Welcome to UVA! Here are five tips to get your semester started right:

1. Looking for articles? Install the LibKey Nomad browser plug-in. It will Iink to PDFs (one click!!) while browsing certain sites including PubMed, WOS, publisher websites, and Wikipedia.
2. Looking for articles? Another great option is to collect references in Zotero and find PDFs there. Read more.
3. Speaking of PubMed, use our PubMed link - this will give you the "Find@UVA" option to find articles (a good option to the LibKey plugin above). And view our "PubMed 101 for Public Health" for searching tips.
4. See below or visit our Connecting from Off-Grounds for more options to access library resources.
5. Need to use library printers? Get your laptop or phone set up now on the new PaperCut system.
6. Ask Us! We are here to help you.

There are many considerations for using Generative AI (Gen AI) tools such as ChatGPT in your research. Below are some points especially relevant to Public Health capstone work and research papers.

1. Choose a tool:
   1. For Chatbots, in addition to ChatGPT, you may want to consider UVA's subscription to, Copilot (Microsoft, formerly Bing Chat), Gemini (Google; formerly Bard) or Claude.
   2. Try the UVA subscription to Consensus for an AI-powered search engine designed to take in research questions, find relevant insights within research papers, and synthesize the results using the power of large language models.
2. General Guidance
   1. In addition to your course guidance, you may find this guide from USC Libraries on Generative AI and Writing to be useful.
   2. What are you sharing? Gen AI engines may save your entire conversation, including every prompt you enter, to be used for training the system. You should not enter sensitive, personal, or proprietary information into any Gen AI system.
3. Generate good prompts
   1. Need hints on how to query the chatbot? For more on the "prompts" to ask your questions, see guides like Getting started with prompts for text-based Generative AI tools
4. Accuracy
   1. AI generated text must be fact-checked for accuracy. Tools are often not up-to-date and many don't have access to scholarly publications for their content. The citations they generate may be "hallucinated" (i.e. fabricated).
5. Citing AI
   1. For APA, MLA, and Chicago, see the University Library guide on Citing AI-generated Content.
   2. For AMA, see this guide from USC Libraries that contains AMA's policy on Acknowledgment of Use of Artificial Intelligence and Language Models in Writing and Editing.

There are several ways to connect to the libraries' online books, journals, and databases from off-Grounds:

These sources review other materials, mostly journal articles, to provide a synthesized account of the best literature on a topic. Often a good starting point for your research.

Multi-Database Interfaces

These interfaces allow you to search collections of library databases at once.

Complete List of All UVA Library Databases

• Visit the A-Z list of library databases to browse the best sources to find literature, either by Title or by Subject

See more Psychology and Social Science databases via the University Library Subject Guides.

• POLITICO PRO

Provides dedicated coverage of 15 policy areas spanning the entire policy landscape and include: Agriculture, Budget & Appropriations, Campaigns, Cybersecurity, Defense, Education, eHealth, Energy, Financial Services, Health Care, Labor & Employment, Tax, Technology, Trade, and Transportation. Its reporters and editors are the most distinguished and expert in their field.

• Policy File Index

Access to timely, updated information for over 75 public policy topics from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities. Most records link directly to the full-text report, paper, document, or other source.

See more Public Policy databases via the University Library Subject Guides

See our guide to Systematic Review Resources and Services for information on literature databases, citation management, and expert help.

Need access to freely available data to analyze or run statistical analyses? Check out a few, common sources as well as a link to many more:

Free Expert Consultations

• Research and Data Services at HSL - Data consultation services and biomedical data and statistics training opportunities. Get expert consultations by appointment on statistical software such as R, python, Stata, SAS, and SPSS
• UVA Research Computing - help with cutting-edge computational resources and issues around optimization, parallelization, workflow, etc.

Software at UVA

• UVA Software Gateway: list of licensed software provided by UVa

Online Learning

• Online courses through UVA's subscription to LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com)
• E-books through O'Reilly

• Take an online course through Sage Campus on topics like basic research approaches, navigating information, data literacy, and data science skills 

Free Expert Consultations

• Research & Data Services - Research: Expert assistance with biomedical literature search and data discovery, organizing and managing your research project and bibliography, creating presentations and posters, and disseminating and sharing your research.
• Research & Data Services - Data: Data consultation services and biomedical data and statistics training opportunities. Get expert consultations by appointment on statistical software such as R, python, Stata, SAS, and SPSS
• UVA Research Computing - help with cutting-edge computational resources and issues around optimization, parallelization, workflow, etc.

Software at UVA

• UVA Software Gateway: list of licensed software provided by UVA

Online Learning

• Online courses through UVA's subscription to LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com)
• E-books through O'Reilly
• Take an online course through Sage Campus on topics like basic research approaches, navigating information, data literacy, and data science skills 

• Find books, reference works, journal articles, and instructional videos through SAGE Research Methods Online  

  • Contains the Little Green Books, the Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series that provide short and accessible texts on all kinds of quantitative methods. Providing clear statistical explanations, straightforward empirical examples, and ready-to-use procedures. Volumes address a spectrum of advanced quantitative topics including regression, models, data analysis, experimental design, measurement, survey data, and more.

• Develop and practice real-world skills to transition from campus to the workplace through Sage Skills: Business. Topics include Data Analytics, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Organizational Communication, and Professionalism