Full database
Licensed
Broad spectrum healthcare
Broad spectrum related/other fields
Pharmacy/​pharmacology/​toxicology
Conference abstracts
Journal articles
Broad spectrum of research designs
Europe
International
English
In principle, 103 languages are possible using automatic Google translation.
English
Daily
- Embase includes all MEDLINE entries and enables literature searches in MEDLINE.
Basic functions
Search functions
In addition to simple searches ("Quick" tab) and advanced searches ("Advanced" tab), other search modes are available in which you can search more specifically for PICO mnemonics, drugs, diseases, devices, articles and authors.
AND, OR and NOT. For search terms that consist of more than one word and where no operator is written in between, Embase automatically sets the AND operator via Elsevier.
? (replaces a single letter, cannot be used with search commands or search fields), * (replaces zero, one or more letters, cannot be used with less than two letters, e.g. a* does not work), $ (replaces one or no character, e.g. dementia$ finds matches containing dementia or dementia?). finds dementia$ matches containing dementia or dementia?) the wildcards can be used at the beginning, end or in the middle of words (exception: the * truncation cannot be placed at the beginning).
NEAR/n (search for hits with two words within n words in any order, e.g. diabetes NEAR/5 therapy, NEXT/n search for hits with two words within n words in the order in which both words were entered in the search string, e.g. diabetes NEXT/3 therapy. The two search terms between which there is a proximity operator must be placed in brackets within a search string, e.g. age AND (diabetes NEAR/5 therapy). Otherwise an error message will appear.
The German-language spelling of quotation marks at the beginning of words may not work if the prescribed search string is copied in. Although the quotation marks are copied into the English-language spelling, an error message appears when the search is started. In some tests, an error message also appeared with quotation marks beginning at the top of the word, which could be due to the "coding" of the quotation marks in German-language versions of word processing programs such as Word. In order to obtain reliable functionality, it is recommended to use apostrophes instead of quotation marks, e.g. 'pneumonia', as these are reliably recognized by Embase via Elsevier.
Filter functions
Note: It is also possible to search MEDLINE via Embase. However, this option should not be used, as the two specialist databases work differently. Compared to direct searches in MEDLINE (via PubMed or Ovid), different numbers of hits are returned for the same search strings in MEDLINE via Embase (via Elsevier). Therefore, hits found exclusively in MEDLINE should be excluded from the display of search results (especially if MEDLINE is searched separately anyway). It is recommended to display all hits that were found exclusively in Embase and all hits that were found in both Embase and MEDLINE (since in the latter case, despite apparent overlaps, the hits that occur in both databases were manually tagged with index terms in Embase and possibly differently than in MEDLINE and therefore different hits are returned even in a separate search).
To display all hits from Embase via Elsevier (i.e. both those from Embase alone and those found in both Embase and MEDLINE) during a literature search, click on the "Sources" tab to the left of the hit list after performing the search process. This opens a display with two overlapping circles and the corresponding legends. The left-hand circle, which symbolizes the hits from Embase, should be selected with a click so that it takes on an orange color (note: also click in the middle area where both circles overlap, these are the hits from both databases, which should also be displayed as mentioned). If you then click on "Apply >", all hits that were found in Embase alone and in both Embase and MEDLINE will be displayed.
Alternatively, the search command AND [embase]/lim can also be used to limit the hits to all those from Embase. It is important to apply this command to the entire search string, i.e. an extra bracket must be placed around the previous search string and the command inserted after it.
Example: ((cancer OR tumor) AND (children OR adolescents)) AND [embase]/lim.
Disease.
According to "EBM" (=Evidence Based Medicine), e.g. Cochrane Review, Systematic Review, Randomized Controlled Trial.
By "Pub. types", e.g. Article, Conference Paper, Review.
Display of search results
Choice between sorting by publication year (can be set to the exact year) or by date of indexing in Embase via Elsevier (can be set to the exact day).
Display of 25, 50, 100 and 200 hits per page possible.
Search process and export
Individual components of the literature search can be deleted and/or combined using the search history above the hit list. The individual components are assigned numbers in ascending order.
Via e-mail and/or RSS feed.
