LibGuides: Systematic Reviews in the Sciences: Databases

Database & e-journal collections at ANU

The information contained in each database and e-journal collection will vary, but all provide basic bibliographic information including author, title, journal title, date and pages. Most will also provide an abstract (summary) and contain full text articles.

Library databases are cumulative indexes of journal articles and other materials (reports, images, maps, historical ephemera, statistical data and more) covering a particular subject area, academic discipline, or group of related disciplines. Examples include Scopus, Web of Science and ProQuest.

Access ANU databases and e-journal collections

Go to the e-resources and databases A-Z listing on the Library website.
Enter the name of a database or e-resource collection in the Search by title search box or select a Subject from the subject drop down list. Select Search.
If you are off campus or on a personal device, you may be prompted to login using your UniID and password.

Databases

There are many databases that can be searched for your review. Some are multidisciplinary, like Scopus or Web of Science, which means they cover a broad range of research areas. Other databases are subject-specific, like PubMed, which is focused on health and biomedical literature, or IEEE Xplore Digital Library, which is focused on engineering, computer science, and electronics. Some key databases in the sciences are listed here. There may be other subject-specific databases to consider, depending on your research topic.

APA PsycINFO (via OVID)
APA PsycInfo via Ovid Is an electronic bibliographic database providing abstracts and citations to the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. The database includes material of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work. Updated weekly.
Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain different types of resources to inform healthcare decision-making. Databases include:
>Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - the resource for systematic reviews in health care
>Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials - bibliographic details and abstracts of reports of randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials
>Cochrane Clinical Answers - containing clinical questions, short answers, and data for the outcomes from the Cochrane Review
>Special Collections - curated content collections on a specific healthcare topic
IEEE Xplore Digital Library
IEEE Xplore is a resource for discovery and access to scientific and technical content published by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners. It provides access to journals, conference proceedings, technical standards and other documents in electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics.
Medline (via OVID)
Published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and updated daily, MEDLINE on the Ovid platform offers access to the latest bibliographic citations and author abstracts from biomedicine and life sciences journals in nearly 40 languages (60 languages for older journals). English abstracts are included in more than 80% of the records. Coverage dates back to 1946. Licence covers 5 simultaneous users.
ProQuest
A multidisciplinary database which provides access to 37 ProQuest databases, with a variety of content across more than 160 subjects including business, science and technology, health and medical, social science, arts and humanities, and international news. Contents include abstract, index, and full text articles.
PubMed
PubMed comprises more than 37 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
Customised to access ANU subscribed full-text from the abstract level in the database via the Find it at ANU button.
Scopus
Scopus is a curated abstract and citation database of scholarly literature across 240 disciplines, covering documents dating back to 1788, cited references from 1970 onward, author profiles, books, publishers and institutional profiles.
Web of Science
This database has bibliographic records with abstracts for about 70% of the science citations and 60% of the social sciences citations. Contains Science Citation Index Expanded 1900-; Social Sciences Citation Index 1956-; and Arts & Humanities Citation Index from 1975. It allows the identification of key articles in a discipline and to search by cited reference that is to trace references that refer to a particular work or author.