Medical Literature Search
Resources:
Comparison of Features and
Function
MAJ John Heflin, MC,USA
Faculty Development Fellowship
Madigan Army Medical Center
9 Jan 1998
|
Service Name and Internet Address |
Cost |
Search Language - Textword vs MeSH |
Selectable Search Options |
Description |
Databases Available |
Other Information |
|
Avicenna http://www.avicenna.com/ |
Free (Requires 5 min. registration) |
Natural language or Textword unless specific MeSH term entered |
LA, PT |
Basic searching |
MEDLINE (only 1990 – present) AIDSLINE |
1) Limited utility of instructions in the
online Help 2) Contains many useful links for medical professionals |
|
BioMedNet http://biomednet.com |
Free (Requires 5 min. registration) |
Selectable to search one or both. Field identifiers available for greater restriction |
JN, LA, PT |
Hybrid of Basic and Advanced Searching |
MEDLINE |
1) Detailed instructions in the online
Help. 2) Can download MEDLINE hits into
bibliographic management software 3) Citation Web finds all articles which cite an article of interest |
|
Forensic Science Society http://www.demon.co.uk/forensic/index.html |
Free |
Textword unless MeSH term with Field
identifier used (No ability to look up MeSH terms) |
|
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE |
1) Inadequate instructions in the online
Help 2) Can have articles delivered for a fee 3) Similar interface to Medscape |
|
HealthAnswers (AAFP sponsor) http://www.healthanswers.com/ |
Free |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? MEDLINE search existance 2) Several other useful resources for a physician |
|
HealthGate http://www.healthgate.com/ |
Free |
Basic Engine - Automatically searches both Advanced engine – selectable (No ability to look up MeSH terms) |
AGE, JN, LA, PT, SU |
Advanced Searching |
MEDLINE + 6 other databases |
1) Limited but effective online
instructions. 2) Can download MEDLINE hits into
bibliographic management software 3) Many other useful services for a fee |
|
HealthWorks http://www.healthworks.co.uk/hw/medline/medline.html |
Free (registration takes a week) |
? |
? |
? |
MEDLINE |
US and UK |
|
HealthWorld http://www.healthy.net/ Infotrieve http://www.infotrieve.com/ (Same engine) |
Free |
Natural language, Selectable Textword or
MeSH (No ability to look up MeSH terms) |
AGE, LA, PT, SU |
Hybrid of Basic and Advanced searching |
MEDLINE |
1) Minimal instructions in the online Help 2) Can have articles delivered for a fee 3) Worldwide |
|
Helix http://www.helix.com/index.htm |
Free (Requires 5 min. registration) |
Textword unless MeSH term with field
identifier used (MeSH terms can be obtained with the Suggest or Thesaurus function) |
AGE, GR, JN, LA, PT |
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE |
1) Fragmented instructions in the online Help 2) Runs WebSPIRS (Silver Platters) on
Physicians Home Page. 3) US only |
|
Internet Grateful Med http://igm.nlm.nih.gov |
Free |
Automatically searches both |
AGE, EX, GR, JN, LA, PT, SU |
Advanced Searching |
MEDLINE + 10 other databases |
1) Detailed Instructions in the New User’s
Survival Guide and via online Help (i key) 2) Can download MEDLINE hits into
bibliographic management software 3) Can have articles delivered for a fee |
|
MedEc http://www.medecinteractive.com/medec |
Free (Registration requires DEA number) |
Textword |
? |
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE |
|
|
Medscape http://www.medscape.com/ |
Free (Requires 5 min. registration) |
Textword unless MeSH term with Field
identifier used (No ability to look up MeSH terms) |
|
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, TOXLINE |
1) Limited but effective online
instructions 2) Can have articles delivered for a fee 3) Many useful services for a physician 4) Difficulty running with AOL and Internet Explorer 3.x |
|
Phynet http://medline.phynet.net/ |
Free |
Natural language or Textword (No ability to look up MeSH terms) |
|
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE + 20 other databases |
1) Detailed instructions 2) No 1997 data 3) Contains other useful resources for a physician |
|
Physician’s Online http://www.pol.net |
Free for 5hrs/month then $1.95/hr (Registration requires AMA medical education number) |
Natural language or textword (No MeSH) |
LA |
Limited Basic Searching (retrieves only 100 citations) |
MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, CANCERlit, HealthSTAR |
1) Minimal instructions in the online Help 2) Can have articles delivered for a fee 3) Contains many other useful resources for
a physician 4) US physicians only |
|
PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.gov/PubMed/ |
Free |
Basic engine – Textword unless MeSH term
with field identifier used Advanced engine – Selectable |
|
Hybrid of Basic and Advanced searching |
MEDLINE |
1) Limited but effective instructions in the online Help |
|
Community of Science http://cos.gdb.org/ |
$250/year (may request a free trial) |
Natural language or Textword, MeSH obtained with MeSH search engine |
|
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE |
Detailed instructions in the online Help.
|
|
Dialog Information (a.k.a. Knight-Ridder Info.) http://www.dialog.com/info/home |
$.20/record reviewed (Dialog select) $30/hr + $.20/record reviewed + $300 sign-up (Dialog Web) |
Textword unless MeSH term with Field identifier used |
AGE, GR, LA, PT, SU |
Hybrid of Basic and Advanced searching |
MEDLINE and several hundred other databases
|
1) Complex registration process 2) Accountant required to understand fee
schedule 3) Can search multiple databases at same time with multiple fees |
|
HCN’s Medline Pro (OVID) http://www.hcn.net.au/ |
$195/year (Australian) |
Selectable (Advanced engine) |
EX, JN, LA, PT, SU |
Hybrid of Basic and Advanced searching |
MEDLINE + 4 other databases |
1) Detailed online instructions in the Help menus |
|
Knowledge Finder http://www.kfinder.com/ |
$250/year (free 30 day trial) |
Selectable between Natural language, Textword and MeSH |
GR, JN, LA, PT, SU |
Advanced |
MEDLINE |
1) Instructions not easily understood 2) Can download MEDLINE hits into
bibliographic management software 3) Must Download a program – Knowledge Finder |
|
OVID http://www.ovid.com/ |
$12/hour $.20/record reviewed fixed fee available |
Selectable (Advanced engine) |
EX, JN, LA, PT, SU |
Hybrid of Basic and Advanced searching |
MEDLINE and over 80 other databases |
1) Detailed online instructions in the Help
menus 2) Other databases available at a fee |
|
PaperChase http://www.paperchase.com/ |
$150/year or $20 for 30 days |
Automatically searches both (preferentially maps to MeSH) |
AGE, LA, SU |
Advanced |
MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, CANCERlit, HealthSTAR |
1) Limited but effective online
instructions 2) Can have articles delivered for a fee 3) Available within CompuServe at $18-24/hr |
|
Physician’s Home Page http://php2.silverplatter.com/physicians |
$20/month $30 registration fee |
Textword unless MeSH term with field
identifier used (MeSH terms can be obtained with the Suggest or Thesaurus function) |
AGE, GR, JN, LA, PT |
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE |
1) Fragmented instructions in the online Help 2) Runs WebSPIRS (Silver Platters) |
|
Silver Platters http://www.silverplatter.com/usa |
$.25/search $.20/record $500 deposit |
Selectable |
|
Basic Searching |
MEDLINE and hundreds of other databases |
|
Basic Searching – All search information
entered on one query line which is syntax dependent. Appropriate codes must be
entered for operators (Boolean AND, OR, NOT etc.), wildcards, truncation,
proximity indicators, field identifiers (Mesh Heading, Author, Title Word,
Journal, Article type, Language, etc), explode, etc.
Advanced Searching – Each search item will
have a query line with a pick list or pull down menu to specify operators and
field identifiers. The query line is usually not syntax dependent unless
additional basic functions such as wildcard, truncation or other field
identifiers are attached to the search item. The search engine often provides
the ability to set the time frame of the search, languages searched and the
types of articles to search.
Selectable Search Options:
AGE = the age of the subjects in the paper
(i.e. infants, children, adults, specific age ranges)
EX = explode option which searches similar
terms to the one provided
GR = the gender to the subjects in the paper
JN = the specific journals searched
LA = the language of the articles to be
searched (i.e. ENG – english, GER – german)
PT = the type of publication or article (i.e.
review, clinical trial, meta analysis, etc.)
SU = the study group species (i.e. human, canine,
etc)
|
Service Name with (years searched)Number of hits with the textwords ‘heart failure’ and ‘ace inhibitors’Number of hits with the MeSH headings ‘heart failure, congestive’ and ‘angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors’ |
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Avicenna (94-97) |
H H |
419 |
358 |
337 |
432 |
|
Biomednet (95-97) |
H H H |
554 |
345 |
318 |
425 |
|
Community of Science |
|
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|
Dialog Select |
|
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Forensic (96-97) |
H |
256 |
134 |
178 |
188 |
|
HealthGate (95-97) |
H H H H |
549 |
325 |
411 |
401 |
|
HealthWorld / Infotrieve (96-97) |
H H H |
254 |
134 |
146 |
188 |
|
Helix / Physician’s Home Page (95-97) |
H |
1928 |
1914 |
932 |
647 |
|
Internet Grateful Med (95-97) |
H H H H H |
357 |
357 |
759 |
489 |
|
Knowledge Finder (95-97) |
H H H H |
780 |
344 |
469 |
434 |
|
Medscape (96-97) |
H |
222 |
134 |
146 |
188 |
|
OVID (95-97) |
H H H |
217 |
344 |
298 |
434 |
|
PaperChase (95-97) |
H H H |
344 |
344 |
422 |
422 |
|
Phynet (96 only) |
H |
137 |
92 |
93 |
144 |
|
Physicians Online (96-97) |
H |
100 |
1 |
100 |
100 |
|
PubMed (96-97) |
H |
305 |
231 |
545 |
338 |
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