Research Guides: Animal Alternatives Searching: Selecting Databases

Selecting Databases to Search

Use the following sections to select at least two databases to search. You may wish to start with a general biomedical database, like PubMed, and then supplement it with one more focused on a topic relevant for your protocol, like behavior, or one that allows you to search methods more thoroughly by allowing you to search full-text.

Basic Biology & Biomedical Databases

Medline via PubMed
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PubMed comprises over 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of biomedicine and health, covering portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering. PubMed also provides access to additional relevant web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources.
BIOSIS Citation Index
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BIOSIS Citation Index provides access to BIOSIS content using citation-based searching and discovery. This database allows the user to search content from journals, meetings, books, and patents in the life sciences and biomedicine, with backfiles available to 1926.
EMBASE: Excerpta Medica 1974 – present (updated daily)
EMBASE is a biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexing over 3,500 international journals in the following fields: drug research, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, toxicology, clinical and experimental human medicine, health policy and management, public health, occupational health, environmental health, drug dependence and abuse, psychiatry, forensic medicine, and biomedical engineering/instrumentation. There is selective coverage for nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, psychology, and alternative medicine. Dates of coverage: 1974 to present (updated daily)
Web of Science Core Collection
Web of Science Core Collection is a multidisciplinary citation index that includes scholarly articles, conference proceedings, and books in the biomedical, psychosocial, and arts and humanities. The collections contain Science Citation, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index , Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Book Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index and Current Chemical Reactions index.
Scopus
Scopus is a multidisciplinary index of peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.

Alternatives-focused databases

Interspecies Database
Reduction Helps researchers to make an optimal choice of species and strain of the animal model, which is essential for efficient extrapolation of animal data to humans or other animals.
Humane Endpoints
Refinement Provides guidance on humane endpoints, including normal behavior, clinical signs, pain, and distress. Open section contains general information; closed section requires registration and includes detailed guidance.
NORINA: Alternatives to the Use of Animals in Teaching
Reduction/Replacement Aggregator of audiovisual aids that may replace or supplement the use of animals in teaching and demonstration.
Enrichment and Refinement Databases
Enrichment/Refinement Database on refinement of housing, handling and husbandry, and environmental enrichment for animals in research

Topic-focused Databases

PsycNET (with PsycINFO)
Behavior/Animal Welfare PsycINFO via Ovid indexes core academic and professional literature in the psychological and behavioral sciences and their related disciplines. Coverage is from 1806 to the present. **Note that the database PsycINFO is also searchable on APA PsycNET platform.

To search only a specific database (e.g., PsycINFO) within the PsycNET interface, use the "Select Databases" features at the top of the PsycNET landing page and check (or uncheck) the database(s) that apply. To access PsycTHERAPY, click on its hyperlinked title.

PubAg
Agriculture Portal to USDA-authored and other highly relevant agricultural research. Many citations are full-text searchable.
AGRIS
Agriculture Developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the AGRIS database covers many aspects of agriculture and includes extension literature from over 100 participating countries.

Full-text Search

Most databases search only the title, abstract, and some descriptors added by the database or authors. In many cases, especially when looking for detailed methods, a search of the full-text of an article is best. The following resources may not be comprehensive in scope, but do allow full-text searching and may be a good complement to a search of PubMed or Biological Abstracts.

Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a central search for scholarly literature. It covers disciplines and sources, peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

PubMed Central (PMC)
Repository of full-text articles funded by many federal agencies including NIH.

ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is a portal for scholarship published in the sciences, engineering, and technology disciplines.
BioMed Central Journals
BioMed Central is an independent publishing house committed to providing immediate open access to peer-reviewed biomedical research.

Public Library of Science (PLoS)
PLoS publishes a suite of open access science and medicine journals, including PLoS Biology and PLoS Genetics.

More Resources

For a more comprehensive list of Biology databases and resources, see the full list of NYU biology databases..