LibGuides: DBMI Summer Interns: Advanced Literature Reviews: Fine Tuning Your Search

Databases and Sources

Databases You Will Probably Search

Reviews and readers will expect these databases to be searched in most systematic literature reviews. You'll need a reason not to search them.

PubMed
Covers over 5,700 journals in the biomedical and health sciences and years covered late 1940's - present, with additional older medical literature selectively added. Search using keywords or the controlled vocabulary called MeSH. PubMed will automatically match your keyword terms to MeSH terms. For additional tips, see the Library's PubMed page.
Cochrane Library
A collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence - systematic reviews, clinical answers, register of controlled trials - to inform healthcare decision-making.
Embase
Embase database covers around 8,600 journals from 100 countries, Subjects covered include all disciplines of medicine and biomedical science with particular strengths in the fields of drug research, pharmacology and toxicology. It also includes coverage of Allied Health subjects as well as Public Health topics. A key resource for systematic reviews, particularly ones involving drug therapy.
Web of Science
Indexes over 18,000 journals in all subjects (coverage back to 1900 for science and social science journals), as well as 80,000 books and more than 180K conference proceedings. Includes the popular "cited reference search" to identify papers which have cited a previously published work or author. Can also sort by "times cited" and find related articles based on commonly cited works.

Databases You Might Search

These databases can be an important complement to your search. They can be essential in their specialized topic areas.

African Index Medicus (AIM)
In order to give access to information published in or related to Africa and to encourage local publishing, the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA), has produced an international index to African health literature and information sources.
BIOSIS Citation Index
BIOSIS coverage is from 1926 to present and includes around 6,000 journals, conference proceedings, books, & technical reports in all aspects of biological sciences. The BIOSIS Citation Index database is an excellent database for all biological information, including marine biology, biological oceanography, marine ecology, developmental biology, and molecular biology. This is the preferred database to use over BIOSIS Previews because you can search for cited references.
CINAHL
1937 - present. Covers indexing of over 5000 journals in nursing and the allied health sciences, with full text for over 700 of those journals. Coverage includes nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative & complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.
Compendex
Indexes 20+ million journal and trade magazine articles, conference papers, standards, books, and other materials in all engineering disciplines. Core database for mechanical, aerospace, civil, structural, chemical, and environmental engineering, as well as materials science and nanotechnology. ****You can now cross search with Inspec for a more comprehensive search of the engineering literature; duplicate references can be removed.
Inspec
Indexes 16+ million journal articles and conference papers in physics, electrical engineering and electronics, and computer science. Also good for related disciplines like geophysics, astronomy, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, ocean engineering, and acoustics. Indexes IEEE conference papers and standards. ****You can now cross search with Compendex for a more comprehensive search of the engineering literature; duplicate results can be removed.
PsycINFO
1597-present. From the American Psychological Association. Provides access to scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Includes journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations. Includes approximately 2,500 journals. Updated weekly.
Sociological Abstracts
1963-present. Abstracts journal articles, monographs, dissertations, conference proceedings, other research covering sociology, social work, and related social sciences. Also includes selected web resources.

Business Source Complete Abstracts and full text in virtually all subject areas related to Business, Management and Finance. Journal and magazine articles; also books, industry reports, company profiles, SWOT analysis, much more

IEEE Explore Digital Library full text access to technical literature in engineering and technology

Conference & Symposia Papers, and Other Grey Literature

Truely unbiased searches look for unpublished literature in a number of places, included meeting abstracts, white papers, clinical trial registries, and searching by hand.

BIOSIS Citation Index
BIOSIS coverage is from 1926 to present and includes around 6,000 journals, conference proceedings, books, & technical reports in all aspects of biological sciences. The BIOSIS Citation Index database is an excellent database for all biological information, including marine biology, biological oceanography, marine ecology, developmental biology, and molecular biology. This is the preferred database to use over BIOSIS Previews because you can search for cited references.

ClinicalTrials.gov
A resource provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Explore 381,334 research studies in all 50 states and in 220 countries.
International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
WHO ICTRP .. facilitates .. the prospective registration of the WHO Trial Registration Data Set on all clinical trials...[It provides] a single point of access and the unambiguous identification of trials with a view to enhancing access to information by patients, families, patient groups and others

OpenGrey
OpenGrey, System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, is your open access to bibliographical references of grey literature produced in Europe and allows you to export records and locate the documents. Examples of grey literature include technical or research reports, doctoral dissertations, some conference papers, some official publications, and other types of grey literature. OpenGrey covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and Humanities.

GreyNet
A helpful resource for searching the grey literature.

Preprints and Google Scholar

arXiv.org e-Print archive
arXiv is a free distribution service and an open-access archive for 1,729,303 scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. Materials on this site are not peer-reviewed by arXiv.

bioRxiv
bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-archive") is a free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preprints in the life sciences. It is operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a not-for-profit research and educational institution.
medRxiv
medRxiv (pronounced "med-archive") is a free online archive and distribution server for complete but unpublished manuscripts (preprints) in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences. medRxiv was founded by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), a not-for-profit research and educational institution, Yale University, and BMJ, a global healthcare knowledge provider. The server is owned and operated by CSHL.
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medRxiv was founded by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), a not-for-profit research and educational institution, Yale University, and BMJ, a global healthcare knowledge provider. The server is owned and operated by CSHL. health sciences. Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Google Scholar
Search for scholarly publications across disciplines & sources: articles, theses/dissertations, books, and more, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities etc. Use Scholar Settings-->Library Links option to setup "University of California, San Diego - Get it at UC" and if you are searching from off campus, log in to the VPN to get full access to UC San Diego subscribed article content.