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Public Health

Guide to library research for evidence-informed public health practice.

Requesting Articles Through Omni

If the database/library does not provide access to the articles that you are trying to retrieve, you can request full-text articles via the library’s Interlibrary Loans service:

  • Complete a request using the Blank Request Form.
  • You must select a Pickup Location, however PDFs will be sent electronically.
  • The turnaround time for receiving PDFs via email can be as quick as one or two business days, however, some articles may take longer if they are challenging to track down and receive.

Introduction

Bibliographic/citation databases contain bibliographic information (e.g., citation information and abstracts) for sources of literature. The databases compared and listed below predominantly include bibliographic records for journal articles, however, most do not search or provide the full text articles. Instead, many databases will provide links for accessing full text articles from a publisher or journal website.

Databases that prioritize high-level evidence are sometimes referred to as evidence-based practice databases, some of which are available through the library (e.g. Cochrane Library) and others are freely available to search (e.g. Health Evidence). 

Database Comparison

Global
Health

PubMed/
Ovid MEDLINE

Embase

CINAHL

PsycINFO

Cochrane Library

Web of
Science

 Years:

1973-
present

1946-
present

1947-present

1980-
present

1806-
present

Varies by database

1900-
present

Journals:

>7,300

>6,500

> 8,500

>3,100

>2,500

N/A

>33,000

 Records:

>3 million

> 33 million

> 41 million

~4 million

> 4 million

>1 million

>170 million

 Record   
 Types:

Journal articles, book content, theses, reports

Journal articles, some conference proceedings

Journal articles, conference proceedings, preprints

Journal and magazine articles, dissertations, books

Journal articles, book chapters, dissertations

High-quality journal articles (controlled trials and SRs), SR protocols

Journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings

 Subjects 
 Included:

Public health:
communicable diseases,
 epidemiology, infectious diseases,
nutrition

Biomedicine 
incl. allied health, biological and physical sciences, humanities

Biomedicine,
clinical medicine, pharmacology toxicology, life sciences, healthcare admin

Nursing, biomedicine, altern/compl medicine, consumer health, and allied health

Psychological literature incl. social, behavioral, and health sciences

Health care interventions,  diagnostic assessments

Multi-disciplinary incl. science, technology, arts, social sciences, humanities

 Subject
 Headings:

Global Health Indexing

MeSH

Emtree

CINAHL
Subject
Terms

APA Thesaurus Terms

MeSH, but only for some records

N/A

 QUL
 Platforms:

Ovid

Ovid and PubMed

Ovid

Ebsco

Ovid and
APA PsycNET

Ovid and
Wiley

Web of
Science

 Notes:

No need to search both Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed

“Cumulative Index for Nursing & Allied Health Literature”

 

Databases

Evidence Based Practice Resources

Resources listed in this section provide some type of evidence based analysis, synthesis and/or summary of a particular topic, study or question that will aid in evidence based decision making.