How to Access Medical Research


When you read or hear about new medical discoveries in the news, you can find out more by accessing the published journal articles that report the research. Here are some suggestions about how to access this information.

Finding the Latest Research

When news organizations feature stories on new research, they often include links on their websites to the full-text journal articles or links to related sites. The best medical research is published in peer-reviewed journals, which means the research reports have been evaluated by experts and found to be scientifically sound. By and large these articles can be accessed by anyone at little or no charge and usually contain links to related articles cited in their references.

Remember to look for reliable sources when searching for medical information. Government-sponsored sites, peer-reviewed journals, and nonprofit health associations provide a wealth of information with the goal of educating the public. (And it's always a good idea to discuss any information that you find with your physician.)

Details About Specific Diseases

Nonprofit health organizations are good sources because their missions are to promote understanding and awareness of particular conditions or diseases.

Now, because of patientINFORM, visitors to the websites of the voluntary health organizations listed below can read the latest research articles and find interpretive materials that help them to understand and apply the findings. Eventually, patientINFORM will expand to cover a wider range of medical conditions.

Government Sources of Information

If you are looking for details about a specific disease or condition, try the websites of the National Institutes of Health, which has institutes that specialize in certain diseases, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Information Provided by Publishers

Publishers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade to digitize content in order to provide increased access to information for millions of patients, families, researchers, faculty, and students. The following is a list of the numerous ways in which publishers and database and website producers provide access:

  • The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) provides web-based, free access to the world’s largest digital archive of references to the life sciences journal literature. The bulk of the archive consists of abstracts (short summaries) provided by journal publishers and indexed by NLM.

PubMed contains citations and abstracts of more than 17 million articles appearing in more than 4,600 biomedical journals dating back to the 1950’s. The public can search this database and retrieve references to most of the articles published in respected journals, whether their content is free or not. PubMed also includes links to the full-text articles, which appear on a variety of websites, including those of hundreds of journal publishers.

PubMed Central (PMC) provides access to more than 200,000 full-text articles from more than 140 journals that have chosen to deposit their content on PMC. In addition, under the National Institutes of Health’s mandated public access policy, all articles that report NIH-funded research and that are accepted for publication after April 7, 2008, must be deposited on PMC and made freely available within 1 year of their original publication. Several other funding agencies also require the scientists whose research they fund to deposit articles on PMC.

  • FreeMedicalJournals.com contains links to more than 430 free medical journals, some of which are available immediately upon publication, at no cost.
  • University and public libraries provide access to print subscriptions or full-text electronic articles for free to walk-in patrons who obtain a guest pass.
  • Hospital libraries provide access to print subscriptions or full-text electronic articles for free to walk-in patrons who obtain a guest pass.
  • Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press provides access more than 4.7 million complete (full-text) articles from over 1,000 journals. HighWire also offers almost 1.9 million free full-text articles, and this number grows daily. It is currently the largest source of free articles in the world.
  • The websites of major publishers provide immediate and free listings of tables of contents and abstracts, with links to full-text articles that can be purchased for as little as $3 or that are available free.
  • Interlibrary loan programs or document delivery services provide access to print copies of articles; electronic copies of articles can be accessed by anyone on a pay-per-view basis on journal websites for as little as $3.
  • Publishers have negotiated licenses with universities that allow thousands of faculty and students at those institutions to access a journal anytime, anywhere.
  • Innovative distribution arrangements have resulted in dramatically increased access to journal literature, not only in the United States and Europe, but also for research and professional workers in developing countries. One example of this is the HINARI project, in which WHO and publishers of medical journals provide free access to nearly 3,800 journals for 2,500 institutions in over 107 developing countries worldwide. This project is being continually expanded and in many countries is the principal literature resource for the library.