LibGuides: Biomedical Sciences: Databases

Recommended databases

There are several key databases that are useful for searching the biomedical and life sciences literature. Click on the title link to open the database:

PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
US National Library of Medicine's digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. PubMed provides access to research articles, eBooks and scientific research that is indexed in Medline, PMC full text resources and the PubMed Bookshelf.
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ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Offers access to the Elsevier digital library, covering over 1800 publications. Most are available in full text after 1995. The collection is updated daily.
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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Indexes current and emerging journals and conference proceedings in the sciences, engineering and technology, and social sciences, providing abstracts from 1970 to date. This abstract only database is updated weekly. Use Article Linker (AL) to check for full text online sources.
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Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is the largest ever bibliographic database and indexes over 20,000 titles from science, technology, medicine and the social sciences. This abstract only database is updated daily so it is excellent for identifying the emerging research. Use Article Linker (AL - link to full text) to check for full text online sources.
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PubChem
PubChem is an open chemistry database provided by the US National Library of Medicine. Search chemicals by name, molecular formula, structure, and other identifiers. Find chemical and physical properties, biological activities, safety and toxicity information, patents, literature citations and more.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Contains full text articles from over 5,000 journals, covering many subjects, including anthropology, politics, political science, psychology, psychiatry, sociology and social work.
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BIOSIS Citiation Index and BIOSIS Previews (1969 to 2008 only) This link opens in a new window
Life sciences and biomedical research covering pre-clinical and experimental research, methods and instrumentation, animal studies, and more. JISC Collections has licensed the BIOSIS Previews Backfile 1969-2008 in perpetuity and this is now freely available to all UK universities. Thomson Reuters has given our users free access to BIOSIS Citation Index backfile too. For the avoidance of doubt, the Library does not subscribe to the current file from 2009 onwards, so you will not be able to access citations and previews published after 2008. Select BIOSIS Citation Index or BIOSIS Previews from the 'select a database' tab on Web of Knowledge to begin searching. This abstract only database is updated weekly. Use Article Linker (AL) to check for full text online sources.
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Cancer Handbook This link opens in a new window
A collection of over 100 specially commissioned peer reviewed chapters from Wiley Interscience.
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Medline This link opens in a new window
Indexes sources in medical research including biomedical and physical sciences, North American bias, from 1948 to date. The database is updated weekly.
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Nature Publishing Group Journals This link opens in a new window
Provides access to 13 Nature branded journals and Oncogene, covering subjects across the life, physical and applied sciences and, most recently, clinical medicine. Content encompasses daily news, expert opinion, practical methodology, and high impact research and reviews.
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NCBI Bookshelf This link opens in a new window
Collection of e-Books available for free via the National Center for Biotechnology Information. No ID is required for access.
Springer Protocols This link opens in a new window
Springer Protocols contains more than 28,000 protocols, derived from primary content from 6 book series: mostly from Methods in Molecular Biology (907 volumes), and also from Methods in Biotechnology (24 volumes), Methods in Molecular Medicine (140 volumes), Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology (11 volumes), Neuromethods (70 volumes), 8 Springer Protocols Handbooks titles and 21 additional books not in a series.

Used primarily in the life sciences, these protocols provide written procedural methods in the design and implementation of experiments including aspects such as safety, bias, procedures, equipment, statistical methods, reporting, and troubleshooting standards. Each protocol is templated into four sections—Introduction, Materials, Methods, Notes.

JISC Collections has licensed Springer Protocols and this is now freely available to all UK universities until December 2017 -- this archive includes content published between 1980 until 2012. This collection is also available on the new Springer Nature Experiments platform.
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Pre-prints are versions of scientific papers that the author uploads to a public server like a digital archive. Pre-prints can be early drafts, but often they are the almost final versions of the paper that will be published in a journal, before the publishers' typesetting is applied. Many journal publishers allow this form of publication, although several will only accept a paper if it has not been made visible elsewhere beforehand.

Pre-prints are often used to elicit comment from peers at early stages, or as a quick means to make visible a research paper in an openly accessible manner. Searching on a relevant discipline pre-print server can be a good way to locate current literature or open access materials, and to understand emerging areas in your research field, but bear in mind that you might not be viewing the final paper and the work within it might not have been peer-reviewed.

BioRxiv
A pre-print server covering a range of Biology related topics provided by Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory.
Open Science Framework
The OSF site is part of a larger platform that supports open digital scholarship. This search will locate papers in several disciplines including Life, Medical and Health Sciences.

Database search tips

Split your topic into keywords: To find better and fewer results, think about your keywords. Make sure they accurately describe what you are looking for, and add more keywords to make your search more specific.

Think of alternative keywords: For example, 'cancer' could also be referred to as 'neoplasm'.

Search for phrases in "double quotation marks": For example, "DNA replication". This will search for the phrase as a whole, instead of the individual words.

Select a data range: For example, you may only want literature published since 2010. Most databases have the option to select dates.

For more help see our Finding resources guide, or contact your Librarian.

Finding resources guide

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