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Beyond PubMed: Home

Coverage

Embase

Produced by Elsevier. Includes Medline records plus 2,000+ additional titles, many international.  Indexes journal articles, plus conference abstracts from 10,000+ conferences. [more Embase info]

Scopus

Produced by Elsevier. Large database covering all subject areas.  Good for topics that cross subject areas, 'Psyc & Med', 'Dental & Engr', 'Computing & Med'.  Includes journal articles, books, conference proceedings. [more Scopus info]

OVID Medline

OVID is an alternative interface to Medline.  The same database that the PubMed interface searches.  Biggest advantage over PubMed interface is the ability to use positional operator.  Disadvantage - delay in addition of new records. [more OVID Medline info]

Control Vocabulary

Embase Emtree terms are added to records to enhance searching.  Use the Emtree link in the menu options at the very top of the screen.  As you type in a concept, the system will suggest Emtree terms. Select a term to be taken to that part of the tree.  Note that if you select a term, all indented terms will also be searched, "explode". Select "Add to Query Builder" and then "Search".

Scopus does not index citations as they are added to the database.  If the author included recommended keywords in their manuscript, the journal might have included them in the records loaded into Scopus.  The default fields searched includes author keywords.

Ovid Medline MeSH terms are automatically invoked with every simple search executed in OVID Medline.  The system automatically displays potentially relevant subject headings.  Put a check next to an appropriate Mesh term and press "Continue".  The system then suggests potential subheadings to narrow the concept even further.  You can skip if you wish and just press "Continue" to see the results you've retrieved.
 

Boolean/Positional Operators

  Embase Scopus OVID Medline
Boolean
Operators
AND, OR, NOT AND, OR, AND NOT

AND, OR, NOT

Positional
Operators
  • NEAR/n - within N words of each other, in any order
  • NEXT/n - within N words of each other, in a specific order
  • W/n - within N words of each other, in any order
  • PRE/n - within N words of each other, in specific order

ADJn - within N words of each other, in any order

Phrase
  • "health policy"
  • 'health policy'

use single or double quotes around phrases

  • "heart attack" - loose/approximate phrase
  • {heart attack} - exact phrase
  • health policy

two words beside each other assumes phrase search

Truncation
  • * - 0 or more characters
  • ? - 1 character
  • $ - 0 or 1 character
  • * - 0 or more characters
  • ? - 1 character
  • * - 0 or more characters
  • # - one character
  • ? - 0 or 1 character
Field
Searching
  • seizure:ti - title
  • "febrile seizure":ti,ab - title/abstract
  • (febrile and seizure):ti,ab,kw - title/abstract/keyword
  • TITLE-ABS-KEY(seizure OR convulsion) - default title/abst/keyword search
  • TITLE(seizure) - advanced search for terms in title only
  • seizure.ti. - title
  • seizure.tw. - title/abstract
  • (seizure or convulsion).tw,kf. - title/abstract/keyword search
Search
Examples
((esophageal or esophagus) NEAR/3 (carcinoma* or cancer* or neoplasm*)):ti,ab (esophageal or esophagus) W/3 (carcinoma* or cancer* or neoplasm*) ((esophageal or esophagus) ADJ3 (carcinoma* or cancer* or neoplasm*)).tw.

More Information

 

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