HSR Literature

AcademyHealth provides information on the latest developments in the field of HSR. Resources include key online research tools, how to search for HSR projects in progress, and links to recent journal articles and grant opportunities.  This page offers information and resources on the following:

• HSR Literature Searches
• Core Library Modules 

HSR Literature Searches

PubMed Search: Pilot Health Services Research (HSR) Filters Project

These specialized Health Services Research (HSR) searches are intended for researchers, clinicians, health policy analysts and planners and have built-in search "filters" based largely on the work of Haynes RB, et al. Four health care quality categories and two health care cost categories (note: economics is a subset of the more general costs category) are provided, and the emphasis may be broader (i.e., mostly relevant articles but probably some less relevant ones too) or narrower (i.e., mostly relevant articles but probably omitting a few). See definitions for details about study methodology criteria. The resulting retrieval can be further refined using PubMed's Limits e.g., English language.

Grey Literature Search

Grey Literature is not peer reviewed and not indexed in major bibliographic resources. Examples of grey literature include government agency documents, unpublished company or organization reports, conference proceedings, and other material from organizations that conduct health care policy analysis and research. The New York Academy of Medicine Library's Grey Literature Collection is a bimonthly publication of grey literature focused on public health.

Background on HSR Literature at NLM

HealthSTAR (Health Services Technology, Administration, and Research) was an online bibliographic information service that resided as a separate database available from the National Library of Medicine from February 1994 (originally called HSTAR) to December 2000.  Materials specially selected with a focus on health services research including clinical (emphasizing the evaluation of patient outcomes and the effectiveness of procedures, programs, products, services, and processes) and non-clinical (emphasizing health care administration, economics, planning, and policy) aspects of health care delivery, that comprised HealthSTAR, have now migrated to other NLM online web-based environments: (1) journal citations are being added weekly to NLM's PubMed (http://PubMed.gov ) (2) books, book chapters, technical reports and conference papers are added regularly to NLM's online catalog, LocatorPlus (http://locatorplus.gov), and (3) meeting abstracts from AcademyHealth (formerly the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy), Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) (formerly International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care), and the Cochrane Colloquium annual conferences have moved to the NLM Gateway (http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/). 

Users can go to these specific environments to search for HSR literature or they can use the NLM Gateway to simultaneously search across all information services.  Although HealthSTAR ceases to exist as a separate database, the selection and acquisition of HSR published and grey literature is still ongoing and is coordinated jointly through the NLM National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR), Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC), and Technical Services Division.

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Core Library Modules

For a complete listing of recommended methods texts, see the NLM's National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) Web site for the report: Health Services Research Methodology Core Library Recommendations, 2007.  This report was written by AcademyHealth under contract to the National Library of Medicine, and includes a comprehensive review of recommended journals, books, databases, and Web sites focused on HSR methods.  

Core Library Recommendations - Key Reading in Specific Topics  

Health Services Research Methodology :  Due to the breadth of the methodological areas covered by health services research, these recommendations are organized both by core and desired materials, as well as by topic area. An introductory essay answers the questions - What Are Health Services Research Methods? and Why Are They Important?

Health Outcomes: These recommendations consist of compilations of selected books, journals, Web sites, and bibliographic databases related to health outcomes. Produced by AcademyHealth at the request of the National Library of Medicine's National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR), the project focused on developing the core and desired sets of resources for health libraries and those new to the field. A brief introduction answers the questions - What are health outcomes? and Why are they important? A full project report (in PDF) is also available.

Health Economics : What are the key resources in health economics? The National Library of Medicine contracted with AcademyHealth to tackle this question and develop a report (available in PDF) with a core list of materials (books, journals, websites and bibliographic databases) and a desired list of books and journals in the field of health economics. The lists are primarily geared to individuals who are new to the field or unfamiliar with the various resources on health economics and need to acquire and/or access publications, databases, and websites in the health economics domain.

Health Policy: What information resources are essential in a library supporting health policy programs and/or a workforce working on health policy issues? The National Library of Medicine decided to take a look at this question. It contracted with AcademyHealth to provide a selected list of essential materials in health policy. The resulting report (in PDF format at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/corelib/corelibhp.pdf) intended as a selection guide rather than as standard, provides recommendations for books, journals, Internet sites, and organizations and publishers to monitor for reports. The recommendations are primarily geared to academic and health sciences librarians who are not familiar with the literature of health policy and who need to acquire publications or assist in locating Internet sites in the domain. However, we hope that librarians and other information providers in hospital and related special libraries may also find the recommendations useful.

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