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Speech and Language Therapy: Databases

A subject guide for Speech and Language Therapy from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Accessing databases

Databases are large directories of content such as articles, images, market trend reports and scientific papers. They can be used to locate useful journal articles for your essays simply by searching within them using keywords to describe your topic. While Discover is a good place to start searching for relevant academic sources, it doesn't search all of the databases that are available through QMU (and neither does Google Scholar) so it's a good idea to find out which databases are most relevant to you (below) and how to search them effectively.

Accessing databases and the articles in them

Most databases require you to sign in using your university login.

  • If you are on campus or connected via remote access, clicking on a link within a database should take you to the database record (if it is an indexing and abstract database) or full text of the resource (if it is a full text database).
  • If you are not on campus or using remote access, you need to look for a login option that either asks for your Institutional Login, or for an option to login via Shibboleth/OpenAthens.

More information on accessing our electronic databases is available here.

Databases

Internet Archive Scholar

Scopus

Web of Science

Searching for theses using eTheses

MedOne ComSci guide

Anatomy and physical examination

Quick Tips & Shortcuts for Database Searching

Proquest

Using the CINAHL Headings/MeSH feature in EBSCOhost databases

EBSCOhost Advanced Searching

Spelling of medical terms

When you are conducting a keyword search in a database, you need to take variations in spelling into account as there may be differences in UK and US spellings. This web page lists medical terms with variations in spelling.

PRESS Checklist

The PRESS Checklist is a tool used for peer review of electronic literature search strategies. You can use this checklist to evaluate your own search strategy as well, to ensure that you haven't missed any important elements.