Library Guides: Databases in Public Health: Article Databases

Core Public Health Article Databases

PubMed This link opens in a new window
Citations and abstracts in the fields of biomedicine and health, as well as portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering.

PubMed includes MEDLINE, PubMed Central (PMC), other biomedical and life science journals, and the NCBI Bookshelf. PubMed also provides links to other NCBI molecular biology resources, including nucleotide sequences, protein sequences, 3-D protein structure data, population study data sets, and assemblies of complete genomes in an integrated system.
Note: The link above goes to a specially configured version of PubMed for UC Berkeley users that will display the Get It at UC button for full text article access. To use the free public version, please click here.
Embase This link opens in a new window
International index including over 2,000 journals not in Medline, as well as conference abstracts. Broad biomedical scope with strong coverage in drug, pharmaceutical, and toxicological research, including economic evaluations and healthcare policy & management.
Indexes journals, including many not in Medline, from over 90 countries, and indexes conference abstracts from many conferences. Broad biomedical scope with strong coverage in drug, pharmaceutical, and toxicological research including economic evaluation.
Agricultural & Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, reports, books, and government publications covering all areas of environmental science.
AES incorporates the formerly titled "Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management" database - which includes Environmental Impact Statements - plus the databases AGRICOLA (1970-current) and TOXLINE (1999-current).
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Indexes leading journals in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences. Allows cited reference searching.
Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index (1990-present), Book Citation Index (2005-present), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present).
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences and more.
Contains over 50 million records with more than half the content originating from outside North America. Indexes over 21,000 journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences, technology, medicine, arts, and humanities.

Yet more databases

The UC Berkeley Library provides access to hundreds of databases in all subject areas. Check out the A-Z Databases Guide for a comprehensive list. Once at this page, you can narrow by subject or format type.

Additional Health & Medicine Article Databases

bioRxiv This link opens in a new window
bioRxiv is a free open access archive for unpublished preprints in the life sciences.
bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-archive") is a free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preprints in the life sciences. It is operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a not-for-profit research and educational institution. By posting preprints on bioRxiv, authors are able to make their findings immediately available to the scientific community and receive feedback on draft manuscripts before they are submitted to journals.
BIOSIS Previews This link opens in a new window
Citations for journal articles, conference papers, and books on a wide variety of biological and biomedical topics.
Indexes journals, books, and conference proceedings are indexed on a wide variety of biological and biomedical topics. An electronic version to the print counterparts, Biological Abstracts and Biological Abstracts/RRM.
Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window
A collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.
Indexes journal articles, reviews, and bibliographies which provide evidence-based effects of health care, as well as a register of published economic evaluations of health care interventions and information on healthcare technology assessment from seven databases such as The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, and the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness.

CRD Databases
From Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. Includes over 30,000 quality assessed systematic reviews; over 16,000 economic evaluations; over 13,000 summaries of completed and ongoing health technology assessments; summaries of all Cochrane reviews and protocols.

