All guides: Biomedical science: Key resources

Databases

Databases are collections of resources; many databases specialise in a specific subject area. You will find relevant research and peer-reviewed sources in the databases below.

Search tips

Login in LibrarySearch or one of the databases on this guide, then search using keywords that describe your topic. Refine your search results to peer-reviewed journals, books, online books, book chapters or videos.

The following tips will also work in Google Scholar and most databases.

Use OR between words to find any of your keywords
Group OR words using brackets.
Find "exact phrases" with quotation marks
Add an asterisk to part of a word to find different endings and plurals
There is a default AND relationship between search terms separated by a space

Examples searches:

COVID* OR corona* OR SARS-CoV-2
"secondary bacterial pneumonia"
(COVID* OR corona* OR SARS-CoV-2) "secondary bacterial pneumonia"

Key Databases

PubMed
Evidence-based medical and biomedical science literature.
Select FindIt@RMIT to find full text documents.
ScienceDirect (Elsevier)
Peer-reviewed scholarly literature; authoritative, full-text scientific, technical and health publications.
Nature (NPG)
Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications, Nature Medicine, Nature Methods, Nature Protocols, Nature Reviews, and Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

ProQuest Health and Medical collection
Comprehensive journal coverage of biochemistry, microbiology, pathology and biomedical science.

BioMed Central
Original peer-reviewed biomedical research.
Annual Reviews
Annual review journals in biomedical, life and physical sciences.
Cochrane Library
Cochrane database of systematic reviews (CDSR); Database of abstracts of reviews of effectiveness (DARE); Cochrane central register of controlled trials (CENTRAL); Cochrane database of methodology reviews; Cochrane methodology register.

ClinicalKey Student Medicine
Ebooks, summaries, images and videos on a wide range of medical topics.
Proquest Biological Science
Includes Biological Sciences, MEDLINE, and TOXLINE databases. A wide range of research in biomedical science and microbiology. Select FindIt@RMIT to find full text documents.

Scopus (Elsevier)
Peer-reviewed journals, books and conference proceedings. Includes author affiliations, and citation impact. Select FindIt@RMIT to find full text documents.
Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)
Leading scholarly literature in the fields of science and technology. Select FindIt@RMIT to find full text documents.

Chemicals and substances

SciFinder
SciFinder-n provides access to Chemical Abstracts and Medline and covers many scientific disciplines including biochemistry and biomedical science. Use text query or sequence query (draw or import) to discover substances, Patent Markush structures, reactions, references, and biosequences. CAS Scifinder-n help menu.

Anatomy and physiology

Our Library has many online atlases of human anatomy and physiology in addition to the specialist tools below: these resources are free for RMIT students and staff to access:

Anatomedia
'Construct' the body by studying regions and systems and 'deconstruct' the body through dissection and imaging. Interactive text, image overlays and clinical questions.
To view help videos, select Introduction.
Anatomy.TV (Primal Pictures)
Three-dimensional animations illustrate function, biomechanics, and surgical procedures. Clinical videos and text by leading specialists supplement animations and models.

Help using Anatomy.tv

Quick Links

Further support

Study Support
Book a one-on-one consultation with an academic skills advisor or librarian. Connect with a peer mentor to help you with your course. Discover a range of tools to support your study.

Library subject guides

Biomedical science

Need help? Ask the Library!