Overview
Academic reference sources, by their very nature, are tertiary, coming after primary sources of original research and the books and articles of secondary analysis. Because academic encyclopedias are summarizing the accumulated understanding on a topic, it can take some time before entries appear.
While the selected titles below do not address Covid-19, specifically, there are many relevant entries on public health,vaccines, health and inequality, medicine and politics to broaden your understanding.
Selected Reference Titles
- AccessScienceWritten for the non-scientist, informative entries on a wide variety of science topics.
Science, Technology, and Society by Publication Date: 2005"Emphasizing an interdisciplinary and international coverage of the functions and effects of science and technology in society and culture." [publisher] Includes entries on: "health care, access to"; "political economy of health"; "media and medicine"; "medicine, scientific"; "diseases, emerging".
Search note: Scroll down to find the "Search within work" search box.
Encyclopedia of Bioethics by Publication Date: 2004Covering a wealth of topics on the ethics of health professions, animal research, population control and the environment, the set helps researchers to consider the impact of new scientific knowledge and its potential to harm or benefit present and future generations.
The Oxford Handbook of the Science of Science Communication by Publication Date: 2017"Drawing on the expertise of leading science communication scholars from six countries, The Oxford Handbook of the Science of Science Communication ... charts the media landscape - from news and entertainment to blogs and films - [and] ... examines the powers and perils of human biases - from the disposition to seek confirming evidence to the inclination to overweight endpoints in a trend line." [excerpts from publisher description]
Encyclopedia of Science Technology and Ethics by Publication Date: 2014This work considers both the professional ethics of science and technology, and the ethical and political issues raised by science and technology in an increasingly complex and global society." [publisher]
Includes entries on Vaccines and vaccination; Emergent Infectious Diseases; Disaster ethics; United States Public Health Service, etc.
Search note: Look for the search box to "Search within publication."
Life Sciences
- eLS: citable reviews in the life sciencesA fully searchable collection of articles by scientists and historians in the fields of biochemistry and physiology, cell biology, developmental biology, ecology, evolution, genetics, immunology, molecular biology, neuroscience, microbiology and virology, plant science, structural biology, science and society.
Sample entry: Bioscience Policies