Editor—Delamothe mentions several initiatives to provide free access to biomedical literature.1 Medline is a medical database that may be enough for a general search and is accessible free via PubMed (http://pubmed.gov). For a comprehensive search, however, it can be important to search other databases too. The choice depends on the subject area, how much time you have, and whether you can access databases that charge (the American and United Kingdom governments provide free access to some databases).
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews is a key source for the effectiveness of treatments. It is free to NHS staff via the knowledge section of NeLH (www.nelh.nhs.uk/), and the abstracts are free to everyone (www.update-software.com/cochrane/). Related free databases include DARE (the database of abstracts of reviews of effectiveness), NHS EED (the NHS economic evaluation database), and HTA (health technology assessment) (all at http://agatha.york.ac.uk/welcome.htm); the Research Findings Register via NeLH; and TRIP, a database that searches over 55 sites of high quality medical information (www.tripdatabase.com/).
Other free databases include the Hazardous Substances Databank and Toxline for toxicology, via Toxnet (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov). Zetoc is free at point of access to NHS staff in England via NeLH, and to higher education in the United Kingdom. At least 40% of the 19 million citations to journal articles and conference proceedings in zetoc are in health subjects, although there are no abstracts or indexing.
Important databases are supplied by hosts for a fee. DIALOG's website gives an indication of the huge range (http://library.dialog.com/essentials.html). When searching on line for a fee, I use Medline and any of several databases (the following are just some examples):
Embase for additional European and pharmacology journals, and for quicker indexing (it is included in the BMA's “Medline plus” service)
PsychINFO for academic psychology
AMED (allied and complementary medicine database) for palliative care, professions allied to medicine (members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy have free access), and complementary medicine
DHSS-Data for health administration (in addition to the large amount free on the Department of Health website)
CINAHL (the cumulative index to nursing and allied health database) or the British Nursing Index for nursing
The science or social science citation indexes (also part of the “web of science”) for citations.
Readers should check with their medical librarian if they are doing a comprehensive search, or haven't found what they need in Medline. He or she can suggest other relevant databases to access and can probably help to search more effectively. For example, PubMed has a lot of useful features that aren't obvious (more information at www.bl.uk/services/information/blmedline.html).
Footnotes
Competing interests: The British Library runs the STM online search service, provides Medline training, and produces AMED and zetoc.
References
- 1.Delamothe T. Navigating across medicine's electronic landscape, stopping at places with Pub or Central in their names. BMJ. 2001;323:1120–1122. doi: 10.1136/bmj.323.7321.1120. . (10 November.) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]