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Ovid

Ovid MEDLINE: An Overview

What is Ovid MEDLINE?

Ovid is a popular method of searching MEDLINE, the largest biomedical information database in the world. MEDLINE is maintained by the National Library of Medicine, and contains citations dating back to 1946. 

How do I access Ovid MEDLINE?

You can access Ovid MEDLINE from the Library’s homepage. You may be asked to login via a proxy account login and password. This can be either your RUSH Network ID, Epic ID, or a specific proxy login and password. The link to Ovid MEDLINE is in the Quick Links column on the Library’s home page.

 

Ovid, PubMed, MEDLINE - What's the difference?

First, a definition of MEDLINE.  MEDLINE is the U.S. National Library of Medicine® (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains more than 23 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.  The NLM provides access to MEDLINE through various interfaces, including both PubMed and Ovid.  Some differences:

  • The NLM's subject headings are called "MeSH" in PubMed (short for MEdical Subject Headings) and simply called "Subject Headings" in Ovid.  
  • MEDLINE does not include every possible publication.  Ovid publishes a large collection of titles, some of which are not included in MEDLINE but can be found with the option to search "All Ovid Journals." 
  • PubMed offers unique tools, including citation matchers and an option that limits a search to clinical research information only.
  • The filters that can be used to refine results (by publication year, language, etc.) are slightly different.

While the two interfaces offer various features, both Ovid and PubMed use the MEDLINE database as their primary source of content.

Maps and Directions

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