Embase is a medical research database with strong coverage on most medical topics, as well as drugs and pharmacology, medical devices, clinical medicine, basic sciences, and drug trials. It offers multiple ways to search, including its own set of subject terms (Emtree) and a search builder using the PICO framework. Along with PubMed, it makes an excellent starting point for conducting research on medical-related topics.
Embase offers you basic and advanced methods for searching, as well as specialized search interfaces for things like the PICO framework. As seen in the image below the fastest way to get started is just typing your keywords into the search box. You can type terms separated by spaces (Boolean search terms like AND/OR/NOT are optional). Note that as you type, Embase suggests subject terms (from Emtree) that you can use to search though these are optional. When you search with basic keywords Embase (like with PubMed and MeSH) can usually match your keywords to Emtree terms.
One nice feature about Embase is that it will show you the number of results before you click search. If you see that you are getting too many or too few results, you can amend your search before running it. The small pencil image to the right of the search box allows you to limit your search to specific fields like title, author, or abstract. The plus sign below the search box offers more search space including "all fields" that can be linked to your other search terms by Boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT).
Beyond the simple, basic search, Embase offers you advanced searching, specific and specialized searching, as well as Emtree subject term searching (explained on another page). Embase allows you to use advanced search techniques like Boolean operators to build complex quieies when conducting searches to support things like systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Among the pre-built search tools offered by Embase are:
The Advanced tab will help guide you in building a more complex and focused search. In the image below you can see the main options to the right of the Search button. Many of these reflect the filters you see in your search results like gender and age. You will also see options for setting how your Emtree terms will work (for example, exploding terms); for more information on this please see the Emtree tab.
Another useful tab to note is the Fields tab, as seen below. This will allow you to use terms to search specific fields. For example, if you want cancer to appear in the title or Smith as an author you can set those here.
Similar to PubMed's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), Embase's Emtree is a set of subject terms that allow you to do a more advanced search than just using keywords (as Google and Google Scholar merely do). The slideshow found below will explain the concept of subject terms like Emtree.
To work with Emtree select Emtree from the top menu. This will open an interface where you can search for specific Emtree terms, or browse using the structured vocabulary.
For example, searching for the Emtree term for cancer will show bring to malignant neoplasm as shown below, or you can navigate to it manually by using the drop-down list and finding your preferred term.
When you find your preferred term you can add it to a search builder (and look for more Emtree terms), and you can set how the term is used. For example, setting it to major focus means the term will be part of the main topic in an article and using explosion will search that Emtree term along with all narrower terms.
