OK, here is one librarian response.
For MEDLINE, you can search for indexed journals using the Journal Browser
feature in PubMed - choice on left at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
MEDLINE indexes approximately 3900 of the estimated 13,000+ biomedical
journals published. About 88% of the indexed material is written in
English, so third worlds coverage may not be that great.
For a titel list, you can go to the NLM website and download the List of
Serials Indexed for Online Users at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lsiou.html This list includes
HealthSTAR (health planning and administration database) and AIDSLINE
titles. The introductory section includes the coding for datbase. There is
also a list of titles for Index Medicus, but that won't give you the dental
and nursing titles in MEDLINE, so go for the big list.
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health) now indexes 1216
journal titles, plus many other types of information resources. Journals
indexed are listed on the home page at http://www.cinahl.com - you follw
links form "All About" or the Resource Center. The CINAHL database is
international in scope, but most indexed titles are in English. It includes
many more nursing, allied health, and alternative health titles than
MEDLINE.
EMBASE is another commercial database. I found a description in the Dialog
Bluesheets at http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0072.html "In
recent years, EMBASE provides access to periodical articles from more than
3,300 primary journals from approximately 70 countries. An additional 450
journals are screened for drug articles." It is published by Excerta
Medica, which should be able to provide a list of indexed titles. Via
Internet searching, I found description of the EMBASE List of Journals
Indexed 1998 for sale at
http://www.elsevier.com/inca/publications/store/6/0/1/2/3/6/index.htt - not
online. From some of my saved messages comparing MEDLINE and EMBASE, I
would guess that EMBASE indexes more non U.S. publications, including many
from the third world. Caution: this is a very expensive database to
search.
Sometime ago, I read of a database focused on third world publications.
Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the reference. You could try an e-mail
to the NLM Reference Service Department, [log in to unmask]
If you are searhing a database and what to determine whether or not a
journal title is indexed, you can usually search the "Full Journal Name"
field, or search by Journal - an Ovid option. There are websites that link
to journal information. One, the INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS IN THE HEALTH
SCIENCES, http://www.mco.edu/lib/instr/libinsta.html links to publisher
pages for more than 2,000 titles. The publisher may include information on
where their journal is indexed.
Hope this helps - Peg
Margaret (Peg) Allen, MLS-AHIP mailto:[log in to unmask]
Library/Information Consultant
Resource Librarian Consultant for Cinahl Information Systems, Inc.
http://www.cinahl.com/
Project Director, Northwoods HealthNet, Northern Wisconsin AHEC, Inc.
http://home.dwave.net/~nahec/nwhn/
PO Box 2, 308 Kann, Stratford, WI 54484-0002
(715)687-4976 or (715)687-2287 Fax:(715)687-4976
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