1. Medline
Medline is the National
Library of Medicine (NLM) biomedical database, composed of the Index Medicus,
International Nursing Index and International Dental Literature from 1966 onwards. It
indexes approximately 4000 international biomedical journals, including journal articles,
reviews, editorials, and letters. It does not index books, theses, conference papers or
abstracts.
Human beings index the
articles, classifying them using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus. There are
currently more than 31,000 MeSH terms, forming a hierarchical classification of medical
concepts. The indexers will often mark an article with an asterisk * to indicate 'focus'
or special relevance to a particular MeSH category. Article abstracts are available for
approximately two thirds of entries, and are reprints of the abstract of the original
paper (rather than an independent abstract). MeSH terms are further refined by the use of
Sub Headings, which are broad concepts which cut across the MeSH hierarchy. Examples of
Sub Headings are Genetics, Epidemiology, and Drug Therapy.
You may be familiar
with the paper version of Medline (Index Medicus) or you may have used a CD-ROM in a
medical library (which will usually be one or two months out of date). However, you may
not be aware that Medline is available on the internet, and depending on the site, it can
be free of charge. |