Ergonomics Abstracts
Access to this resource will be discontinued effective 6/30/24 due to library budget cuts. Please use Embase, PsycInfo, or PubMed as alternative resources. Find literature citations spanning the world of ergonomics and human factors with related material from psychology, physiology, biomechanics, human-computer interaction, human engineering, medicine, occupational health, sport, and transport. [1985 - present]
Indexes over 400 journals as well as book chapters and conference proceedings on mainstream ergonomics and human factors, as well as related material in psychology, physiology, biomechanics, industrial relations, product design, human-computer interaction, safety science, human engineering, medicine, occupational health, sport and transport.
ETHXWeb This link opens in a new window
An index to materials relating to bioethics and professional ethics. [1974-2009]
An index to journal articles, book chapters, bills, laws, court decisions, reports, books, audio-visuals, and news articles.
Faculty Opinions This link opens in a new window
Highlights and reviews the most interesting papers published in the biological sciences and medicine. Also includes an open access repository of posters and slide presentations.
Global Health Archive This link opens in a new window
1911- 1983. Indexes journals, books, reports, and more on the topics such as environmental and occupational health, food safety and hygiene, infectious diseases, medical microbiology, nutrition, public health, toxicology, and zoonoses.
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine This link opens in a new window
Index of interdisciplinary global publications covering research in the history of science, medicine and technology.
Indexes books, journals, proceedings, and dissertations worldwide about research in the history of science, medicine, technology, and related fields. Subjects covered include agriculture, biology, construction, chemistry, energy, engineering, geology, linguistics, mathematics, medicine, music, philosophy, physics, social sciences, town planning, transport engineering, and zoology.
IndexCat This link opens in a new window
Access to the digitized version of the printed Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office, U.S. Army. Contains materials from the 15th Century through 1950, primarily journal articles, books, dissertations, pamphlets, and reports. Also includes access to eTK for medieval Latin texts and eVK2 for medieval English texts, along with links to other selected NLM resources.
Digitized version of the Index-Catalogue, the multi-part printed bibliography or list of items in the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, U.S. Army. Contains over 4.5 million online references to over 3.7 million bibliographic items including 2.5 million items journal articles, 250,000 monographs (books, pamphlets, and reports), and approximately 300,000 dissertations. Covers up through 1961 imprints.
medRxiv This link opens in a new window
medRxiv is a preprint service for medical, clinical, and health sciences. Preprints "should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information."
"Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review."
Ovid Medline This link opens in a new window
The Ovid interface to MEDLINE. Citations and abstracts for articles published in medicine, life sciences, public health, health administration, veterinary medicine, nursing, molecular biology, genetics, and more. [Mid-19th century - present]
MEDLINE is the core content that makes up PubMed and is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Features provided by Ovid are advanced mapping, which analyzes users' natural language queries and suggests appropriate terms for searching, and a thesaurus which automatically suggests synonymous or related terms and allows for expanded searching.
PMC (PubMed Central) This link opens in a new window
A free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine. [dates vary]
The database includes material dating back to mid- to late-1800s or early 1900s for some journals.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations in psychology.
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations in psychology and enriched with literature from psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work.
REHABDATA This link opens in a new window
The REHABDATA database covers disability and rehabilitation research published since 1956. [date varies]
Produced by the National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC), REHABDATA contains nearly 70,000 citations on vocational rehabilitation, job training, rehabilitation services evaluation, costs of reabilitation services, community integration, and more. Two main categories of documents are featured: (1) reports, studies, and papers submitted by projects funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and (2) articles published in rehabilitation-related periodicals. Some non-print material is also catalogued.
Toxline This link opens in a new window
Search for references from the toxicology literature covering the biochemical, pharmacological, physiological, and toxicological effects of drugs and other chemicals [Last 5 years + current year]
Indexes journals, monographs, technical reports, theses, letters, meeting abstracts, conference papers, and reports in all areas of toxicology, including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pesticides, environmental pollutants, and mutagens and teratogens. Produced by the US National Library of Medicine, information is drawn from a number of sources including Toxicity Bibliography and Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology.

Regional Health Article Databases

African Index Medicus
An international index to African health literature and information sources.

Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) This link opens in a new window
Citations to journal articles, and more. [1971 - present]
Over 500,000 citations to journal articles, books, and conference proceedings worldwide on the countries, histories, and cultures of East, South, and Southeast Asia.

Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region
An international index to Eastern Mediterranean health literature and information sources using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Index Medicus for the South-East Asian Region
A database of articles published in selected journals within the WHO South-East Asia Region.
KoreaMed
Provides access to articles published in Korean medical, dental, nursing, nutrition, and veterinary journals.
Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (LILACS)
An international index to Latin American and Caribbean health literature. Some full-text available.

SciELO: Scientific Electronic Library Online This link opens in a new window
A collection of over 1200 open access scholarly online journals in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities to meet the communication needs of researchers in the Global South, particularly those in Latin America and the Caribbean. [dates vary]
Journals from Portugal, Spain, and South Africa are also included. The SciELO project is an initiative of the Foundation for Support to Research of the State of São Paulo, Brazil (FAPESP) and the Latin American and Caribbean Center for Information on Health Sciences (BIREME).

Western Pacific Region Index Medicus
Citations of medical and health journals published in Member States of the WHO Western Pacific Region.