Maximum of 10000 hits at once.
Support functions
E.g. Saving the search and/or creating automatic notifications of newly indexed hits.
E.g. for incorrectly set brackets, wildcards or Boolean operators without an associated search term.
Special functions
Important search commands
Search term is only searched for in the title.
The search term is only searched for in the title and abstract.
Search term is only searched in the abstract.
Search term is only searched in the Authors keywords.
Basically, the characters / and : exist for entering search commands. The / character is used to specify to search for hits with the search term as an exact word. The : character is used to specify whether to search for matches with the search term as an exact word or as part of a word (the search term as part of a word group is also searched for, but this distinction is only relevant for certain search commands).
For example, the command education:ti searches for all hits in which the word education appears as an exact word or part of a word (e.g. educational) in the title. For a search for variations of the search term, however, wildcards must still be set, such as educat*:ti, in order to also find hits in which educating occurs as an exact word or part of a word in the title. Please note that only one character can be used for most commands (e.g. only : can be used for searches in titles, abstracts and keywords).
A list of the available search commands with an indication of which character can be used (: column "Example (phrase)", / column "Example (exact or as limit)") can be found here: Link.
Controlled vocabulary
Embase via Elsevier uses an integrated controlled vocabulary called Emtree, which enables a controlled search. This is structured like a tree with top-level and subordinate index terms (descriptors or subject headings). Each index term also has a number of synonyms that can be searched for if desired. In addition to the index terms in Emtree, there are also so-called candidate terms. These are index terms that do not fit into existing Emtree concepts but are still considered relevant for indexing. The candidate terms are not part of the tree-like structure of Emtree, but are to be regarded as index terms in their own right. There are no scope notes explaining their meaning. As soon as a Candidate Term has been assigned to a publication, it is also assigned a more general superordinate index term. Example: If a publication is indexed that deals with a new drug, the proper name of the drug is tagged with a Candidate Term and is therefore not part of Emtree. At the same time, however, the drug class is assigned to the publication as a superordinate index term, which in turn is part of Emtree.
Click on "Emtree" in the white bar at the top right of the main page.
Enter the desired term in the search interface, then click on "Find Term" on the right below the screen.
A list with suggestions for index terms appears. Clicking on one of the suggestions opens a tree-like list with superordinate or subordinate index terms, as well as information on the date of the entry and any existing synonyms.
The index terms identified in this way can be entered into the search string together with the following search commands. The index terms can be entered in quotation marks (e.g.
'dementia'/); if the quotation marks are omitted, Embase via ElSevier automatically adds them during the search process.
Search for hits that contain the index term as an exact word, without including subordinate keywords or synonyms.
Search for hits that contain the index term as an exact word, part of the word or part of the phrase, without including subordinate index terms or synonyms.
Search for hits that contain the index term and subordinate keywords as exact words.
Searches for the keyword and its synonyms contained in Emtree in all search fields (All Fields) and for keywords subordinate to the keyword, i.e. search for hits that contain the index term and its synonyms in one of their search fields as well as subordinate keywords (however, the subordinate keywords are not searched for in all search fields).
Search for hits to which the index term has been assigned as the main topic or one of the main topics. Can also be combined with /exp, for example diabetes/exp/mj for the search for hits to which the index term diabetes or a subordinate index term has been assigned as the main topic. A combination with /de is also possible, but does not seem to bring any additional benefit, as /de is always automatically removed in the search process in this case.
Another option for further narrowing down the literature search is to use subheadings, i.e. a type of subcategory. There are subheadings for the subject areas of drugs ("Drug index term"), diseases ("Disease index term") and devices ("Device index term"). To enter the search string, the abbreviation of the subject area, an underscore and the abbreviation of the subheading must be entered after the index term:
- subject area: Drug index term,
dd; example for subheading: drug combination,cb; example entry in search string:'acetylsalicylic acid'/dd_cb - subject area: disease index term,
dm, ; example of subheading: diagnosis,di; example entry in search string:'neoplasm'/dm_di - Subject area: Device index term,
dv; example of subheading: device comparison,dc; example entry in search string:'blood pump'/dv_dc
The subheadings can also be combined with /exp or /mj, for example 'neoplasm'/exp/dm_di or 'neoplasm'/mj/dm_di. A combination with ~/de is also possible, but does not seem to bring any additional benefit, as ~/de is always automatically removed in the search process in this case.
