Distance Learning

Databases

Tulane subscribes to hundreds of literature-search databases.

• Click the Databases link on our web page for an alphabetical list. The list is a selection of science, medicine and health related databases.

• For the full list of Tulane University databases click on Full Listing at the end of the alphabet string.

• There you can choose "Research by Subject" to arrange the list by categories.

• Tulane's School of Business library has another list of Databases.

Tips for database searching:

1. An internet search can find a wealth of excellent information. However, since the Internet is not regulated, there is no quality control of what you may find there. Google is not the best way to find scholarly research. But if you search Google use Google Scholar. It will give you a better chance of finding material from organizations, research centers, institutions and government agencies. But the material may be older and there is no guarantee of full-text.

2. For a thorough, academic search on a topic, you should be looking for scholarly publications through some subject-specific databases such as Medline, PsycINFO, Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management, etc. These practice quality control by indexing primarily those journals which meet certain standards.

3. Providing further quality control, many of the journals in these Databases are peer-reviewed or refereed, meaning that their original articles are reviewed by non-editorial staff of the journal before being accepted for publication. The reviewer may suggest changes or reject the paper if the submitted manuscript does not meet the standards of the journal. Trade publications or general-interest magazines are not peer-reviewed. A librarian at State University of New York has a page explaining peer-reviewed in more detail at http://valinor.ca/peer-review.html.

4. Some Tulane-subscribed databases index a mix of scholarly and non-scholarly journals. Many of these databases, such as Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, and PsycINFO allow you to limit to peer-reviewed articles while searching.

5. If you are not sure that a journal is peer-reviewed, look in the Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, which is under Publication Support list on our web page.

6. Here are a few suggested databases, but there are many others you could explore:

   • Medline is the National Library of Medicine's database that indexes over 5000 journals, mostly peer-reviewed, in medicine, public health and related fields, including occupational and environmental topics. Although Medline data appears in many search engines, most do not utilize the full power of Medline. Therefore, we highly recommend you use either of these two:

     • PubMed - free to the world, but it's important that Tulane personnel access it through our home page link (after authenticating) in order to see the "Tulane Full Text" icon to link to many of our online documents.

     • Ovid - better for searching more complicated topics that may require several search strategies. Searches may be saved for 30 days, has links to full text articles.

   • Cambridge Scientific Abstracts is a multi-discipline product that includes several environmental, safety, and toxicology databases, which can be searched simultaneously.

   • EBSCO Research Databases - click "Choose Databases" for list that covers communication, agriculture, psychology, business and biology.

   • Global Health - provides world-wide coverage and complements Medline.

   • TOXNET is a group of free government databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and related areas. Most of the databases contain factual information, but a TOXLINE search results in references to literature on biochemical, pharmacological, physiological, and toxicological effects of drugs and other chemicals. TOXLINE can also be searched as part of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (see link above).

   • Web of Science - "Cited Reference Search" is used to find articles that have cited an earlier article. If you have published a paper, enter your name to see if your article has been cited and how many times. The "General Search" or "Advanced Search" is used like any other search engine.

7. The Public Health Resources link on our home page lists many good sources of free information. Take a look!

8. Finding an actual health survey questionnaire, psychological test, etc. is tricky. We have some tips on that process in the Public Health Resources list, or click here for Testing and Assessment Instruments.

The Reference staff is available weekdays 8 - 5 (CST). If you need assistance with a search, feel free to call us at (504) 988-5155. Help is also available via email, use either Ask a Librarian or medref@tulane.edu. Please mention that you are a distance student.

Back to Distance Learning: Navigating the Electronic Literature Maze

Updated 10/07