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Performance of online biomedical databases in rheumatology
C Ramos-Remus1, M Suarez-Almazor, M Dorgan
1Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
The Journal of Rheumatology
|October 1, 1994
Summary
Comparing MEDLINE, EMBASE, and BIOSIS for rheumatology literature revealed no single superior database. Most citations were unique, with many irrelevant results, suggesting a need for multiple databases for comprehensive searches.
Area of Science:
- Rheumatology
- Medical Informatics
- Bibliometrics
Background:
- Online biomedical databases (OBDs) are crucial for literature reviews in rheumatology.
- MEDLINE, EMBASE, and BIOSIS are commonly used for retrieving rheumatological research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate and compare the performance of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and BIOSIS for selected rheumatology topics.
- To assess database overlap, relevance, and efficiency in retrieving rheumatological literature.
Main Methods:
- Conducted online literature searches for epidemiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
- Performed searches for clinical, clinical/laboratory, and therapeutic rheumatology questions.
- Recorded citation counts, publication types/languages, journal contributions, database overlap, and relevance of retrieved articles.
Main Results:
- Each database retrieved over 1,100 (RA), 600 (SLE), and 110 (AS) citations in 1991.
- Fewer than 25% of epidemiological citations and about 75% of specific question citations were found in only one database.
- Over 60% of assessed papers had low relevance, indicating low specificity; each database retrieved at least 50% of relevant citations.
- Approximately 45% of retrieved articles were from non-rheumatology journals.
Conclusions:
- No single database demonstrated superiority across all evaluated rheumatology topics.
- The majority of retrieved citations were unique to a single database, and a significant portion lacked relevance.
- For comprehensive online literature searches in rheumatology, utilizing two or more databases is recommended.