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Advanced Literature Searching For Health

1.1 What's in a Health Database?

Why we need databases

Journal articles, reviews, clinical trials, systematic reviews and other scholarly information can all be found in databases. They require certain skills in order to get relevant results.  Watch this two-minute video below about the differences between search engines and databases.

Types of Databases

There are many types of databases that bring together different topics and specialisations. Depending on your information needs, you will use different databases.

There are three main types of health databases: general, niche and multidisciplinary. It's important to understand the full information landscape of where your information may come from. 

A full list of databases is available from UTS Library via this link. Descriptions for each are available so you know the subject coverage of each database.

You can also consult a Librarian for advice on which database to search for your topic.

Also, have a look at our detailed guide to choosing databases for systematic reviews.

General health databases are excellent places to begin any search. You will often use all of these to help answer your research question. They include:

  • Medline/PubMed: Large biomedical databases with an emphasis on North American sources.
  • Embase: Good coverage of drug literature with an emphasis on European sources.
  • CINAHL: Large health database with a focus on nursing and allied health, and qualitative healthcare.
  • Cochrane Library: Source of high-quality information to answer clinical questions.

Niche databases are generally designed for specific clinicians or tasks. Some examples include:

  • PsycINFO: Focuses on psychology, mental health and counselling.
  • Maternity and Infant Care Database (MIDIRS): Coverage includes midwifery, pregnancy, neonatal, postnatal care and birth outcomes.
  • Allied and Alternative Medicine (AMED): Coverage includes allied and complementary health.
  • PEDro: A database for physiotherapists, collating RCTs and systematic reviews.
  • MIMS: a drug database for pharmacists, detailing prescription and non-prescription drugs, with full-colour product identification pictures. 
  • SpeechBITE: Contains studies relating to interventions and treatments in speech pathology.

Multidisciplinary databases larger databases covering multiple subjects and purposes. For example:

  • Scopus: A large multidisciplinary database containing literature from many fields including medical, health, science and social sciences.
  • Web of Science: Covers the sciences as well as social sciences, arts and humanities.
  • ProQuest Health and Medicine: A large database with a wide multidisciplinary coverage.