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Databases and Articles

MEDLINE, produced by the National Library of Medicine, is an index to journal articles in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences, including both basic biomedical sciences and clinical practice. It indexes over 4,000 journals. Since 1966, over 11 million articles have been indexed with new records added weekly. Over 70% of MEDLINE records include abstracts. An important feature of MEDLINE is the use of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). MeSH is a powerful tool for searching specific topics or for comprehensive general searches. Ask your librarian about using MeSH to improve your MEDLINE searches.

MEDLINE is available through several different interfaces. Some of the options for searching MEDLINE at Stanford are described below.

• PubMed is the widely-used free Web version of MEDLINE developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). PubMed allows you to search the entire MEDLINE file from 1966 to the present in one search or to limit to a range of years. Among PubMed's useful features are these:
  • PubMed includes records in process, the newest records that are still in the process of being indexed for MEDLINE.
  • PubMed offers links from MEDLINE directly to GenBank and other molecular sequence databases.
  • PubMed's link to related articles allows you to easily find records that are similar to an article of interest.
  • The LinkOut feature offers links to a large number of full-text articles from PubMed records.
  • The Cubby feature allows you to save and re-use search strategies. These can be used weekly or monthly to find the latest records on a topic.
  • PubMed indexes some out-of-scope articles in non-biomedical fields. These are not available in other MEDLINE versions.
• OCLC FirstSearch Medline OCLC FirstSearch covers the full MEDLINE database from 1966 to the present and offers Basic, Advanced, and Expert search options. For selected articles, links to full text are available. OCLC also offers the option to limit search results to journals available in libraries at Stanford.
• Ovid MEDLINE offers the full MEDLINE database and a combination of user-friendly features. The database is divided by date to allow a convenient way to limit searches to a range of years. Ovid's unique search system guides you to Medical Subject Headings and subheadings to take advantage of some of the most useful features of this well-indexed database. Ovid also offers links from MEDLINE records to a large number of full-text articles that are not available in other versions of MEDLINE.
• The NLM Gateway allows you to search in multiple retrieval systems at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). It includes several features designed for physicians and their patients and for those who are unfamiliar with NLM's databases, but because it includes the full MEDLINE database, it is useful to others also. Among the resources searched by the NLM Gateway are these:
  • PubMed as described above.
  • OLDMEDLINE, a database of citations published in the Cumulated Index Medicus between 1958 and 1965.
  • LOCATORplus, NLM's catalog records for books, serials, and audiovisual materials.
  • MEDLINEplus, information on health topics and generic and brand-name drugs.

The original Telnet version of Melvyl MEDLINE Plus is no longer available.

For more information, ask your librarian.

Last modified: June 21, 2005