Database Tutorials
Find additional video tutorials on the UB Libraries YouTube Channel and the Health Sciences playlist.
- Basic Search Techniques Tutorials and Evaluating Internet Sources
- PubMed
- MEDLINE
- CINAHL
- EMBASE
- Evidence-Based Medicine Tutorials
- Web of Science
- Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
- Springer Protocols
- Current Protocols
- EndNote (not a database, but tutorial included for convenience to help with citation management)
Connect to the biomedical databases.
Basic Search Techniques Tutorials and Evaluating Internet Sources
- Boolean Searching – University Libraries, Colorado State University
- Truncation and Proximity Operators – University Libraries, Colorado State University
- Evaluating Information (video, 3:14) – Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries & University Museums
- Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine (video, 16:00) – MedlinePlus
- Evaluating Web Pages Checklist – a one page checklist from the University of California Berkeley
- Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask – an online guide from the University of California Berkeley
- Guide to Health Web Surfing – an online guide from MedlinePlus
Evidence-Based Medicine Tutorials
Evidence-based medicine is the intersection of patient preferences, clinical knowledge, and the best available evidence to support patient care
- Evidence-Based Practice: An Interprofessional Tutorial – provided by the University of Minnesota Abbott Library, this tutorial is designed to teach learners across health sciences disciplines how to find, appraise, and apply evidence in patient care.
PubMed
PubMed is a database of biomedical literature that contains more than 25 million citations, including MEDLINE citations (see below). This resource is freely available at pubmed.gov, however, UB affiliates have more full text access by going through the UB Libraries site.
- PubMed for Nurses - designed specifically for nurses, a set of videos to introduce literature searching in PubMed.
- PubMed Online Training – includes a link to the full tutorial (see below), as well as short video tutorials called “quick tours,” webcasts and videos, handouts, and more.
- PubMed Tutorial – this self-paced tutorial provides in-depth instruction on how to get the most out of PubMed. Allocate around an hour to complete the tutorial in one sitting.
MEDLINE
MEDLINE is the U.S. National Library of Medicine premier bibliographic database that contains more than 36 million references to journal articles in the life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine and health. MEDLINE citations are available through vendors like Ovid, EBSCO, and Web of Science, as well as the freely available PubMed. To get to MEDLINE via Ovid at UB, sign in to the UB Libraries, go to the Health Sciences at Abbott Library page, then under Top Resources choose MEDLINE via Ovid from the “choose a database” drop down menu.
- Introduction to MEDLINE on Ovid (video 18.11 min) – description; basic, advanced and multi-field searching, MeSH, mapping, and limits; putting it all together to create a search.
CINAHL
CINAHL provides authoritative coverage of the literature related to nursing and allied health.
- Searching CINAHL using CINAHL/MeSH Headings (video, 3:32)
- CINAHL Advanced Searching Tutorial (video, 3:36)
EMBASE
EMBASE is a major biomedical and pharmacological database containing citations, abstracts, and indexing derived from biomedical articles in peer reviewed international journals. It is especially strong in its coverage of drug and pharmaceutical research. To access EMBASE tutorials, you must access the database. Find help, webinars, and guides and videos under SUPPORT at the bottom of the page.
Also take a look at the pdf handouts below:
- Searching in EMBASE handout (pdf)
- EMBASE Quick User Guide handout (pdf)
- Comparison of Emtree and MeSH handout (pdf)
Web of Science
Web of Science is a multidisciplinary citation tracking database that can help you can trace an idea over time using citations and cited references. In addition, you can identify highly cited articles.
- Web of Science videos on YouTube – find out more about Web of Science, a multidisciplinary database with citations to articles, books, and conference proceedings. Many short videos on specific topics including cited reference search, saving searches and alerts, filtering results, combining search sets, and much more.
- Web of Science Tutorials - a variety of training options from Clarivate’s support page including first steps videos, self-guided learning, live learning sign up, Libguides and recorded training.
Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
Cold Spring Harbor Protocols is an interdisciplinary journal providing a definitive source of research methods in cell, developmental and molecular biology, genetics, bioinformatics, protein science, computational biology, immunology, neuroscience and imaging.
- Help – links to subsections that describe major site features and search techniques.
Springer Protocols
Springer Protocols – protocols in the following subject areas: Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Cancer Research, Cell Biology, Genetics/Genomics, Imaging/Radiology, Immunology, Infectious Diseases. Microbiology, Molecular Medicine, Neuroscience, Pharmacology/Toxicology, Plant Sciences, Protein Science.
- Introduction to SpringerProtocols (video, 2:20) – covers finding protocols, browsing, quick and advanced search, and saved searches.
- Personalization (video, 2:00) – reviews personalization features such as saved searches, upload a protocol, my account, manage alerts, and RSS feed.
- Protocols (video, 1:56) – shows how to download a PDF, perform a quick author or keyword search, and more.
Current Protocols
Current Protocols is a series of laboratory manuals for life scientists.
- Tutorial (video, 8:14) – scroll down and select Current Protocols under Databases and Reference Works. Before viewing this tutorial, you will have to complete a short registration form.
EndNote Tutorials
EndNote is a citation management program that can help you store and organize references and pdf. This program works with Microsoft Word so that you can seamlessly add formatted in-text citations and bibliographies to your documents.
- EndNote Training – find training guides for Windows and Mac, the Little EndNote How-To Book, training videos, and a training calendar on the EndNote site.