Databases are a type of resource that organises and helps you to search for published digital literature including journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, dissertations, systematic reviews and sometimes multimedia. Some databases are freely available, while others require a subscription to access.
A bibliographic database contains bibliographic records which are structured documents of information about a source. This information is used for cataloguing and accessing published digital literature and may include, for example, author, title, publication details, and subject headings.
Database records might be displayed as a summary or an abstract and some may include full text if the source is Open Access (freely available). The availability of full-text articles depends on whether your library is subscribed to them. Usually, there will be a link in the bibliographic record that will search your library catalogue for access. Sometimes this link is displayed as a button titled: “Check for Full-Text.”
The record will also include a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), that will take you to the article on the publisher’s website but remember that access to full text is still dependent on whether your library subscribes. You can check this by searching for the e-Journal title on the library’s catalogue or by signing in to the publisher’s website using the relevant authentication method (For NHS Wales, using OpenAthens).
A full-text database functions in the same way as a bibliographic database. However, a large proportion of records include full-text literature as opposed to only linking to full text where available. The e-Journals available in the full-text database are also discoverable in the library’s catalogue.
A citation database is like a bibliographic database. Both are designed to support searching for published digital literature. However, a citation database also enables you to track citations and check, for example, which articles or journals are the most cited ones and demonstrate impact.
Records will hold details of where the literature may have been included as references in other published work, literature the work has also referenced and provide the option to view an authors’ published history.
A repository is a place where documents are stored and are searchable through the metadata (tags) applied to it. If the document is full text, the repository may also be able to search the full text to support output of results. Repositories tend to be either institutional or subject specific and a list of known health and care repositories can be found below.