Finding and Evaluating Health Datasets

Finding available data can be difficult, but our data services librarian can help with the process. To get started, you can find some available health datasets linked on our guide.

Once you find your data, how do you make sure the data you find is credible? Here are some steps for you to keep in mind to ensure what you find is useful for your project.

  1. Look for supporting documentation outlining what the data is, how it was collected, and how to interpret the data.
    • Tip: Look for readme files, data dictionaries/codebooks, and a collection methodology
  2. Make sure you can open all files associated with the data.
  3. Ensure that all files are clearly labeled and store the information and/or data that is indicated in the file name.
  4. Within the data files, check for the following:
    • Variables are clearly labeled with standard naming conventions.
      • Example: First names are labeled as FirstName and last names are labeled as LastName
    • Units of measurement for different variables are explicitly stated.
      • Example: You can tell if measurements are given in centimeters (cm) or inches (in)
    • Each variable contains a discrete unit of information.
      • Example: blood pressure and zip code are stored in separate columns
    • Variables follow data standards and have consistent formatting.
      • Example: All dates are in yyyy-mm-dd format

Still need help finding and evaluating data? Connect with our data services librarian who can help you find the data you need.

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Spring 2025 Health Sciences Textbooks Available Online or at the Health Sciences Library

Spring 2025 Health Sciences Textbooks Available Online or at the Health Sciences Library

Spring 2025 and optional textbooks for classes are now available!

Pick your school/college, then your program, and finally the course. It’s as easy as that. Access textbook copies at the Health Sciences Library here.

Note: Paper copies will be available at the Health Sciences LIbrary Desk for 24 hour checkout. Any duplicate copies of textbooks are available and subject to regular check out times.

Some ebooks are limited to one viewer at a time, so please close your browser window when you are finished so that the book will be available to others.

Unfortunately, we don’t have all the books required for every class. If we don’t have your textbook, there are several avenues you can use to find a copy, which are all clearly labeled on each class page.

You can also recommend the Health Sciences Library purchase an online copy here. Please provide what course the textbook is for and the name of your instructor.

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Staff news MU celebrates reopening of the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

MU celebrates reopening of the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

You can read a little more about the open house and the Health Sciences Library renovation: https://medicine.missouri.edu/news/mu-celebrates-reopening-j-otto-lottes-health-sciences-library

Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Resources and Services New Ebooks at Mizzou Libraries: Sociology and Psychology

New Ebooks at Mizzou Libraries: Sociology and Psychology

Below are a few of the sociology and psychology ebooks we’ve recently added to our online collection. You can see the rest of our new ebooks here.

These ebooks were purchased with student success grant funds awarded by the Office of the Provost.

 

Interpersonal Development

This volume brings together for the first time the papers which have shaped and defined the field of interpersonal development. It celebrates the maturation of the subject by bringing together the best work by scholars who have been instrumental in furthering the field.

 

 

Social Skills Across the Life Span

Social skills are critical to psychological adjustment across the lifespan. These skills are necessary for attaining a variety of important social, emotional, and interpersonal goals. Social skill definits and resulting negative social interactions are associated with a wide variety of adjustment problems and psychological disorders.

 

 

 

 

 

Sibling Relationships: Their Nature and Significance Across the Lifespan

Since the emergence of developmental psychology early this century, theorists and researchers have emphasized the family’s role in shaping the child’s emergent social style, personality, and cognitive competence. In so doing, however, psychologists have implicitly adopted a fairly idiosyncratic definition of the family— one that focuses almost exclusively on parents and mostly on mothers. The realization that most families contain two parents and at least two children has occurred slowly, and has brought with it recognition that children develop in the context of a diverse network of social relationships within which each person may affect every other both directly (through their interactions) and indirectly

 

Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior

Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior: Handbook in Stress Series, Volume 1, examines stress and its management in the workplace and is targeted at scientific and clinical researchers in biomedicine, psychology, and some aspects of the social sciences.

 

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Enhance Your Research Visibility and Reach with Data Services

Enhance Your Research Visibility and Reach with Data Services

With more focus on data, especially how to store and share your data for grants, we recently established data services at the Health Sciences Libary.

