Google Scholar Versus PubMed in Locating Primary Literature to Answer Drug-Related Questions

Abstract

No significant differences were identified in the number of target primary literature articles located between databases. PubMed searches yielded fewer total citations than Google Scholar results; however, PubMed appears to be more specific than Google Scholar for locating relevant primary literature articles.

Google Scholar

“…ever, retrieval is always limited to the journals that PubMed indexes [1]. Google Scholar does not have this limitation.…”

Comparison of the time-to-indexing in PubMed between biomedical journals according to impact factor, discipline, and focus

“…[10][11][12] As a result, searching with MeSH terms either by themselves or in combination with keywords is often taught as the preferred PubMed search strategy in the education of many healthcare professionals. [13][14][15] The time interval between when an article is entered in PubMed and indexed with MeSH terms is estimated to be upwards of 4 months for some pharmacy journals which may present an obstacle for Publication type was determined by the NLM and reported as part of the Medline display format.…”

Clinical calculators in hospital medicine: Availability, classification, and needs

“…Dedicated online resources with clinical calculators and providers of aggregated medical information were used (UpToDate, Merck/Univadis, and Medscape) [12][13][14]. Names of available clinical calculators were extracted.…”