Research guides: Public Health: Step 4: Choose Relevant Databases

Step 5: Choose Databases to Search

Need a refresher on database research techniques?

Watch these helpful database searching video tutorials for: Medline, Embase, CINAHL, & Scopus

Medline (Ovid)
The U.S. National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database that contains over 16 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.
EMBASE (Ovid)
A major biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexing over 3,500 international journals in the following fields: drug research, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, toxicology, clinical and experimental human medicine, health policy and management, public health, occupational health, environmental health, drug dependence and abuse, psychiatry, forensic medicine, and biomedical engineering/instrumentation.
APA PsycInfo (Ovid)
The major index for scholarly literature in psychology from the 1800s to the present. PsycInfo includes material of relevance to practitioners, researchers and students working in all areas of psychology, the behavioural sciences, and other related disciplines.
CINAHL Plus (Ebsco)
(Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) Covers material on nursing and allied health, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and rehabilitation sciences, from 1982 to present.

HealthSTAR (Ovid) This link opens in a new window
Published research on health services, technology, administration, and research, focusing on both the clinical and non-clinical aspects of health care delivery. A subset of Medline.
CAB Abstracts (Ovid) This link opens in a new window
Citations information including abstracts to research in the fields of agriculture, forestry, aspects of human health, human nutrition, animal health, and the management and conservation of natural resources. (5 simultaneous users)

Other health databases:

Health Systems Evidence
- Contains policy briefs and systematic reviews
- Curated collection gathered from sources like Medline, Cochrane, DARE,etc
- grading and user-friendly summaries geared towards policymakers

Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Citations and abstracts of scholarly journals, dissertations, books, and conference papers in the social and behavioural sciences.
Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) This link opens in a new window
Citation information including abstracts covering social science and health related subjects.

PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
International research in public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations. Provides access to journal articles, books, government documents, research and conference reports, and more.
PolicyFile (US) This link opens in a new window

Scopus
A major multidisciplinary database for the social sciences, life sciences, health sciences, physical sciences, and arts and humanities.
Indexes over 14,000 journals. Coverage of database 1966 to present.

HISA
- Covers Latin American and Caribbean history of public health
- Contains journals, books, theses, conference papers, technical and scientific reports, non-conventional projects or documents.
- Majority of content in Spanish or Portuguese.
LILACS
- Covers health sciences literature from and relevant to Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Contains mostly abstracts with limited full-text for journals, books, theses, conference papers, technical and scientific reports, and projects.
-Majority of content in Spanish or Portuguese

Need to look in other subject-specific databases? Search Databases by Subject

Hint - other relevant subject areas could be:

Need more help with researching a scoping or systematic reviews? Visit our Systematic Reviews Guide

Cochrane Database
Consists of a collection of evidence-based medicine databases, including The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Register of Controlled Trials. Provides up-to-date protocols and summaries on the effects of interventions in health care and evidence to support decision-making.

DoPHER (Database of promoting health effectiveness reviews)
Covers systematic and non-systematic reviews of effectiveness in health promotion and public health worldwide. Contains details of over 2,500 reviews of health promotion and public health effectiveness.
Health Evidence
Over 6000 quality-rated systematic reviews evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions, including cost data. From McMaster University.