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Health Sciences Literature Searching Basics

Useful tips for research

Database selection

Databases are great tools to help you find scholarly reports on your topic. When you are searching for literature on a health sciences question, commonly used databases will include the records for journal articles, conference proceedings, sometimes books, book chapters and theses, and more.

Journal articles are arguably the primary document type for research in many health sciences disciplines. The article records are indexed in databases like MEDLINE. These records will usually include information such as the title of the article or item, the abstract, the citation information, and more, but keep in mind that many of these databases, e.g., MEDLINE, do not contain full-text: You are usually searching the records.

When starting your research, it's important to select the most appropriate database(s) for your subject or discipline and to be aware of the particularities and functionalities of each individual database and platform. For example, you can search MEDLINE through PubMed or through Ovid, and the way you search them is quite different.

Difference between a database and a platform

Campbell Collaboration Online Training. Database vs. Platform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2lztBXP6k4&list=PLvUIl9ouflELzCeu68Cs1sy1KzmcKp9L4&index=8

Core databases

This table lists some of the differences between the core databases used in health sciences.

Database (Platform) Subject coverage Publication types included Dates covered
MEDLINE (Ovid) / PubMed Primary biomedical database for health care research; we recommend searching MEDLINE on the Ovid platform (enhanced options for searching) or via PubMed (free platform) Journal articles, editorials 1946 to present
CINAHL (EBSCOhost) Extensive coverage of nursing and allied health, including nursing and rehabilitation journals not covered by MEDLINE Journal articles, editorials, trade magazines 1937 to present
CENTRAL (Cochrane Library) CENTRAL is a sub-database (identified as Trials) in the Cochrane Library and contains records of randomized and quasi-randomized studies. The majority of the records come from MEDLINE and Embase but records from CINAHL and KoreaMed are also included, along with trial records from ClinicalTrials.gov, ICTRP, and additional records from handsearching and those flagged in the Cochrane Review Groups' Specialized Registers. Journal articles, records from clinical trial registries Earliest available to present
Embase Classic + Embase (Ovid) European coverage in biomedicine, rehabilitation, pharmacology Journal articles, editorials, conferences 1947 to present
Global Index Medicus (WHO) Allows you to cross-search regional databases covering low and middle income countries Journal articles Earliest available to present
PsycINFO (Ovid) Excellent resource for research on psychological, social, behavioural, and mental health questions Journal articles, books, book chapters, & dissertations 1806 to present
Scopus Multidisciplinary citation database; "largest database" of peer-reviewed article records covering the arts, medicine, science, social sciences, and technology Journal articles, books, conference proceedings

1788 to present

Cited references: 1970 to present

Web of Science Core Collection Multidisciplinary citation database; McGill coverage includes the Science Citation Index Expanded 1900- (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index 1956- (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index 1975- (A&HCI), Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science 1900- (CPCI-S), Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social Science & Humanities 1900- (CPCI-SSH), and the Emerging Sources Citation Index 2015- (ESCI) Journal articles, conference proceedings 1900 to present

Preparing for a systematic search

Your research project may include a systematic review, scoping review, or other knowledge synthesis. These reviews have their own methodologies and normally involve systematically searching the literature in a thorough, transparent, and reproducible way. You will want to formulate a review question when conducting such reviews.

Systematic searching can also be used as a technique to search the literature in general.

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