Just the Facts

Tutorials & Help

• Quick Guide
• PubMed Tutorial [NLM]
• PubMed FAQ [NLM]
• PubMed Help [NLM]
• MyNCBI Guide [NLM]
• RefWorks guide

Workshop Handouts

• PubMed brochure [NLM]
• CQ: Systematic Reviews
• CQ: Research Studies
• My NCBI
• Class Exercises

Spotlight on  

What is PubMed?

PubMed is a web-based interface to MEDLINE, the pre-eminent health sciences database of journal articles. PubMed covers 4800 journals in all levels and disciplines of the health sciences. In addition, UW access to PubMed provides links to ~2500 full-text journals (more than 50% of the journals covered in PubMed).

Are there other products like PubMed?

MEDLINE is also available from other vendors including Ovid. In general, Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed draw off the same MEDLINE database (so they cover the same journals), but have vastly different search interfaces. See our MEDLINE: OVID vs. PubMed handout for differences.

Are there other products like MEDLINE?

There really aren't any direct competitors in the United States to MEDLINE. The European equivalent to MEDLINE is EMBASE (aka Excerpta Medica), which covers over 4,000 biomedical journals with a heavy focus on European literature. The overlap with MEDLINE is estimated around 30%.  EMBASE is not freely available on the UW campus. EMBASE searches can be conducted through Wisconsin Tech Search for a fee.

There are a wide variety of other databases that cover more specific health sciences topics. For example: CINAHL focuses on Nursing, Allied Health, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine topics, BIOSIS has more exhaustive life science (pre clinical) coverage, and PsycINFO covers the psychology-related literature.

Is there anything unique or advantageous about PubMed over similar products?

Unlike other versions of MEDLINE, PubMed is free to the public at http://www.pubmed.gov. So your knowledge of searching PubMed can be taken with you if you leave the UW.

Who can use it?

Anyone with an Internet connection can get access to PubMed at http://www.pubmed.gov. However, UW affiliated students, faculty and staff should enter PubMed through the Ebling Library website (http://ebling.library.wisc.edu). This will allow access to over 2500 full-text journals through the button.