Databases guide
A comprensive guide to searching and databases is RefHunter - Manual zur Literaturrecherche in Fachdatenbanken (pdf, German).
Below you find mini-guides to some of our popular databases for literature searching. For more examples on search techniques in general, please refer to Section "How to Search."
PubMed
What is it?
PubMed is the free interface for searching MEDLINE records. MEDLINE is the largest database of biomedical literature. PubMed also contains other resources and tools.
Scope/content
PubMed contains more than 30 million citations from the biomedical, life sciences literature.
Features
You can access other resources such as PubMed Central, NCBI Bookshelf, and search tools such as the MeSH database to find subject headings for your literature search. You can create an account to save references, search strategies, create search alerts, etc.
Search techniques
You can conduct a basic or an advanced search. The basic search is useful to explore a topic. PubMed's advanced search builder is helpful for systematic searches (when you have identified your research question and key concepts).
| Truncation * |
Truncate at the end of the word Child* finds child, children, Note: word must have more than 3 characters |
| Phrase Search |
Use quotes to find exact phrases "lung damage" Note: can truncate within a phrase "lung damage*" |
| Field Search |
Field tags to search parts of a record "lung damage*"[tiab] (searches in the title and abstract) |
| MeSH Search | Use MeSH terms for topic searches "Lung Injury"[Mesh] |
| Boolean Operators | AND, OR, NOT |
Tutorials/handouts
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/help/
Introduction to Search Techniques Video
CINAHL
What is it?
CINAHL stands for the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature. It is a database via the EBSCOhost platform.
Scope/content
Scope coverage in nursing, biomedicine, health sciences, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, etc. Other resources include health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, book chapters, and standards of practice materials.
Features
Access to evidence-based summaries of diseases, treatment options, etc. Nursing staff members can obtain continuing education units from the modules available. Basic and advanced search options are available. You can create an account to save your searches and references. Export search results from CINAHL to citation management tools.
Search techniques
| Boolean Operators | AND, OR, NOT |
| Truncation * | arthroplast* finds arthroplasty, arthroplasties, arthroplastic, arthroplastics |
| Wildcard ? | wom?n finds women and woman |
| CINAHL Search |
Topic search |
| Phrase Search | Place free text words in quotes to search in a phrase |
| Field Search |
TI AB |
| Proximity Search |
N or W N means near W means within |
Tutorials/handouts
Using the CINAHL/MeSH Headings Feature in EBSCOhost
MEDLINE via Ovid
What is it?
Ovid MEDLINE® is produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). Ovid is the searching platform for MEDLINE, the largest biomedical database.
Scope/content
The database contains more than 23 million references. It covers topics such as biomedicine, allied health, veterinary sciences, biological and physical sciences, humanities, and information science dating back to 1946.
Features
Basic and advanced search modes available. Other search features citation search, similar articles. For topic searches, you can access the MeSH database to identify subject headings.
Search techniques
| Boolean Operators | AND, OR NOT |
| Truncation *, $ |
Unlimited truncation Child* finds child, child's, children, children Limited truncation (set a number after the truncation symbol) Child*3 finds child, child's children, and does not go beyond 3 characters after the root word |
| Wildcards ? # |
? cover zero to one character, for example, p?ediatric finds pediatric, paediatric # covers one mandatory character, for example, random#ed finds randomized, randomised |
| Field Search |
Search free text terms in a field of a records Examples: .ti,ab,kw. (searches in the title, abstract, author keywords fields) |
| MeSH Search |
Searches based on content rather than free text words MeSH terms are in a hierarchy, you can explode (exp) MeSH to search narrower MeSH terms exp Diabetes Mellitus/ |
| Proximity Search |
adj, adjn adj finds terms in a specific order, for example, brain adj tumor* finds brain tumor, brain tumors adjn find terms in either order within a certain number of words adj3 finds for example brain adj3 tumor* finds brain tumors, tumors in the brain |
Tutorials/handouts
Ovid MEDLINE Help Documentation
Scopus
What is it?
Scopus is a license-based abstract and citation database by Elsevier.
