Core Health Sciences Databases
The following databases are used in most Systematic Reviews, Scoping Reviews and HTAs in the areas of Medicine, Nursing, Rehabilitation Medicine, Public Health, Pharmacy and Kinesiology.
- Choose either Medline or Pubmed, not both. They are different interfaces but have the same content.
- Use Cochrane CENTRAL Trials only if you are including randomized controlled trials in your review
- Scopus and Web of Science are both large interdisciplinary databases. Most comprehensive reviews will include at least one of these.
- MEDLINE (1946-present via Ovid) Also includes Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Ovid MEDLINE® Daily MEDLINE (1946 to the present) covers the world's biomedical and health sciences journal literature. The type of information contained in MEDLINE ranges from the basic biomedical sciences like anatomy, physiology, biochemistry to clinical information outlining the nature and course of disease or injury, as well as its treatment.
- EMBASESimilar to MEDLINE but with more European and developing country content. Also very strong for drug information.
- CINAHL Plus with Full Text CINAHL Plus with Full Text (1937 to the present) provides indexing for the major English language journals in the areas of nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy and other allied health fields such as respiratory technology, x-ray technology, etc. Topics covered by this database include patient care, health promotion, professional issues for health care workers, patient education, rehabilitation, and other related subjects. Those with little or no health science background may be able to find useful articles on the more common disease and injury conditions, as well as other health topics, because CINAHL does include some consumer health information.
Additional Databases for Specific Subjects
Brain disorders / Mental health
- Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) Provides access to information on measurement instruments in the health fields, psychosocial sciences, organizational behavior, and library and information science. identify measures needed for research studies, grant proposals, client/patient assessment, class papers/projects, theses/dissertations, and program evaluation.
Environmental Health
- Compendex Ei Compendex (1884 to the present) provides international coverage of all fields of engineering including related areas of applied science, management, and energy.
- GeoRef GeoRef (1785 to the present) includes international coverage of the earth sciences and all aspects of geology and geophysics including archaeology, fossils, economics, education, engineering and environmental geology, expeditions, instruments, land use, landfills, soils, geologic hazards (avalanches, hurricanes, sunsorts, volcanoes, etc.), maps, magnetic fields, and medical and military geology.
- Environment Complete This database covers applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, and urban planning. Contains records from domestic and international journals going back to the 1950s as well as from selected monographs.
Foods and Nutrition
- CAB Abstracts Also known as: |CABI CAB Abstracts (1910 to the present) includes international coverage of all aspects of agriculture, horticulture, animal production and forestry including: crop production, plant protection and breeding; forestry and forest products; soil science, land use and water management; animal husbandry, agricultural engineering; economics; rural development, sociology and education.
Global Health
- Global Health This link opens in a new window Global Health brings together the resources of two databases - the Public Health and Tropical Medicine (PHTM) database, previously produced by the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases (BHTD), and the human health and diseases information extracted from CAB ABSTRACTS.
Health Economics / Health Policy
- Political Science Complete Indexes and abstracts journals in Political Science and povides full-text of select journals. Also includes full-text of select reference books, monographs, and conference papers.
Health and Education
- ERIC (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window ERIC (1966 to the present) covers all aspects of education, from preschool to post-secondary and adult education, and all topics within the broad discipline.
- Education Research Complete Education Complete is a bibliographic and full text database covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas of education. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete also covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues.
Health Technology and Engineering
- IEEE Xplore |IEEE Xplore, produced by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, provides full-text access to IEEE transactions, journals, magazines and conference proceedings published since 1884, and all current IEEE Standards. Coverage includes electrical and electronic engineering, computer engineering and computing science. IET conference proceedings from 2006 through current are also available here.
- Compendex Ei Compendex (1884 to the present) provides international coverage of all fields of engineering including related areas of applied science, management, and energy.
Life Sciences
Sports medicine / Kinesiology
- SPORTDiscus with Full Text SPORTDiscus with Full Text (1975 to the present) is an international database containing information on sports medicine, exercise physiology, biomechanics, psychology, training techniques, coaching, physical education, physical fitness, active living, recreation, history, and facilities and equipment. SPORT Discus with Full Text contains citations for articles back to 1975, and full text of articles from selected journals as far back as 1985.
Sociology of Health
- SocINDEX with Full Text Indexes the literature of sociology and related disciplines. Includes full text for selected journals, monographs, conference papers.
- Criminal Justice Abstracts Covers the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, books, and reports from government and nongovernmental agencies. For each document, a summary of the findings, methodology, and conclusions is provided. Topics include crime trends, prevention projects, corrections, juvenile delinquency, police, courts, offenders, victims, and sentencing.
- Sociological Abstracts This site indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. It includes the companion file Social Services Abstracts, which provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas.