Did you know that our search practices may be inherently biased? We may be severely limiting the breadth and depth of biomedical literature available to us by relying on our "mainstay" databases. In other words, we need to disrupt our own patterns of information-seeking to widen our horizons. For example, if I only search for healthcare information in CINAHL, PubMed, and Google Scholar, I am missing out on integral information.

Developing systematic and thorough search practices (while demonstrating scholarly rigor) is critical in challenging the limitations of our own cultural and geographical purview. Plus, it's an exercise in humility and self-awareness to reflect on our biases.

The next time you're conducting a literature search, try out some of following databases. Not all of these databases will provide evidence on any or every topic.

  • African Index Medicus - In order to give access to health information published in or related to Africa and to encourage local publishing, the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA), has produced an international index to African health literature and information sources.
  • Bioline International - not-for-profit scholarly publishing cooperative committed to providing open access to quality research journals published in developing countries. BI's goal of reducing the South to North knowledge gap is crucial to a global understanding of health (tropical medicine, infectious diseases, epidemiology, emerging new diseases), biodiversity, the environment, conservation and international development. By providing a platform for the distribution of peer-reviewed journals (currently from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda and Venezuela), BI helps to reduce the global knowledge divide by making bioscience information generated in these countries available to the international research community world-wide.
  • Global Index Medicus - Global Index Medicus (GIM) provides worldwide access to biomedical and public health literature produced by and within low-middle income countries. The main objective is to increase the visibility and usability of this important set of resources. The material is collated and aggregated by WHO Regional Office Libraries on a central search platform allowing retrieval of bibliographical and full text information.
  • Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region - provides health care professionals and researchers from the Region with access to health and biomedical information and increases the visibility of their work at national, regional and international level. Geographic coverage of the IMEMR is the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. The Region covers 23 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, occupied Palestinian territory, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
  • LILACS (Latin American and Carribean Health Sciences Literature) - Most important and comprehensive database of LA&C with more than 880 thousand records of peer reviewed journals, thesis and dissertations, government documents, annals of congresses and books, published since 1982.It includes systematic reviews, randomized controlled clinical trials, evidence synthesis, health technology evaluation studies, economic evaluation studies, clinical practice guidelines, technical reports, case reports and others.

    The most important and comprehensive database of LA&C with more than 880 thousand records of peer reviewed journals, thesis and dissertations, government documents, annals of congresses and books, published since 1982.It includes systematic reviews, randomized controlled clinical trials, evidence synthesis, health technology evaluation studies, economic evaluation studies, clinical practice guidelines, technical reports, case reports and others.

  • Native Health Database - contains bibliographic information and abstracts of health-related articles, reports, surveys, and other resource documents pertaining to the health and health care of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Nations. The database provides information for the benefit, use, and education of organizations and individuals with an interest in health-related issues, programs, and initiatives regarding North American Indigenous peoples.
  • SciElo - SciELO Network provides Open Access (OA) to journals’ contents. Journals are organized in national and thematic collections. Each collection is managed by a nationally recognized research organization. Selection of journals to be indexed in and discontinued of a collection is of entire responsibility of each collection management organization, usually with the support of a scientific advisory committee.

Did we forget anything? If you'd like to see additional databases added to this list, please contact Erin Moore, Banner Librarian. Check our our Diversity & Equity in Healthcare LibGuide to delve deeper!