Online Bioethics Resources

PubMed comprises more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. It is the largest biomedical database in the world.

• Free access with some full text.
• Complete citations so that articles can be ordered through your institution.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

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• Responsible for Content: U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Date Range: 1946 – present for Index Medicus and other journal articles; late 1880s – present for digitized medical journal articles in the PubMed Central repository.
• Languages: over 50 languages (Afrikaans to Vietnamese)
• Full Text: Many PubMed records link to open access documents in the PubMed Central repository or to free articles on publisher web sites.

Global Ethics Observatory (GEObs)

GEObs is a set of databases established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to collect information submitted by bioethicists from around the world on ethics experts, centers, educational programs, codes, legislation and resources.

• Free access with some full text.
• Complete citations so that articles can be ordered through your institution.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.
• Provides links to websites on topics identified in your search.

• Responsible for Content: UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences office verifies the data submitted to GEObs.
• Date Range: 2005 – present
• Languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese
• Full Text: Some records in Database #5: Codes of Conduct, and Database #6, Resources in Ethics, contain links to free, full-text materials.
• Special Feature: an interactive geographical search that displays the data from all the GEObs databases for specific geographic locations
• Special Feature: entries in the Legislation Database (#4) are linked to specific articles in the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.
• Special Feature: the search screen for each database contains prompts to aid the user in searching.

Islamic Medical and Scientific Ethics (IMSE)

The IMSE database contains references to books, journal and newspaper articles, web documents and audiovisual materials exploring Islamic perspectives on bioethical issues.

• Access to this database is free with some full text.
• Complete citations so that articles can be ordered through your institution.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

• Responsible for Content: Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service Qatar Library (SFS-Q) and Bioethics Research Library
• Date Range: 1966 – present
• Languages: Arabic, English, Farsi
• Full Text: Contains links to conference proceedings and other web documents
• Special Feature: IMSE Research Guide features a database tutorial, event announcements, and links to streaming videos on Islamic ethics.
• Special Feature: IMSE can be searched using text words or subject terms from the Bioethics Thesaurus.

PhilPapers

In addition to articles and e-books on philosophical topics, PhilPapers contains links to works-in-progress, web documents, and archival materials in philosophy.

• Access to this database is free with some full text.
• Complete citations so that articles can be ordered through your institution.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

• Responsible for Content: An international collaboration of philosophers sponsored by the Institute of Philosophy (University of London) and the Centre for Consciousness (Australian National University). The database began as part of MindPapers, and continues as an independent project.
• Date Range: late 1800s (historical e-texts) – present
• Languages: English
• Special Feature: as with the Google Scholar advanced search screen, use the “with at least one of the words” box to limit a search to bioethics by entering one or more of the following terms:
  • ethics
  • ethical
  • bioethics
  • bioethical
  • consent
  • confidentiality
  • privacy
  • autonomy
  • beneficence
  • justice
  • nonmaleficence
  • virtue
  • utilitarianism
  • consequentialism
  • deontology
  • principlism
  • “narrative ethics”
  • “human rights”
  • “patient’s rights”

  Example:

  exact phrase: prescription drugs

  with at least one of the words: ethics bioethics

EthxWeb

EthxWeb is a richly indexed database that consolidates interdisciplinary bioethics materials. Although most of this resource was migrated to PubMed, many of the citations identified are unique.
Note: Access to this database is free, and links to full-text will work if your library has a subscription.

• Access to this database is free with some full text.
• Complete citations so that articles can be ordered through your institution.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

• Responsible for Content: Georgetown University, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Bioethics Research Library
• Date Range: 1974-2007
• Some Full Text using WorldCat “Find in a Library” Link Resolvers
• Contains journal articles, book chapters, bills, laws, court decisions, reports, books, audiovisuals, and news articles
• Special Feature: Offers tutorial and various search options
• Special Feature: EthxWeb can be searched using text words or subject terms from the Bioethics Thesaurus.

EthicShare

EthicShare is a research and collaboration website designed to encourage research, information sharing, collaboration, and participate in the field of ethics. The site aggregates materials from a comprehensive collection of ethics resources including searchable research materials, group discussions, and current news articles. EthicShare automatically adds new research materials regularly.

• Access to this database is free with some full text.
• Complete citations so that articles can be ordered through your institution.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

Responsible for content: University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics and Johns Hopkins University

Special feature: Can create password to save searches and share information with other scholars

Bibliographic records form additional sources include or will include:
• Scholarly journal literature
• Books records, drawn from collections from interest, have been ingested.
• OAIster.org: Institutional Repository deposits, digital object records, archival materials, and foreign Language materials.
• Government Documents
• Commission Reports (US and International): Sources include the National Library of Medicine Catalog, the Catalog of US Govt. Publications, and the IUPUI Bioethics Digital Library, among others.
• Dissertations
• Current Table of Contents
• Current Events
• Newspaper Articles

Philosopher’s Index

This bibliographic database offers informative, author-written abstracts covering scholarly research in all areas of philosophy. The literature covered goes back to 1940 and includes journal articles, books, book chapters such as contributions to an anthology and book reviews.

• This is not a free database.

• You can access this resource for free while you are on the Georgetown campus or if your library offers access.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

Responsible for content: ProQuest

Full text
Languages:
• Bahasa Indonesia
• Deutsch
• Español
• Français
• 한국어
• Italiano
• Magyar
• 日本語
• Norsk
• Polski
• Português (Brasil)
• Português (Portugal)
• Русский
• ไทย
• Türkçe
• 中文(简体)‎
• 中文(繁體)
Subject coverage
• Aesthetics
• Axiology
• Epistemology
• Ethics
• Logic
• Metaphilosophy
• Metaphysics
• Philosophical Anthropology
• Philosophy of Education
• Philosophy of History
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Science
• Political Philosophy
• Social Philosophy

HeinOnline

Note: This is not a free database. You can access this resource for free while you are on the Georgetown campus or if your library offers access.

HeinOnline offers a myriad of online resources to search the law literature and covers over 150 countries and 9 centuries of legal history.

• This is not a free database.

• You can access this resource for free while you are on the Georgetown campus or if your library offers access.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

Responsible for content: HeinOnline

Resources covered: Law Journal Library, Federal Register/CFR, U.S. Code, U.S. Supreme Court Library, Legal Classics, U.S. Presidential Library, Treaties & Agreements, English Reports, U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, U.S. Attorney General Opinions, Pentagon Papers, Revised Statutes of Canada, Canada Supreme Court Reports, European Center for Minority Issues, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, Trends in Law Library Management and Technology, American Association of Law Libraries, and Association of American Law Schools and more.

LexisNexis

Note: This is not a free database. You can access this resource for free while you are on the Georgetown campus or if your library offers access.

An interdisciplinary, full-text database of over 18,000 sources including newspapers, journals, wire services, newsletters, company reports and SEC filings, case law, government documents, transcripts of broadcasts, and selected reference works. LexisNexis is the premier resource for legal information and a leading global provider for professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting, and academic markets. LexisNexis offers databases on several specialties: Academic, Accounting, Environmental Studies, Government & Politics, Health Care & Medicine and more.

• This is not a free database.

• You can access this resource for free while you are on the Georgetown campus or if your library offers access.
• You may link to additional full-text articles if your library has a subscription.

Responsible for content: Reed Elsevier

Languages:
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Spanish

Date range: Federal and state court cases go back to 1789 and up-to-the minute stories in national and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcriptions, international news, and non-English language sources.