Describe Your Topic
Describe the main topic as specifically as you can, then focus it by considering these factors:
- What are the age groups, geographic locations, socio-economic considerations that you want to include?
- Will comparisons be made with other diseases, conditions, methods?
- What potential outcomes do you want to consider? (cost reduction, improved communication)
Think about the scope of what you need: a few recent articles from major journals or a comprehensive search of publications? Do you need evidence-based information from clinical trials?
If your topic is too broad or you cannot clearly define what you want, look for background information, an overview, or a few good review articles to help clarify the concepts.
Search Databases
Databases such as PubMed or Web of Science are organized collections of citations of articles from peer-reviewed journals. The information is organized to allow comprehensive searching of millions of publications, with the objective of identifying a focused list of the relevant citations.
Select database
Emory Libraries subscribe to over 1000 databases, spanning may topics, but the three databases listed below are the best sources to find biomedical literature.
- PubMed - premier biomedical database which covers clincal, public health, basic science, health care and other categories
- EMBASE - broad biomedical coverage with more emphasis on pharmaceutical and drug literature; complements PubMed
- Web of Science - multidisciplinary database using key word searchng and which features cited reference searching
To explore more databases, click here.
