MEDLINE
Encyclopedia
MEDLINE is a bibliographic database
of life sciences and biomedical information. It includes bibliographic information for articles from academic journal
s covering medicine
, nursing
, pharmacy
, dentistry
, veterinary medicine
, and health care
. MEDLINE also covers much of the literature in biology
and biochemistry
, as well as fields such as molecular evolution
.
Compiled by the United States National Library of Medicine
(NLM), MEDLINE is freely available on the Internet
and searchable via PubMed
and NLM's National Center for Biotechnology Information's Entrez
system.
(MeSH) for information retrieval. Engines designed to search MEDLINE (such as Entrez and PubMed) generally use a Boolean expression
combining MeSH terms, words in abstract and title of the article, author names, date of publication, etc. Entrez and PubMed can also find articles similar to a given one based on a mathematical scoring system that takes into account the similarity of word content of the abstracts and titles of two articles.
s from all over the world. Along with the Cochrane Library
and a number of other databases, MEDLINE facilitates evidence-based medicine
. Most systematic review
articles published nowadays build on extensive searches of MEDLINE to identify articles that might be useful in the review. MEDLINE influences researchers in their choice of journals in which to publish: few biomedical researchers today consider publishing in a journal not indexed by MEDLINE, because other researchers would not find (or cite) their work.
Unlike using a typical internet search engine, PubMed searching of MEDLINE requires a little investment of time. Using the MeSH database to define the subject of interest is one of the most useful ways to improve the quality of a search. Using MeSH terms in conjunction with limits (such as publication date or publication type), qualifiers (such as adverse effects or prevention and control), and text-word searching is another. Finding one article on the subject and clicking on the "Related Articles" link to get a collection of similarly classified articles can expand a search that yields few results.
Bibliographic database
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records, an organized digital collection of references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc...
of life sciences and biomedical information. It includes bibliographic information for articles from academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
s covering medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, nursing
Nursing
Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....
, pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, dentistry
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
, veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...
, and health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
. MEDLINE also covers much of the literature in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
, as well as fields such as molecular evolution
Molecular evolution
Molecular evolution is in part a process of evolution at the scale of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Molecular evolution emerged as a scientific field in the 1960s as researchers from molecular biology, evolutionary biology and population genetics sought to understand recent discoveries on the structure...
.
Compiled by the United States National Library of Medicine
United States National Library of Medicine
The United States National Library of Medicine , operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is a division of the National Institutes of Health...
(NLM), MEDLINE is freely available on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and searchable via PubMed
PubMed
PubMed is a free database accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez information retrieval system...
and NLM's National Center for Biotechnology Information's Entrez
Entrez
The Entrez Global Query Cross-Database Search System is a powerful federated search engine, or web portal that allows users to search many discrete health sciences databases at the National Center for Biotechnology Information website...
system.
The database
The database contains more than 21 million records from approximately 5,000 selected publications covering biomedicine and health from 1950 to the present. Originally the database covered articles starting from 1965, but this has been enhanced, and records as far back as 1950/51 are now available within the main index. The database is freely accessible on the Internet via the PubMed interface and new citations are added Tuesday through Saturday. For citations added during 1995-2003: about 48% are for cited articles published in the U.S., about 88% are published in English, and about 76% have English abstracts written by authors of the articles.Retrieval
MEDLINE uses Medical Subject HeadingsMedical Subject Headings
Medical Subject Headings is a comprehensive controlled vocabulary for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences; it can also serve as a thesaurus that facilitates searching...
(MeSH) for information retrieval. Engines designed to search MEDLINE (such as Entrez and PubMed) generally use a Boolean expression
Boolean expression
In computer science, a Boolean expression is an expression in a programming language that produces a Boolean value when evaluated, i.e. one of true or false...
combining MeSH terms, words in abstract and title of the article, author names, date of publication, etc. Entrez and PubMed can also find articles similar to a given one based on a mathematical scoring system that takes into account the similarity of word content of the abstracts and titles of two articles.
