Medical literature databases

HDB-0012

PubMed / MEDLINE

US National Library of Medicine The primary index of biomedical literature: 37M+ citations with abstracts, MeSH indexing and links to full text. Free to search, with E-utilities APIs and annual baseline downloads for text mining. Literature database Open access HDB-0032

Embase

Elsevier Biomedical abstract and indexing database containing 44+ million records from 8,100+ journals, conference abstracts, and clinical trials dating from 1947 to present. Designed for systematic reviews, drug safety monitoring, and evidence-based research; accessed through paid institutional subscriptions or individual access options. Literature database Paid HDB-0033

Cochrane Library

Cochrane Curated collection of systematic reviews and meta-analyses synthesizing healthcare research, with all reviews available free after 12 months of publication. Supports evidence-based decision making through institutional subscriptions or free national provision access in 14+ countries. Literature database Free registration HDB-0034

CINAHL

EBSCO Nursing and allied health literature index containing 1.25+ million records from 3,700+ journals, books, pamphlets, and dissertations. Provides CINAHL Subject Headings indexing with multiple product tiers offering varying levels of full-text access; accessed through institutional subscriptions or trials. Literature database Paid HDB-0035

Scopus

Elsevier Multidisciplinary abstract and citation database indexing 100+ million records from journals, books, conference proceedings, and preprints across all research disciplines. Features AI-powered analytics and discovery tools; accessed through institutional subscriptions with free preview mode available to individuals. Literature database Paid HDB-0036

Web of Science

Clarivate Citation-indexed research discovery platform covering 34,000+ journals with 278+ million records and 3.3+ billion citation links across 254 subject categories from 1864-present. Includes specialty databases for patents, dissertations, and preprints; accessed through institutional subscriptions only. Literature database Paid HDB-0037

APA PsycInfo

American Psychological Association Behavioral and social sciences database indexing 6+ million peer-reviewed records from 2,400+ journals, books, and dissertations in 30 languages from 50 countries. Updated twice weekly with coverage spanning 600 years; accessed through institutional licenses or individual subscriptions with free 30-day trials available. Literature database Paid HDB-0038

Europe PMC

EMBL-EBI Open biomedical literature repository developed by EMBL-EBI containing 48+ million articles, preprints, books, and theses from global sources. Freely accessible to anyone worldwide with REST APIs and bulk download capabilities; supported by 35 international research funders as an ELIXIR core data resource. Literature database Open access HDB-0039

Trip Database

Trip (independent organization) Evidence-filtered medical search engine providing rapid access to clinical guidelines, systematic reviews, and primary research organized by research quality level. Offers free basic search and paid Trip Pro tier ($55/year individual or institutional licensing) with enhanced filtering and features. Literature database Free registration HDB-0210

African Index Medicus (AIM)

World Health Organization Africa Regional Office An international database indexing African health literature, including peer-reviewed journal articles, theses, and technical reports from 320+ African health journals, with over 20,000 bibliographic references and 14,383 full-text documents. The database provides access to locally-published biomedical information in English, French, and Portuguese, complementing other WHO systems and giving visibility to African health research. Literature database Open access HDB-0562

Noodle

Helena Bioinformatics Noodle is a biomedical literature discovery service over a corpus assembled from PubMed, Europe PMC and OpenAlex, in which publications are linked to gene, variant and phenotype mentions drawn from the Human Phenotype Ontology, Ensembl, ClinVar and gnomAD. Search is open without registration and accepts free text as well as PMID, DOI, PMCID, gene, variant and phenotype identifiers, with results grouped into articles, genes, variants and phenotypes. Literature database Open access HDB-0593

PubTator3

NCBI / US National Library of Medicine PubTator3 is an annotated version of the biomedical literature produced by NCBI's computational biology group, in which PubMed abstracts and PMC full-text articles are tagged with gene, disease, chemical, variant and species mentions and with the relations between them. It can be searched by entity or relation on the web without registration, and the annotations are also available through an API and bulk FTP download. Literature database Open access