Database Guides

Medline

Medline contains summaries of articles on medical and related topics including extensive coverage of pharmacy, nutrition, biomedical, life and forensic sciences.

The database also covers topics relating to physiotherapy, occupational therapy, radiography, public health and health promotion.


Finding Journal Articles

When searching for journal articles, break down your topic into keywords and phrases and enter them on different lines

You can use various search techniques to add in extra terms, narrow results down and get more useful results:

  • phrase searching i.e. including the terms in quotation marks to ensure they appear together rather than being split up and
  • boolean search
    • AND – narrows down the results. All connected terms must be included in the results
    • OR – broadens out the results. Either connected term can be included in the results
    • NOT – narrows down the results. The second term must be excluded from the results

At the bottom of the search screen you will see Search Options. In most cases you will not need to use these options, and most can be applied once you see your list of results. Once you have entered relevant keywords and phrases, click Search to view a list of results.

   Top Tip!

If your search results are disappointing, try to think of different ways of expressing your topic, for example:

  • For attitudes try opinions or views.
  • For "pharmacist prescribing" try "non medical prescribing".
  • Add the wildcard symbol * to the root of a word to find all words beginning with the letters in front of it (e.g. attitude* would find attitude and attitudes at the same time).
  • Check for the subject terms used to describe the article and search on those terms. (find the subject terms by clicking on the article title)

To find out more about planning a search, creating search strategies and using different search techniques, explore our search techniques guide.



Getting the Full Text

You can see further details, and a summary, of any article listed on Medline by clicking on the title of the article. This can often include MeSH Terms and an Abstract.

Medline does not contain full-text articles. However, you can find out if the full-text of an article is available in the library's collection by clicking on Full Text @ RGU to check.

If we have the full text article as part of another subscription, then you will be redirected to it. If we do not have the article, you will be told Full Text Not Available.

You may still be able to get the article, by requesting an Inter-Library Loan (ILLs). Remember to sign in to LibrarySearch to see this option. You can find out more about ILLs on our inter-library loans page.

If you are a student in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, you can register for a free account on the NHS Knowledge Network. This will give you access to some additional electronic journals which may include the one for which you are looking.

If the article you require is not available there, you may be able to request a copy through our inter-library loan service.