Table 1. Properties of the included databases.
| DOAJ | MEDLINE | PubMed central | SCOPUS | EMBASE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type and size of content | 9,700 journals | 5,600 journals | 2,100 journals | 34,000 journals and book series | 8,400 journals |
| Subjects | All scientific and scholarly | Biomedicine and clinical medicine | Biomedicine and clinical medicine | Health, life, social and physical sciences | Broad biomedicine, focus on pharmacology and clinical medicine |
| Journal quality control | Peer review | Peer review | Peer review | Peer review | Peer review |
| Can be searched by abstracts, authors and journal title | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Specific, hierarchical topic search available | No | Yes (MeSH) | Yes (MeSH—not available for all entries) | Yes (MeSH and Emtree among others) | Yes (Emtree) |
| Availability of content | All content must be available online | Either available online or in print | Articles must be supplied for archiving | All content must be available online | Either available online or in print |
| Special requirements or topics of evaluation | Full and immediate open access (OA) to all of a journal’s content required. Transparent OA policies, and editorial process | Evaluates standing and contribution | Evaluation based on the Collection Development Manual of the National Library of Medicine | Evaluated on journal policy, quality, standing, regularity and availability | Evaluated on scientific and editorial coverage |
| XML-submission | XML-submission of full-text articles optional | XML-submission of abstracts/citations required | XML-submission of full-text articles required | Database converts submission to XML | Database converts submission to XML |
| Required age before review for indexing | None, but must publish at least 5 articles per calendar year to stay indexed | Life span of at least 12 months and 40 published articles | 15–30 articles published, publisher dependent | Not explicitly required | Not explicitly required |
| Title and abstract in English required | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Access cost | Free | Free | Free | Institutional subscription only | Institutional subscription only |
| Uses | Indexes and links to journals’ homepages, along with providing journal metadata. Links to free full text articles, when article data has been provided by the journal | Links to full text articles, as well as free full text (if available) | Archives free full text articles from OA journals, and free articles from subscription journals under the NIH Grant Policy | Links to full text articles | Links to full text articles |
| References | Directory of Open Access Journals, 2014a; Directory of Open Access Journals, 2014d; Directory of Open Access Journals, 2014f; Directory of Open Access Journals, 2015 | Falagas et al., 2008; Peña, Valero & Sicilia, 2004; U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1988; U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1990 | U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2014c | Falagas et al., 2008; Scopus, 2014; Elsevier, 2015 | Embase, 2014; Peña, Valero & Sicilia, 2004; Elsevier, 2015 |
Notes.
- DOAJ
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- MeSH
- Medical Subject Headings
- XML
- eXtensible Markup Language