| PubMed | Embase | Web of Science | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Free (funded by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) under the National Institute of Health (NIH).) | Paid for by the Pumerantz Library. Licensed by Elsevier. | Paid for by the Pumerantz Library. Licensed by Clarivate. |
| Description | PubMed includes citations to original research articles, literature reviews, case reports, letters, editorials, commentaries, and other selected publications on scientific and medical topics (see: publication types found in PubMed). Some categories of content are out of scope for PubMed, such as: book reviews, individual conference abstracts, obituaries and in memoriam articles, news and announcements, and brief summaries of research articles. The database contains more than 37 million citations and abstracts. The PubMed database facilitates searching across several NLM literature resources including MEDLINE, PubMed Central (PMC), and NCBI Bookshelf. | Embase is a comprehensive biomedical and pharmacological database that provides access to a wide range of research articles, including drug development, clinical studies, medical devices, and healthcare policy. It offers detailed indexing and citation information, making it a valuable resource for evidence-based medicine, systematic reviews, and pharmaceutical research. With extensive coverage of European and international journals, Embase is particularly strong in its collection of conference abstracts and early-stage research findings. It is a key tool for researchers, clinicians, and healthcare professionals seeking up-to-date, peer-reviewed scientific literature. | Web of Science is a global, multidisciplinary research discovery platform that hosts a number of databases. Each database has unique content and indexing. These databases can be searched individually or in concert to enhance their relative strengths. Databases the Pumerantz Library subscribes to are Science Citation Index, BIOSIS, Data Citation Index, Derwent Innovations Index, Grants Index, KCI-Korean Journal Database, MEDLINE, Preprint Citation Index, ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Citation Index, SciELO Citation Index, and Zoological Record. |
| Journal selection |
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) decides whether the scientific and editorial character and quality of a journal merit its inclusion in MEDLINE. In making this decision, NLM considers scientific policy set by the NLM Board of Regents, the suitability of the journal for the NLM Collection (according to the criteria in the Collection Development Guidelines), as well as the recommendations of an NIH Federal Advisory Committee, the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC). The LSTRC consists of fifteen members, including scientists (i.e., Ph.D.- or M.D.-level researchers and physicians) and medical librarians. The LSTRC generally reviews articles from the last two years of journal content and evaluates them primarily based on scientific and editorial quality. |
Elsevier's Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) is an international group of scientists, researchers and librarians who represent the major scientific disciplines. The board members are responsible for reviewing all titles that are suggested for inclusion. | Web of Science's editorial decisions are conducted by expert in-house editors who have no affiliations to publishing houses or research institutes thus removing any potential bias or conflict of interest. The basic principles of our selection process remain the same: objectivity, selectivity and collection dynamics. They use a single set of 28 criteria to evaluate journals; these are divided into 24 quality criteria designed to select for editorial rigor and best practice at the journal level, and four impact criteria designed to select the most impactful journals in their respective fields using citation activity as the primary indicator of impact. |
| Coverage | MEDLINE contains citations to journal articles in the life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. The MEDLINE database contains citations from the late 1940s to the present, with some older material. | Embase journal coverage is from 1947 to present. They index 3,365 journals that are unique to Embase and 8,451 currently published journals, including MEDLINE titles. |
Science Citation Index: 1945-present BIOSIS: 1926-present Data Citation Index: 1900-present Derwent Innovations Index: 1966-present Grants Index: 1953-present Korean Journal Database: 1980-presemt MEDLINE: 1950-present Preprint Citation Index: 1991-present ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Citation Index: 1637-present SciELO Citation Index: 2002-present Zoological Record: 1864-present
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| Full Text | PubMed does not include full text journal articles; however, links to the full text are available through the Pumerantz Library full-text locator. | Embase does not include full text journal articles; however, links to the full text are available through the Pumerantz Library full-text locator. | Web of Science does not include full text journal articles; however, links to the full text are available through the Pumerantz Library full-text locator. |
| Searching | For many searches, it is not necessary to use special tags or syntax. PubMed uses multiple tools to help you find relevant results. However, advanced searching is included if you want to search for terms in a specific field. Automatic Term Mapping (ATM) will ensure that untagged terms entered into the search will be matched against a subject translation table (including MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)), a journals translation table, an author index and a collaborator index. You can check search details on the advanced search page to see how your terms were translated. PubMed Clinical Queries provides specialized searches for COVID-19 articles, clinical study categories, and medical genetics. | Embase's autocomplete function will suggest indexed words or phrases directly from Embase life sciences thesaurus, Emtree. A broad search is the default search strategy. It will search the preferred Emtree term and search the related narrower terms. It will also search the entered term as free text in all fields. Embase has an advanced search feature available as well as a medical device search, PICO search, and a drug and disease search. | By searching each database hosted in Web of Science individually, you can make highly specialized queries based on their unique curation and indexing. When you run a topic search at the All Databases level, your terms are matched to those in the titles, abstracts, and keywords fields as well as controlled vocabularies and specialized indexing fields in each database. The Web of Science Science Citation Index (SCI) uses citation indexing. Through the citation network, you can follow an idea forward and backward in time, and navigate to related records which have cited the same works. |
| Strengths |
Free access: PubMed is freely accessible to everyone, making it widely available for researches, students, and clinicians. Large Database: PubMed covers a vast range of biomedical literature. |
Comprehensive Drug Information: Embase is particularly strong in pharmaceutical and drug-related literature, including drug development, adverse effects, and clinical trials, making it an excellent resource for researchers in pharmacology and drug policy. International Coverage: Embase includes a broader range of non-English literature, offering more international and regional journal coverage compared to PubMed. |
Citation Analysis: One of the standout features of Web of Science is its citation tracking capabilities including citation analysis tools for evaluating research impact and identifying key papers and authors. |
| Weaknesses | Limited Non-English content which may exclude valuable international research. | Search complexity: The advanced search tools in Embase can be overwhelming for new users and may require training or experience to use effectively. |
Web of Science is heavily focused on research from the US and Europe which can exclude valuable research from other regions. Overemphasis on citation metrics: While citation analysis is one to the strengths of the database, the focus on citations can sometimes downplay emerging research or novel ideas that have not yet accumulated many citations. |
| Summary | PubMed is ideal for general biomedical research and offers free access, but is limited in drug-specific information and non-English content. | Embase is stronger in drug research, international content, and conference abstracts, but requires a paid subscription and can be more complex to use effectively. | Web of Science is a powerful database with excellent citation tracking and impact analysis features, but it is subscription-based and may not offer as detailed life sciences content as PubMed. |