It is also possible to search directly for subheadings without associated index terms. To do this, the respective subheading must be written out in quotation marks and provided with the command :lnk (e.g. 'drug administration':lnk).
A list of available subheadings can be found here. For a better overview, we recommend selecting one of the three subject areas under the "Filter by subject area" tab: Link.
Although Emtree also contains the MeSH terms from MEDLINE, it is even more comprehensive. MeSH terms used in a MEDLINE literature search should therefore always be checked in the manner described above before they are used in Embase via Elsevier to ensure that no more suitable index term has been stored for the term. There may also be additional, topic-specific index terms that do not appear in the MeSH Terms.
Export of results
Export of single hits
- Mark the hits to be selected in the box to the left with a tick, then click on "Export" above the hit list.
- In the window that opens, set the appropriate format under "Choose a format:" depending on the reference management software used and then click on "Export >".
- A new page opens on which the export is prepared. Once the export is ready, click on "Download >".
- All further steps depend on the web browser and reference management software used.
Export of all hits at once
Embase via Elsevier allows the export of a maximum of 10,000 hits at once.
- Various numbers of hits can be selected under "Select number of items" (e.g. 100 for the first 100 hits in the list, 500 for the first 500 hits, etc.). The total number of hits for the literature search is also displayed there. This must be selected, then click on "Export" above the hit list.
- In the window that opens, set the appropriate format under "Choose a format:" depending on the reference management software used and then click on "Export >".
- A new page opens on which the export is prepared. Once the export is ready, click on "Download >".
- All further steps depend on the web browser and reference management software used. In this way, all search results with less than 10,000 hits can be exported at once. Depending on the license agreement between Embase and the respective institution, there may be differences in how many hits can be exported at once. The following advanced procedure for exporting more than 1000 hits is based on a license with which a maximum of 60,000 hits can be exported in steps of 10,000.
- Select hits 1-10000 under "Select number of items" and export using the procedure described above. The first 10000 hits in the hit list have now been exported.
- After the successful export, click on "Select number of items" 10001 - 20000 to export the next 10000 hits. The number of hits is always shown in the window before the export (e.g. 1-10000, 10001-2000) so that you can check once again that the correct hits have been selected.
- Repeat these steps until all hits have been exported (with the license available to the creator, up to 60,000 hits are possible).
Export of all hits (alternative)
The following alternative solution is intended for cases in which searches have more hits than the maximum number of 10000 hits that can be exported under the license (i.e. in relation to the above-mentioned license, searches with more than 60000 hits; for other licenses, for example, it can be searches with more than 10000 or 20000 hits).
- Narrow down using the "Publication year" filter to the left of the hit list: Check the box for as many years until the number of hits is as close as possible to the maximum number of hits that can be exported in increments of 10,000. Then click on "Apply". First export these hits as described above.
- Click on the back button in the respective browser to switch to the previous page, where the total number of hits is displayed again (otherwise the other years cannot be selected). Alternatively, you can remove the
ANDoperator at the top of the search field and then perform the search process again via "Search". - Remove the ticks from the years selected in step 1 and set the ticks for other years (from which the hits have not yet been exported). Select as many years again so that the number of hits is as close as possible to the maximum number of hits that can be exported in increments of 10000. Then click on "Apply" to apply the filter. Export these hits in the same way as described above.
- Repeat the procedure until the hits for all remaining years have been exported. Example: A license for Embase allows a maximum of 20,000 hits to be exported in steps of 10,000, but the number of hits from a literature search for the search term
asphyxiais 21,798 hits (date of search: 26 June 2018). Procedure: - under "Publication Year" select the years 2018-2007, this will display 9511 hits, export these hits - under "Publication Year" select the years 2006-1980 (assuming that older hits may still be relevant), this will display 8346 hits, export these hits, so that a total of 17857 hits have already been exported - under "Publication Year" select the remaining hits to export the remaining 3941 hits