Pharmacy: More databases

When you carry out an in-depth literature review, it is necessary to search a much wider range of databases than you might otherwise use. This list covers a range of useful databases provided by the three Universities at Medway as well as various free online databases.

• Business Source (Greenwich/Kent/CCCU) - useful for essays on leadership and management in all fields, including healthcare.


• CINAHL (Greenwich/Kent/CCCU) - a database covering journals in nursing and allied health, with information for almost every possible health, medical and social care profession.


• The Cochrane Library (free) - this includes databases of systematic reviews and clinical trials. Cochrane are viewed as world leaders on evidence-based information.


• Community Care Inform (Greenwich/Kent) - a reference tool for those working with children and families in community settings. This does NOT search for journal articles, but covers legislation, policies, case law etc.


• DORIS - Database of Research Into Stroke (free) - for guidelines, systematic reviews, clinical trials and related evidence concerning treatments for stroke.


• Education databases - each University has one or more of British Education Index, Education Abstracts, Education Research Complete or ERIC. These are useful for any topic covering education, including university and clinical education. Paediatric specialists may find these databases useful as well.


• The EPPI Centre provides access to two databases for health promotion - the Database of Promoting Health Effectiveness Reviews and the Trials Register of Promoting Health Interventions. 


• IBSS, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (Kent) - a social sciences database which covers many relevant topics.


• Medline (Greenwich/CCCU/Kent), also available via Pubmed - one of the biggest biomedical databases in the world, searching the contents of medical journals.


• National Chemical Database Service (free) - from the Royal Society of Chemistry, a range of chemical information including the ChemSpider database of molecules. Works best on campus.


• Pedro (free) - Physiotherapy Evidence Database. Australian database of evidence-based physiotherapy information from around the world.


• PsycArticles (Kent/Greenwich/CCCU) - contains the full text of many journals published by the American Psychological Association.


• PsycInfo (Kent/Greenwich/CCCU) - large database with a focus on peer-reviewed information in mental health and behavioural science. Often the best starting place for mental health and psychology topics.


• Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection (Greenwich) - provides access to articles from over 500 useful psychology journals.


• PubChem (free) - online database on the biological activities of small molecules, covering compounds, patents, targets, bioactivities and bioassays.


• Pubmed - one of the biggest biomedical databases in the world, searching the contents of medical journals. Covers everything found in Medline as well as some additional content.


• REHABDATA (free) - for research on disability and rehabilitation.


• Scopus (Greenwich/Kent/CCCU) covers the sciences and the social sciences and has useful citation tracking features. Probably searches the greatest number of different journals


• Social Policy and Practice (Kent/CCCU) - a database of evidence-based social science research which can be useful for topics including social care, social work, public health, homelessness and community care.


• TRIP database (free) - a tool for discovering clinical evidence, including systematic reviews, guidance, primary research and much more. Based in South Wales.


• Web of Science (Greenwich/Kent/CCCU) covers the sciences and the social sciences and has useful citation tracking features. This databases sets out to track the highest quality journals.

Each university maintains a list of databases which can be accessed by students and staff. The links on these pages are checked and updated regularly.

• University of Greenwich - go to the My Learning page in the Portal and select Online databases and academic journals.
• University of Kent - Use the Digital Resources Directory from the University library webpages.
• Canterbury Christ Church University - log in to LibrarySearch and select Find Databases A-Z on the home page (left-hand column).

You may also find this video on using Pubmed, one of the best-known biomedical databases, useful.