Click here or type below to search MEDLINE. (You may be prompted to sign in to Ovid if you are off campus - please use the link instead)
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What is MEDLINE?
The MEDLINE database, produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, is widely recognized as the premier source for citations, indexing, and abstracts of biomedical literature. MEDLINE provides information relevant to the fields of medicine, nursing, and dentistry, and it also covers areas of life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering that are related to health and biomedicine. The database contains more than 30 million citations from 5,200 biomedical journals published in the United States and many other countries. It is updated daily with the latest biomedical research. MEDLINE is the electronic counterpart and continuation of the print indexes Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing Index. MEDLINE on the Ovid platform also searches In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, which provide basic information and abstracts for newly published articles before they are indexed with MeSH headings. It also includes ePub Ahead of Print records for articles submitted to the National Library of Medicine before a journal issue’s publication.
Here's what searching in MEDLINE looks like:
MEDLINE has many ways in which you can modify and narrow your search:
1. Boolean operators: Use AND or OR to combine subject headings.
2. Subject headings: Click to see its tree of broader and narrower terms.
3. Keyword: Check this box to search for the MeSh heading as a keyword.
4. Explode: Search for the subject heading and all narrower terms in its tree.
5. Focus: Search for articles where the subject heading is the main topic.
6. Scope: See how the subject heading is defined.
Not sure where to start? Here's some guidance on MeSH terms (Medical Subject Headings) from the National Library of Medicine.
Video tutorials by McMaster University's Health Sciences Library.