Our library data services strive to ensure the reproducibility of scientific research by training students, staff, and faculty to find, interpret, manage, and preserve research data, making your work easier and less overwhelming while enhancing your research visibility and reach.  

The Data Services Librarian can help: 

  • find and evaluate datasets 
  • find the appropriate repository to store your data 
  • review your data for findability and reusability to create a data management plan which are a requirement for NIH grants 
  • point to resources to learn how to analyze your data 

Visit our data services page to learn more and to connect with our data services librarian.

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Ellis Library, Events and Exhibits BYOBook Club at Mizzou Libraries

BYOBook Club at Mizzou Libraries

Do you want to join a book club but prefer to choose your own book? Join the BYOBook Club!

Our first meeting of the semester is Wednesday, February 19 at 4:00 pm in Ellis Library 114A.

This month’s theme is: read a book with a red or pink cover. Need a book recommendation? Check out our book club guide.

Registration is not required, but encouraged.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Overview of Recent University of Missouri Publications in Medicine and Related Fields: December 2024

Overview of Recent University of Missouri Publications in Medicine and Related Fields: December 2024

Each month we provide an overview of University of Missouri School of Medicine faculty-authored articles in medicine and related fields as well as a featured article with the highest journal impact factor.

This month’s featured article, “Burden of disease scenarios by state in the USA, 2022–50: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021” was co-authored by Dr. Fares Alahdab of the Department of Biomed Informatics Biostat EPI. The article was published in The Lancet  (impact factor of 98.4 in 2023).

See the list of publications in medicine and related fields we retrieved for this month: https://library.muhealth.org/facpubmonthlyresult/?Month=December&Year=2024

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

New Ebooks at Mizzou Libraries: Veterinary and Animal Sciences

Below are a few of the eterinary and Animal Sciences ebooks we’ve recently added to our online collection. You can see the rest of our new ebooks here.

These ebooks were purchased with student success grant funds awarded by the Office of the Provost.

 

Animal Agriculture: Sustainability, Challenges and Innovations

This book discusses the land-based production of high-quality protein by livestock and poultry and how it plays an important role in improving human nutrition, growth and health.

 

 

The Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Snakes

Snakes comprise nearly 4,000 extant species found on all major continents except Antarctica. Morphologically and ecologically diverse, they include burrowing, arboreal, and marine forms, feeding on prey ranging from insects to large mammals. Snakes are strikingly different from their closest lizard relatives, and their origins and early diversification have long challenged and enthused evolutionary biologists.

 

 

 

Greene’s Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat

This book provides a comprehensive, clinically useful reference on the management of infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria (including rickettsiae, chlamydiae, mycoplasmas, and spirochetes), fungi, algae, protozoa, parasites, and other atypical agents

 

 

 

Next Generation Nanochitosan

Next Generation Nanochitosan: Applications in Animal Husbandry, Aquaculture and Food Conservation provides comprehensive and state-of-the-art-information on the application of nanochitosan for improving products, especially for the evaluation of biological active molecules, disease therapeutics, transport vehicle for DNA, targeted drug delivery, gene therapy, development of smart and high performance of fish, preservation of foods, tissue engineering, and improving the taste of aquatic and animal feeds as fish growth promoter.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services New MU Authored Trending Articles in PubMed

New MU Authored Trending Articles in PubMed

Two recently trending articles in PubMed were:

  1. The structure of apolipoprotein B100 from human low-density lipoprotein co-authored by Dr. Zachary Berndsen from the School of Medicine.
  2. Real-world effectiveness and causal mediation study of BNT162b2 on long COVID risks in children and adolescents co-authored by Dr. Abua Mosa from the School of Medicine.

What is a PubMed trending article?

Trending articles is a marker of increased interest in a PubMed abstract. Trending articles are those with a significant increase in daily PubMed views in the past two days as compared to the previous baseline period, which is approximately a week.

You can see the full list of trending articles here.

Interested in tracking the impact of your articles after they are published? Email asklibrary@health.missouri.edu to learn how we can help.

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.