How can a researcher, a scholar, a doctor or a scientist (or even a curious "profane") do to know the existing studies in literature on a given topic? How do you update yourself on the current state of research?
What if I want to find out about an illness or the most current therapies?
Once (not so long ago, I'm talking about the 90s, I was at university) you had to go to university libraries and you could read scientific journals on paper. If there were a few, you had to consult them all to find the study that interested you, it was an endless and tiring job that lasted days or weeks.
Today with a "click" we have online databases.
As far as medicine is concerned, the most important and well known online service is PubMed a "database" (therefore a database) managed by the National Institute of US medicine with more than 25 million studies available. PubMed works like a search engine, you enter keywords and find the corresponding studies, it is basically addressed to "insiders".
It should however be noted that PubMed is not exactly a database but, in reality, it is much more complex than a trivial search engine because for effective use requires specific preparation to be used correctly and effectively: it has its own specific Thesaurus and uses a lexicon Mesh on which I do not go in for not being boring.
For those who have experienced the transition from "manual" scientific research to this "electronic", it has been a revolution, we have in front of the monitor about 60 years of scientific studies that can be reached simply and without limits. Something unthinkable until a few years ago.
The research in the database provides many studies of which is a summary (it is called "abstract", or "extract") that allows us to understand what the research is talking about, how it was done, what are its conclusions and allows know authors, year of publication and more. This, for those who are experts, can give an initial indication of the reliability of the study. But this is also one of its limitations: by not indicating, if not summarized, the methods of research it becomes very difficult to establish what is valid and scientific.
Resources for research: PubMed
MAQ/April 2018/34
Leading categories " Medicine"
member of the MAQ
Lorenzo Mignani