Scope/content
It comprises over 77.8 million records in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social science, arts, and humanities from 1788 until today.
Features
It provides analytical tools to create citation overviews, view author and affiliation profiles, citation scores, and examine article and journal metrics. You can conduct a basic and advanced search. In the advanced search mode, you can search in various search fields and use advanced searching techniques.
Search techniques
| Boolean Operators | AND, OR, NOT |
| Wildcards (*, ?) |
? symbol will replace a single character, for example: random?ed for randomized or randomised * will find multiple characters/variations, for example: "criminal* liab*" finds criminally liable and criminal liability Note: can you use wildcards in a phrase search |
| Proximity Operators |
Proximity operators find words near/within a specified distance of each other W/n for example, spine W/2 finds spine fractures, fractures of the spine PRE/n finds in a specific order, for example, posttraumatic PRE/2 disorder* finds posttraumatic disorder, postraumatic stress disorders |
| Field Search/Field Codes | TITLE-ABS(), AUTH(), DOI() |
Tutorials/handouts
Scopus Tutorial: How to conduct a basic search
Scopus Tutorial: How to use advanced search
https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14799/
Embase
What is it?
Excerpta Medica Database, known as EMBASE, is a biomedical and pharmacological database. You can access this database via Ovid or Elsevier provider. This guide refers to the Elsevier provider version.
Scope/Content
This database contains 30 million records including articles with strong coverage of drug and pharmaceutical research, pharmacology, and toxicology.
Features
The PV Wizard search tool is helpful for drug and pharmaceutical searches. Basic, PICO, and advanced search modes are available. Access the Emtree Thesaurus to find subject headings for topic searches.
Search techniques
| Truncation * | therap* finds therapy, therapies, therapeutics |
| Wildcards ? | wom?n finds women, woman |
| Field Search |
Field search tags retrieves free-text terms in particular search fields vaccines:ab,ti,kw (searches vaccines in abstract, title, keywords search fields) Tylenol:tn (searches Tylenol in the drug name search field ) |
| Emtree Search |
Search by topic/subject headings 'diabetes mellitus'/exp |
| Boolean Operators | AND, OR, NOT |
| Proximity Operators |
NEAR/n, NEXT/n (n represents the distance between terms, select from 0-99) NEAR/n searches in either order
NEXT/n search in a specific order
|
| Phrase Search |
"cancer therap*" finds cancer therapy, cancer therapies, cancer therapeutics, Note: you can truncate in a phrase search |
Tutorials/handouts
Embase Search Techniques Help Guide
Dimensions
What is it?
Dimensions is a license based platform for linked and enriched research data.
Scope / content
It comprises records in the fields of medicine, life science and health science but also social sciences and other research area: Publications, clinical trials, grants, policy papers, patents and datasets.
The data is gathered from Crossref, PubMed, Europe PubMed Central, arXiv and from direct contacts with more than 130 publishers.
Features
Linked and enriched data
Dimensions links different data to each other. With a single search it displays publications, grants, data sets, clinical trials, patents, and policy documents at one glance.
Analysis of abstracts
Dimensions analyzes abstracts and suggests similar articles or search concepts. The latter can easily be added to a search string.
Metrics
Dimensions Analytics offers metrics: How is a publication or a researcher's work perceived within the scientific community. Results are displayed in different visual ways.
Search techniques
- AND Requires both terms on either side of the Boolean operator to be present for a match
- OR Requires that either term (or both terms) be present for a match
- NOT Requires that the following term not be present
- () Use parentheses to control the Boolean logic for a query
- ? Single character wildcard. Cannot be used as a leading wildcard or inside of quotes.
- * Multiple characters wildcard. Cannot be used as a leading wildcard or inside of quotes.
- ~n Proximity search, e.g. "ambient noise"~4
Key word search
Search for key words combining them with the operators described above. Search in full data or title/abstract.
Abstract search
Enter an abstract. Dimensions suggests linked or similar data, publications etc.
Advanced search
Enter your search string with the operators described above, add newly suggested concepts and key words combining them with OR or AND.