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Nutritional Sciences

Provides resources, strategies, and information on conducting research in the nutritional sciences.

Why Search Embase?

Embase is a database that includes the MEDLINE database, which is the core of PubMed, but it also contains more international journals & indexes pharmaceuticals more precisely.  It's a good database to use in conjunction with PubMed, especially in projects where you need to search more comprehensively.  If you search only one database, you'll miss a lot of the available literature.

Remember that when you use a different database, you may need to use other search terms.  Articles in Embase are indexed by Emtree terms, which can differ from MeSH terms.

Running a Search

We recommend that you begin on the Advanced page.

Embase Advanced Searchpagewith search strategy used in PubMed entered

Search Results

The set of results is rather large & not as focused on the topic as you would want.

 

You can see how Embase "translated" your search under History above your results.Some mapping to index terms occurred: 'dietary intake'/exp means that the phrase was mapped to an index (Emtree) term, but dairy products mapped to dairy only & this may be why the results are so large. How do you create a search in Embase that will give you access to Emtree terms consistently?

Revising Your Search

When you search in Embase, you should always enter each term separately. When you begin to type, a list of possible Emtree terms appears below the search box.

Search in Embase, with one search term partially entered and Emtree terms shown below

Working with one concept at a time can be a useful way to work in Embase, so the first concept looks like this when translated by Embase: dietary intake'/exp OR 'dietary intake' OR 'food intake'/exp OR 'food intake'

The second search string looks like this:  'dairy product'/exp OR 'dairy product' OR 'milk' OR 'cheese' OR 'yoghurt'

Both searches can be combined with AND or OR using the Combine feature above search history..

Combining search strings in Embase using Combine

 

Adding United States to the search brings the total down considerably.

Focusing Your Search with Filters

Filters will help focus the search further.  In Embase, there are some filters at the top of the page & another set (some of which are the same) on the left. At the top, I'll use the Age limit to add Adolescents.  Apply the filters by clicking the Search button.

Embase filters below the search bar;with Adolescent selected

You can add filters from the menu on the left, for example, Study or Publication type. Click the Apply button at the top or bottom of the filter list to apply these filters.

Last Updated: Feb 4, 2025 11:56 AM
Subjects: Health Sciences