Proceedings

BIOSIS Previews This link opens in a new window
Citations for journal articles, conference papers, and books on a wide variety of biological and biomedical topics. [1926 - present]
Indexes journals, books, and conference proceedings are indexed on a wide variety of biological and biomedical topics. An electronic version to the print counterparts, Biological Abstracts and Biological Abstracts/RRM.
Embase This link opens in a new window
Search for biomedical literature citations. Embase is a key resource for conducting systematic reviews and researching evidence-based medicine. [dates vary]
Indexes journals, including many not in Medline, from over 90 countries, and indexes conference abstracts from many conferences. Broad biomedical scope with strong coverage in drug, pharmaceutical, and toxicological research including economic evaluation.
Agricultural & Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new window
Find citations for journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and government publications in the agricultural and environmental sciences. [1960 - present].
AES incorporates the formerly titled "Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management" database - which includes Environmental Impact Statements - plus the databases AGRICOLA (1970-current) and TOXLINE (1999-current).
PapersFirst This link opens in a new window
Covers every published congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop and meeting received by The British Library Document Supply Centre.
Indexes papers presented at conferences, symposia, meetings, expositions, workshops, and congresses worldwide in a variety of disciplines, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, physical and life sciences, biological and medical sciences,
Proceedings This link opens in a new window
An index of worldwide conference proceedings in a variety of disciplines.
Indexes proceedings, the list of all papers presented, at conferences, symposia, meetings, expositions, and congresses worldwide in a variety of disciplines, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, physical and life sciences, biological and medical sciences, engineering, technology, history, general interest, and reference topics. References to individual papers will be found in the PapersFirst database.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations, and technical reports. (Psychological Abstracts, Psychinfo) [1806 - current]
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations in psychology and enriched with literature from psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences and more.
Contains over 50 million records with more than half the content originating from outside North America. Indexes over 21,000 journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences, technology, medicine, arts, and humanities.

Search Public Health Guides

Multidisciplinary Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database of scholarly and general interest journals, books, and reports.
Articles from broad array of peer-reviewed journals, popular and trade magazines and news sources for nearly all areas of study; available in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
Index of publications in the fields of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology from over 100 countries.
More than 70 languages are represented, with 30% percent of records published in languages other than English.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full text articles and documents from thousands of news, legal, and business sources.
Nexis Uni allows users to set up personal accounts to personalize your research experience. Nexis Uni has replaced LexiNexis Academic. [dates vary]
PAIS International This link opens in a new window
Indexes books, journals, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, and web sources related to public policy, politics, economics, and social issues worldwide.
Includes publications from over 120 countries. Some of the indexed materials are published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Archive covers English-language material only.
SafetyLit: Injury Prevention Literature Update & Archive Database This link opens in a new window
Weekly updates of injury research and prevention literature and a searchable archive of items published beginning in the mid-17th century.
This database provides abstracts of reports from researchers who work in the more than 30 professional disciplines relevant to preventing unintentional injuries, violence, and self-harm. Among these are anthropology, economics, education, engineering specialties, ergonomics and human factors, health and medicine, law and law enforcement, psychology, sociology, and other fields. SafetyLit staff and volunteers regularly hand-examine (issue by issue) more than 3400 current scholarly journals from many nations to find relevant material. This information is maintained in a searchable database that contains more than 225 thousand items. The database contains articles from 4405 journals that are not included in PubMed/Medline.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences and more.
Contains over 50 million records with more than half the content originating from outside North America. Indexes over 21,000 journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, and book series in the sciences, technology, medicine, arts, and humanities.
TRID Database This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation research. (TRIS Online)
TRID combines the records from TRB's Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre's International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Indexes leading journals in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences.
Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index (1990-present), Book Citation Index (2005-present), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present).

Doing a Systematic Review?

Before you embark on a systematic review, please understand that this could easily be a one year or more project.

UC Berkeley licenses Covidence, a tool to help you with your systematic reviews.
In Covidence, you can import citations, screen titles and abstracts, upload references, screen full text, create forms for critical appraisal, perform risk of bias tables, complete data extraction, and export a PRISMA flowchart summarizing your review process. As an institutional member, our users have priority access to Covidence support.
To access Covidence using the UC Berkeley institutional account, start at this page and follow the instructions.

Low & Middle Income (LMIC) Search Hedge

If you are searching for information on, or studies that were done in, LMICs, you are welcome to copy and paste this list of terms into the search box of whatever database(s) you are using. Please be aware the list is almost 600 words long.

USA Search Hedge

If you are searching for information on, or studies that were done in, the USA, you are welcome to copy and paste this list of terms into the search box of whatever database(s) you are using. Please be aware the list is about 175 words long.

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Databases in Public Health: Article Databases