Population and Public Health Sciences: Selecting and Searching Databases

Which database(s) to use? 

• Clinical Science & Research - PubMed from NLM or MEDLINE from EBSCO, Web of Science (WoS), CINAHL (Nursing, Allied Health)
• Basic Science & Translational Research - PubMed from NLM or MEDLINE from EBSCO, Web of Science and Biosis (part of WoS)
• Medical Education Research & Curriculum Development - PubMed from NLM or MEDLINE from EBSCO, Education Research Complete
• Arts & Medicine - PubMed from NLM or MEDLINE from EBSCO, WoS, Humanities Fulltext, Art Fulltext
• Public Health, Population Health, & Global Health - PubMed from NLM or MEDLINE from EBSCO, WoS, PsycInfo, SocIndex, CINAHL
• All of the above - Google Scholar

For a complete list and descriptions of available WSU databases, see the A-to-Z list of databases. 

Not sure the best database to use for your topic? Start with PubMed as long as your topic has anything to do with medicine. Try Quicksearch, (from EBSCO) a search engine that searches for your keywords in almost all of the WSUL (Wright State University Libraries) databases simultaneously if your topic is multidisciplinary. Quicksearch is great if you have a topic where various aspects could be in diverse databases. For example, the economics of health care could be searched both in PubMed and Business Source Complete. If you use Quicksearch, you might find articles about any sociological aspects of the economics of health care.

NOTE: The content of PubMed from the National Library of Medicine and MEDLINE from the vendor EEBSCO is NOT the same. The major difference is the currency of the content which in PubMed is updated daily, including epub-ahead-of-print publications. PubMed is freely available worldwide with an internet connection, MEDLINE is available by subscription and from several different vendors -for example EBSCO, OVID, or Proquest. We ask that you learn PubMed because no matter where you practice medicine, you will be able to access PubMed at no cost as long as you have an internet connection.