks

To verify an old journal citation, try searching by author and year using cited reference searching feature in Web of Science .
Dissertation Abstracts . Capitalize on the efforts of other researchers. Your topic may have already have been covered but never published commercially. Look for citations published in dissertations since 1861. Titles published since 1997 are available in PDF digital format.
Contributions to the history of medicine [by] Fielding H. Garrison. Introd. by Martin M. Cummings. New York, Hafner Pub. Co., 1966. History of medicine series. no. 27. "From the Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 1925-1935."
Morton's medical bibliography : an annotated check-list of texts illustrating the history of medicine (Garrison and Morton). 5th ed. / edited by Jeremy Norman. Aldershot, Hants, England : Scolar Press ; Brookfield, Vt., USA : Gower, c1991.
Kelly, Emerson Crosby. Encyclopedia of medical sources . Baltimore : Williams & Wilkins Co., 1948. Handy resource for tracking down medical "firsts." The author presents a compilation of the "earliest or best article" for a given topic.
Have an unfamiliar journal abbreviation? Search for it in the online version of Abbreviations of titles of medical periodicals to be used in the subject-catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office .
Restrict a search to the "Personal Name as Subject" field [ps]. For example: varmus h [ps].
Also try limiting your search to the biography "Publication Type" field [pt]. For example: biography [pt] AND varmus h
Republished seminal articles are noted in Medline with the "Classical Article" publication type filter. For example: Classical Article [pt] AND surgery
Also try limiting your search with the "Historical Article" filter for articles about past events. For example: Historical Article [pt] AND depression

Article Indexes in Print

While online databases to find articles are good sources of information about articles in the history of medicine and are convenient to use, there is also a wealth of information in print article indexes. The following are a selected list of the most important print sources for articles in the history of medicine.

Bibliography of the History of Medicine (U.S.) Z6660.C92 Covers articles published 1965-1993. Produced by the National Library of Medicine. References to these articles are integrated into the Medline database.
Excerpta Medica Z6660.E9 Covers articles published 1946-1979. Good coverage of pharmaceutical sciences.
Current list of medical literature Covers articles published 1941-1959. Continues the earlier title, Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus.
Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus Z6660.Q21 Covers articles published 1916-1927.
Index medicus, a ... classified record of the current medical literature of the world. Z6660.I4 Covers articles published 1879-1898/1899 and 1903-1927
Index-Catalog of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office (ICLSGO). 017.73 S96121 Crerar Dewey Collection Published in 1883. Includes references for articles published in journals as well as for books, pamphlets and other publications. An earlier edition was produced in 1873-1874 (017.73 S9612 Crerar Dewey Collection).
Wood's library of standard medical authors, 1879-1886 : a checklist / compiled by Philip M. Teigen. Z6676.W66 1985 Covers literature published from 1879 -1886. Compiled by the History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine
American medical imprints, 1820-1910 : a checklist of publications illustrating the history and progress of medical science, medical education, and the healing arts in the United States : a preliminary contribution / Francesco Cordasco Z6661.U6C7
Catalogue of scientific papers, 1800-1900 : subject index Z7403.R88 Covers literature published 1800-1900. Produced by the Royal Society of London. International in scope.
The history of the health care sciences and health care, 1700-1980 : a selective annotated bibliography Z6658.E69 Covers literature published 1700-1980. Compiled by Jonathon Erlen.
Early American medical imprints : a guide to works printed in the United States, 1668-1820 Z6661.U6A5 Covers literature published 1668-1820, including articles. Produced by Robert B. Austin.
Medicine in Great Britain from the Restoration to the nineteenth century, 1660-1800 : an annotated bibliography Z6661.G7R630 1992 Covers literature published 1660-1800. Compiled by Samuel J. Rogal.
American medical bibliography 1639-1783 : A chronological catalogue, and critical and bibliographical study of books, pamphlets, broadsides, and articles in periodical publications relating to the medical sciences--medicine, surgery, pharmacy, dentistry, Z6659.G91 Covers literature published 1639-1783.