4. Which Interface?
Although Medline is
available free from literally hundreds of sites on the Internet, not all of the interfaces
are particularly useful. As previously discussed, the features which are essential are: -
- An effective way of mapping your search to MeSH
- Use of Boolean operators within a search and in running one search against another
- Being able to save and rerun your search strategy at a later date
- Useful limits (date, language, human, publication type, journal groups, only articles
with abstracts)
- Useful outputs (E mail, selection of full or partial details)
- On-line help or a downloadable user manual
On the basis of the
above I would recommend becoming familiar with the BMA Ovid facility, and the National Library of Medicine
PubMed.
The next sections cover
broad aspects of searching Medline, and then focus on the development of an effective
strategy for the Ovid interface (available from the BMA site) and the PubMed interface
(available at the NLM site in the USA). |
