Healthcare Design: Journals & Databases

Few publications focus specifically on healthcare design.  However, pertinent research is spread across the medical literature and can be uncovered by searching library databases. Library databases provide access to journal article citations, but not always the article full text.  A complete list of databases can be found here.  In addition, the Journal Finder tool determines if Kent State has access to a specific publication. Furthermore, the Interlibrary Loan service can often obtain articles not owned by Kent State. This process can take a day up to a few weeks to obtain the article.

Research Journals

Trade Publications

Additional Journals

These journals are not exclusively on healthcare design, but may contain relevant articles. 

PubMed searches over 30 million medical and life science citations found in Medline, PubMed Central, and NCBI book collections.  Full text is not always available, but articles can often be obtained through Interlibrary Loan.

When performing basic searches in PubMed simply enter the search terms. PubMed will automatically map additional related terms to the search.   Do not use quotation marks, punctuation, truncation, etc. in basic PubMed searches as they may interfere with the subject mapping. In-depth tutorials are available through the video below,  this library guide, and the National Library of Medicine.

Medline records (a subset of PubMed) include Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).  Using search terms that mimic the MeSH subject headings can sometimes improve the relevance of results.   MeSH terms with potential implications to Healthcare Design include, but are not limited to:

The terminology of science and medical databases may differ from the vocabulary found in design databases.  Some search terms that may produce results related to healthcare design include: “evidence based design,” “design and construction,” “interior design,” “spatial organization,” “physical environment,” furniture, “built environment,” “environmental stress,” workspace, layout, crowding, illumination, lighting.

"Preprints" are preliminary submissions to research journals going through the rigorous and lengthy "peer review" process.  These reports have not been accepted by the journal and could contain errors or completely inaccurate conclusions.  Some reports may never reach the publication due to flaws and some could end up being retracted for various reasons.  However, Preprints allow researchers to share their work quickly and address timely issues.  While Preprints should be approached with the understanding that they are not final, peer-review articles and should not be used to guide decision-making, they can also provide insight into the latest directions in the scholarly conversation.  This medRxiv article contains additional information on the role of Preprints.