Carlos Manterola; Tamara Otzen & Lilian Calo

Summary

Despite the large amount of information available on the Internet, getting valid scientific information and evidence may not be a simple task. The aim of this study was to identify the different databases, search engines and libraries available to retrieve published scientific information in health sciences Database publication type. A search on Altavista, Google and Yahoo, Ixquick and Copérnico metasearch engines and in the database "Documents in Information Science" (DoIS) was performed. The search strategy used the terms "database management systems", "medical informatics", "search engine" and "decision making". A summary document of the information collected was created. Addresses found were grouped into: databases, search engines and libraries. The search performed returned 46 electronic resources: 25 databases, 8 search engines and 13 libraries. There is a variety of resources for searching health scientific information. Knowing the diversity of available options aids the user in access to information to generate research and health-related decision-making.

KEY WORDS: Database; Publication Type; Medical Informatics; Search engine; Decision making; Evidence-Based Medicine.

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