Choosing the most appropriate databases for your clinical query is important as it ensures that the most relevant results are retrieved. It is not enough to search just one database as searching in multiple databases will ensure that as many relevant studies as possible are identified.
We recommend that you start your search in Medline and Embase and choose 1-2 other databases that would be appropriate for your research question. Speak to an Eastern Health librarian if you need help.
Recommended for all clinical queries (available at Eastern Health)
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Ovid MEDLINE indexes peer-reviewed literature on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, Medline is a good place to start for biomedical queries.
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Ovid Embase is a biomedical and pharmaceutical databases indexing international and peer-reviewed journals. Embase is frequently searched in addition to Medline.
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Recommended, if relevant (available at Eastern Health)
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Cochrane Library is collection of databases that contains high-quality, peer-reviewed systematic reviews, clinical trials and more that informs healthcare decision-making.
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Ovid Emcare is a nursing and allied health database covering community health, education, administration & management, behavioral science, social work and more.
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CINAHL is comprehensive source of full-text for nursing & allied health journals.
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Ovid PsycInfo is produced by the American Psychological Association (APA), and covers all aspects of psychology, psychiatry, mental health and cognitive and behavioural science related disciplines.
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Recommended if Medline is not available. PubMed comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
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Recommended only as a supplementary source. Google Scholar provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature across many disciplines.
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Recommended, if relevant (may be accessible through your university affiliation)
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ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Database contains peer-reviewed literature, journal articles, dissertations and more.
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Scopus is a comprehensive abstract and citation database containing peer-reviewed literature, journals, books and conference proceedings in the fields of medicine, science, technology and social sciences.
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Web of Science Core Collection covers multidisciplinary content in over 250 research areas and contains almost 2 billion references to journal articles, conference proceedings, and books.
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PubMed and Medline both contain very similar content and are both created by the National Library of Medicine. We generally recommend searching either PubMed or Medline and not both (except for rare cases where this is required) so as to save time.
We recommend Medline over PubMed due to Medline's search interface and ability to create nuanced and specific searches. However, this means that there is a bit of a learning curve. Users may find PubMed's search interface less intimidating as it is more similar to Google's search interface.
Click the button to get more information.
These names refer to different Medline subscription packages. At Eastern Health, the library has access to "Ovid MEDLINE® and Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process, In-Data-Review & Other Non-Indexed Citations, Daily and Versions" which covers the years 1946 to Present and the database is updated both daily and weekly. This package includes Medline records as well as records still currently being processed and other Pubmed content.
For more information, see the "Non MEDLINE Status Records" and "Segments and Years of Coverage" sections in the Ovid Medline guide created by Ovid.
Complete the forms below to make an appointment and speak with a librarian.
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Biomedical 
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) & keywords
