LibGuides: NS 1150 Online Module 3: Develop an Effective Search Strategy: Selecting a Database

Selecting a Database

Ever wonder why a Google Scholar search will give you hundreds of thousands of results? Google Scholar searches the full text of every resource, which is why you sometimes get scores of irrelevant results. A bibliographic database (like PubMed or Web of Science for example) searches just citation information, giving you a much smaller, more focused set of results.

What is a database?

Databases are curated compilations of subject specific literature. By applying your search strategy to well-selected database, you’re searching focused, discipline specific content .This is the best way to locate quality evidence to answer your question

Find health and nutrition specific bibliographic databases on the Cornell Library Website under the Databases link beneath the main search box.

Performing your search in PubMed

To get to PubMed:

Go to the library website at http://www.library.cornell.edu
Click on "Databases" below the search box and search for PubMed
Using the search strategy you developed in the previous step, search PubMed. All your results will be article descriptions, some with summaries called abstracts, many with links to full-text articles.

TIP: Although you can do a web search for PubMed in Google and enter the database that way, you should enter PubMed through the library website or the link above so that the database will know you are a Cornell student and you can get access to all the available full text articles. If you are off-campus and using the library website to access PubMed, you will be asked to enter your netID and password. For more about access to full-text articles, go to this guide.

Top Databases

These are some of the most heavily used databases in the Cornell Libraries for finding articles on nutrition and food science

PubMed
Leading resource for biomedical and life sciences literature run by the National Library of Medicine. Search millions of citations from peer-reviewed journals. Extremely current and comprehensive.
Web of Science
Powerful multidisciplinary platform including multiple bibliographic databases. Allows you to determine works that have cited a particular article or author.
Food Science and Technology Abstracts
Food science, food technology, and food-related human nutrition literature database covering 1969 to date and including journals, patents, books, conference proceedings, reports, theses, standards and legislation.
CAB Abstracts
Covers literature in the fields of nutrition, agriculture, forestry, aspects of human health, animal health and the management and conservation of natural resources.

Narrowing Your Search Using PubMed Filters

Check Your Understanding-Effective Searching

Return to your course site and complete Library Activity 4 to check your understanding!