Literature searching for Medical and Dental Sciences

Please also note that the content of Medline (Ovid) is equivalent to that accessed through the PubMed interface.  If a search is carried out using Ovid Medline, then this does not need to be repeated on PubMed, unless instructed to do so by your tutor for example.  In addition, accessing the full-text of articles is easier through Ovid Medline as you are already signed in as a University user and links are provided via FindIt@Bham. 

For more about Ovid Medline and PubMed, see 'Ovid's Medline compared to PubMed' from LWW Wolters Kluwer.

Watch the above Panopto video from Academic Skills Centre on searching Medline (includes sub-titles).

Locate the entry for Ovid Medline on FindIt@Bham (or use the link at the top of this page) and follow this to open up a menu screen of Ovid databases.  Choose the option "Ovid Medline - 1946 to [recent date]" : all the articles there are indexed.  The non-indexed or in-process Medline options, as well as the other Ovid databases, should be ignored.

SAMPLE SEARCH TOPIC

• "Haemophilia A and blood transfusions"

FIRST TERM

NB: you should be in the default Advanced Search screen in Ovid Medline.  Advanced search will be in bold above the search bar in the centre screen.  This has the box "Map term to subject headings" automatically ticked: this will direct you to useful subject headings or MeSH for your topic.

• Enter Haemophilia A in the search bar and click "Search"
• Find Hemophilia A in the list of terms - subject headings - on the following page
• Tick the box to the left of Hemophilia A and click Continue at the top of the screen
• Select "Include all subheadings" on the next screen
• This should take you to the home page again, with "Hemophilia A" at the top, and results lower down

SECOND TERM

• Now enter "Blood transfusion" in the search bar
• Find the matching subject heading and tick the box to the left
  • NB: view the Scope note - 'i' icon - at the right end of the screen: this has a definition and other key information
• You can also tick "Explode" further to the right of the "Blood transfusion" line: this will include more specific, narrower MeSH 
• "Continue", and then tick to "Include all subheadings"
• On the main search page, you should now have "Hemophilia A" followed by "Blood transfusion", on separate numbered lines

COMBINING TERMS

• Tick the box to the left of each term towards the top of the screen
• Note the grey boxes "And", "Or", underneath the headings, which have now become active
• Click on AND.  This will narrow the search to items about both hemophilia A AND blood transfusions (not just hemophilia A on its own, or blood transfusions on its own)
• See "A note about AND / OR" at the end of this page for details about these connecting words

FREETEXT KEYWORD SEARCHING

• Suitable MeSH terms are not always available
• A search across multiple fields such as Title, Abstract can be carried out by unticking "Map term to subject heading" on the initial Advanced Search page under the search bar
• Then simply enter the word[s] you wish to search
  • Techniques such as the Truncation Symbol * (asterisk) can be used for these searches
  • For example: transfus* will search across multiple fields for words starting with those letters - transfusion, transfuses, transfused etc
  • See the Library's Guide to Effective Search Techniques for more information
• This will produce a further line of search which can be combined with other lines, as above, using Boolean AND, OR

LIMITS

• In the middle of the screen, there are limits, for example English Language, Human, Review Articles, Publication Dates (you select the from - to range)
• These are good to use after you have selected and combined your main search terms
• Try: English Language, Review Articles and click Search to apply these limits
• The "Additional Limits" have detailed options such as age groups, publication types (Clinical Trials, Systematic Reviews etc)

VIEWING THE RESULTS

• Now look at the results lower down the screen
• You can use the Abstract arrow to look at a summary, or select Complete reference to the right of the article for more details
• ​To view the Full Text, click on the FindIt@Bham icon link to the right of the article, or Full Text if this is available

Ovid (LWW Wolters Kluwer) have also produced some official video guides to aspects of Medline.  The following are especially worth viewing.  To see full transcripts, select the notes option - from the folder icon - which displays the notes underneath the slides, as subtitles are not available.  

Advanced search                                                                   Special techniques in Medline     

These are available also, with other guides, on the Ovid Medline 'Tools' page from Wolters Kluwer, which includes the PICO Resource Center.