1. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Big 4 Databases:
Pubmed, Embase,
Web of Knowledge, Scopus
Isla Kuhn
Deputy Medical Librarian
University of Cambridge Medical Library

2. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
PubMed/Medline
– 5,200

3. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
PubMed/Medline
– 5,200
Web of Science –
11,180

4. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
PubMed/Medline
– 5,200
Web of Science – Embase – 5,124
11,180

5. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
6,669
MEDICAL LIBRARY
PubMed/Medline Scopus – 18,2451
– 5,200
6,949 1,568
3,055
1,116 60 441
Web of Science – Embase – 5,124
11,180

6. All different……… CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY

7. Lots of differences….. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Pubmed Embase WoK Scopus
Years of coverage 1954 - 1974 - present 1970 - present 1996 – to
present present
Subject headings Health & Health & Arts, Arts,
medicine medicine humanities, humanities,
(pharmacology sciences, social sciences,
strength) sciences social sciences
Added bonus Subject Subject “H” index “H” index;
headings headings
Journal Impact Web & Patents
factors; search;
Conference Journal
proceedings analyzer

8. But they all do the same thing CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Pubmed Embase WoK Scopus
Password required? (RAVEN)
Complex search option (allowing for
Boolean “and”/”or” searching
Subject headings
Save Searches
Alerts
Related articles
Citation tracking
Links to full-text
Export to reference management tool

9. But they all do the same thing CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Pubmed Embase WoK Scopus
Password required? (RAVEN) No Yes Yes Yes
Complex search option (allowing for Yes Yes Yes Yes
Boolean “and”/”or” searching
Subject headings Yes Yes No (ish) No (ish)
Save Searches Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alerts Yes Yes Yes Yes
Related articles Yes Yes Yes Yes
Citation tracking No No Yes Yes
Links to full-text yes Yes Yes Yes
(but unreliably)
Export to reference management tool Yes Yes Yes Yes

10. From Topic to Results CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
• Topic -> question -> keywords/synonyms
Effect of chocolate in prevention of heart disease
...”Is consuming chocolate effective in reducing risk of heart disease?” ….
Themes / PICO / keywords

11. From Topic to Results CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Is consuming chocolate effective in reducing the risk of heart disease?
P –problem / patient?
I – Intervention?
C – Comparison?
O – Outcome?
Synonyms?

12. From Topic to Results CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Is consuming chocolate effective in reducing the risk of heart disease?
P – heart disease
I – chocolate
C–
O – risk

13. From Topic to Results CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Is consuming chocolate effective in reducing the risk of heart disease?
heart disease / heart failure / cardiovascular disease / coronary disease
chocolate / cocoa / cacao
risk / prevention / prevalence

14. Quiz 1 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Which will give you better hits (a more SPECIFIC search)?
1. coronary disease AND chocolate
2. chocolate OR heart failure
3. coronary disease NOT chocolate
4. risk AND chocolate

15. From Topic to Results: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Boolean Logic
AND – to narrow the search by combining different topics
eg
“physiotherapy” and “stroke”
Both terms must be present in the results.
Physiotherapy Stroke

16. Quiz 2 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Which will give you most hits (a more SENSITIVE search)
1. coronary disease AND heart failure
2. coronary disease OR heart failure
3. coronary disease NOT heart failure

17. From Topic to Results: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Boolean Logic
OR – to broaden your search, by combining similar terms
eg
“exercise” or “physical activity”
Either term can be present in the resulting set of articles.
Cerebral-vascular
Stroke
Accident

18. Quiz 3 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Which will give you best hits (most SPECIFIC search)?
1. coronary disease AND chocolate AND risk
2. (coronary disease OR heart failure) AND chocolate AND risk
3. chocolate AND risk AND coronary failure
4. risk AND (chocolate OR cocoa) AND (coronary disease OR heart failure)

19. From Topic to Results: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Boolean Logic
NOT – to restrict your search so that it does not contain a particular term
eg
“physical therapy” not “manual therapy”
The first, but not the second, term must be present.
Physical Manual
Therapy Therapy

20. From Topic to Results
Is consuming chocolate effective in the prevention of CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
heart disease?
heart disease OR cardiovascular disease or coronary disease
AND
chocolate OR cocoa OR cacao
AND
prevention OR risk or prevalence
Limits?
MeSH?

21. Access CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
http://library.medschl.cam.ac.uk/
– click “databases for literature searching”
- Pick embase, medline (pubmed), web of science and scopus
or
wok.mimas.ac.uk
www.scopus.com
gateway.ovid.com/autologin.cgi
www.pubmed.gov

22. What’s the difference? CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Pubmed Embase WoK Scopus
Password required? (RAVEN) No Yes Yes Yes
Complex search option (allowing for Yes Yes Yes Yes
Boolean “and”/”or” searching
Subject headings Yes Yes No (ish) No (ish)
Save Searches Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alerts Yes Yes Yes Yes
Related articles Yes Yes Yes Yes
Citation tracking No No Yes Yes
Links to full-text yes Yes Yes Yes
(but unreliably)
Export to reference management tool Yes Yes Yes Yes

23. From strategy to references CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
LibrarySearch / e-journals@cambridge
http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/
and/or NHS ejournals?
http://tinyurl.com/nhs-ejournals

24. Searching – Do’s & Don’ts CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
• Don’t try to do the whole search in one line
• Don’t imagine that your first attempt will get all the articles you need
• Don’t give up!

25. Searching – Do’s & Don’ts CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
• Do think of alternative ways of talking about your topic
• Do learn from your hits and your misses
• Do remember that you still have to critically appraise each article
• Do ask for help

26. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY

27. Help! CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
MEDICAL LIBRARY
Isla Kuhn
Reader Services Librarian
Medical Library
email: ilk21@cam.ac.uk
phone: (01223) 336750
web: library.medschl.cam.ac.uk
Thank you.