Biomedical Sciences: Websites

Subject websites

Anyone can publish content on the internet, carefully evaluate free information according to the following criteria:

  • Accuracy: Can you verify the facts provided on this site? Is a methodology stated?
  • Authenticity: Consider the author’s credentials. Is it academic discussion? Who owns the site?
  • Objectivity: Are arguments presented fairly? Is the information biased in its presentation?
  • Coverage: Is adequate detail provided? Is the information too basic, too complex or irrelevant?
  • Currency: Is the information time sensitive? When was this website last updated?

In order to illustrate course work, presentations or posters you might want to use medical images. There are a number of sources of images online.

Just remember you might need to check the site for information about copyright restrictions. Not all images online are freely available. Sometimes you need to seek the publishers/site authors permission to use the image or acknowledge your source in your work.

Health on the Net Foundation

This is a not for profit foundation which currently has almost 7000 medical images and videos. It is a growing resource although and has a strength in anatomy and diseases.

Wellcome Images

This site offers both historical and contemporary high quality images for study. Contributors to the site include leading research institutions and health bodies and it has good coverage of areas like diseases, general healthcare and biosciences.

Web search tips

Google Scholar. Try using this to limit your search to scholarly sources.

Google Scholar Search

Google Advanced Search. You can search within a particular domain eg .gov.uk. This will limit your search to UK government publications.

Or, instead of searching the Internet, go directly to the source. We have selected some websites here that could be useful to your search.

"Double quotation marks". If you're searching for the title of a document or searching for a phrase, enclose your search in "double quotation marks".