The top list of research databases for medicine and healthcare
Web of Science and Scopus are interdisciplinary research databases and have a broad scope. For biomedical research, medicine, and healthcare there are a couple of outstanding academic databases that provide true value in your daily research. Scholarly databases can help you find scientific articles, research papers, conference proceedings, reviews and much more. We have compiled a list of the top 5 research databases with special focus on healthcare and medicine.
1. PubMed
PubMed is the number one source to turn to. It is hosted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and provides bibliographic information including abstracts and links to the full text publisher websites for more than 28 million articles.
- Coverage: 28+ million articles
- Abstracts: ✔
- Related articles: ✔
- References: ✘
- Cited by: ✘
- Links to full text: ✔
- Export formats: XML, NBIB
2. EMBASE
EMBASE (Excerpta Medica Database) is a proprietary research database that also includes in its corpus PubMed. It can also be accessed by other database providers such as Ovid.
- Coverage: 38 million articles
- Abstracts: ✔
- Related articles: ✔
- References: ✔
- Cited by: ✔
- Full text: ✔ (requires institutional subscription to EMBASE and individual publishers)
- Export formats: RIS
3. Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is best know for its systematic reviews. There are 53 review groups around the world that ensure that the published reviews are of high-quality and evidence based. Articles are updated over time to reflect new research.
- Coverage: several thousand high quality reviews
- Abstracts: ✔
- Related articles: ✔
- References: ✔
- Cited by: ✘
- Full text: ✔
- Export formats: RIS, BibTeX
4. PubMed Central (PMC)
You can see PubMed Central is the free fulltext/open access branch of PubMed. Full text for all indexed papers is readily available at PMC to read and download. You might also want to check out its sister site Europe PMC.
- Coverage: approx. 5.1 million articles
- Abstracts: ✔
- Related articles: ✔
- References: ✔
- Cited by: ✔
- Full text: ✔
- Export formats: APA, MLA, AMA, RIS, NBIB
5. UpToDate
Like the Cochrane Library, UpToDate provides detailed reviews to clinical topics. Reviews are constantly updated to provide an up-to-date view.
- Coverage: several thousand articles
- Abstracts: ✔
- Related articles: ✘
- References: ✔
- Cited by: ✘
- Full text: ✔ (requires institutional subscription)
- Export formats: ✘
Frequently Asked Questions about research databases for medicine and healthcare
What is PubMed?
PubMed is the number one source to turn to. It is hosted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and provides bibliographic information including abstracts and links to the full text publisher websites for more than 28 million articles.
What is EMBASE?
EMBASE (Excerpta Medica Database) is a proprietary research database that also includes in its corpus PubMed. It can also be accessed by other database providers such as Ovid.
What is Cochrane Library?
The Cochrane Library is best know for its systematic reviews. There are 53 review groups around the world that ensure that the published reviews are of high-quality and evidence based. Articles are updated over time to reflect new research.
What is PubMed Central (PMC)?
You can see PubMed Central is the free fulltext/open access branch of PubMed. Full text for all indexed papers is readily available at PMC to read and download. You might also want to check out its sister site Europe PMC.
What is UpToDate?
Like the Cochrane Library, UpToDate provides detailed reviews to clinical topics. Reviews are constantly updated to provide an up-to-date view.
![The best academic search engines [2019 update]](https://cdn.paperpile.com/guides/img/g-academic-search-engines-image-400x400.png)
![The best academic research databases [2019 update]](https://cdn.paperpile.com/guides/img/g-academic-research-databases-image-400x400.png)