Importance
MEDLINE functions as an important resource for biomedical researchers and journal clubJournal club
A journal club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically evaluate recent articles in scientific literature. Journal clubs are usually organized around a defined subject in basic or applied research. For example, the application of evidence-based medicine to some area of medical...
s from all over the world. Along with the Cochrane Library
Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases in medicine and other healthcare specialties provided by the Cochrane Collaboration and other organisations. At its core is the collection of Cochrane Reviews, a database of systematic reviews and meta-analyses which summarize and interpret the...
and a number of other databases, MEDLINE facilitates evidence-based medicine
Evidence-based medicine
Evidence-based medicine or evidence-based practice aims to apply the best available evidence gained from the scientific method to clinical decision making. It seeks to assess the strength of evidence of the risks and benefits of treatments and diagnostic tests...
. Most systematic review
Systematic review
A systematic review is a literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question. Systematic reviews of high-quality randomized controlled trials are crucial to evidence-based medicine...
articles published nowadays build on extensive searches of MEDLINE to identify articles that might be useful in the review. MEDLINE influences researchers in their choice of journals in which to publish: few biomedical researchers today consider publishing in a journal not indexed by MEDLINE, because other researchers would not find (or cite) their work.
Inclusion of journals
Approximately 5,000 biomedical journals are indexed in MEDLINE. New journals are not included automatically or immediately. Selection is based on the recommendations of a panel, the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, based on scientific scope and quality of a journal. The Journals Database (one of the Entrez databases) contains information, such as its name abbreviation and publisher, about all journals included in Entrez, including PubMed.Usage
Searching MEDLINE effectively is a learned skill; untrained users are sometimes frustrated with the large numbers of articles returned by simple searches. Counterintuitively, a search that returns thousands of articles is not guaranteed to be comprehensive.Unlike using a typical internet search engine, PubMed searching of MEDLINE requires a little investment of time. Using the MeSH database to define the subject of interest is one of the most useful ways to improve the quality of a search. Using MeSH terms in conjunction with limits (such as publication date or publication type), qualifiers (such as adverse effects or prevention and control), and text-word searching is another. Finding one article on the subject and clicking on the "Related Articles" link to get a collection of similarly classified articles can expand a search that yields few results.
Online access
- PubMedPubMedPubMed is a free database accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez information retrieval system...
- iPubMed: featuring instant search
- MEDSUM - MEDLINE Summary tool: Interface to MEDLINE that returns graphs and tables of summary data.
- GoPubMedGoPubMedGoPubMed is a knowledge-based search engine for biomedical texts. TheGene Ontology and Medical Subject Headings serve as "Table of contents" in order to structure the millions of articles of the MEDLINE database. The search engine allows its users to find relevant search results significantly...
- Explore PubMed/MEDLINE with Gene OntologyGene OntologyThe Gene Ontology, or GO, is a major bioinformatics initiative to unify the representation of gene and gene product attributes across all species... - HubMedHubmedHubMed is an alternative, third-party interface to PubMed, the database of biomedical literature produced by the National Library of Medicine. Features include relevance-ranked search results, web feeds of query updates, direct citation export, tagging and graphical display of related articles.-...
- An alternative interface to the PubMed medical literature database. - eTBLASTETBLASTeTBLAST is a free text similarity service search engine currently offering access to the MEDLINE database, the National Institutes of Health CRISP database, the Institute of Physics database, Wikipedia, arXiv, the NASA technical reports database, Virginia Tech class descriptions and a variety of...
- a natural language text similarity engine for MEDLINE and other text databases. - MedscapeMedscapeMedscape is a web resource for physicians and other health professionals. It features peer-reviewed original medical journal articles, CME , a customized version of the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database, daily medical news, major conference coverage, and drug information—including a...
- TweaseTweaseTwease is an open source biomedical web search engine at www.twease.org which searches MEDLINE.It provides searches based on relevance or chronology; highlights text passages that match the query; collects and exports references seamlessly to RefWorks, EndNote, BibTex; searches for articles similar...
- an open-source biomedical search engine - PubMed BR - Search PubMed in Brazilian Portuguese
External links
- iPubMed Search MEDLINE/PubMed through interactive and fuzzy search
- PubMed Tutorials
- MEDLINE Journal Selection