More Frequent Updates of the MEDLINE Database
Weekly updates of the MEDLINE database allow for more frequent addition of citations and full text to the database. This helps to guarantee that BUMC MEDLINE Plus searchers have access to the most current journal literature in their fields. Weekly MEDLINE updates also allow the library to decrease the amount of time BUMC MEDLINE Plus is offline for routine database maintenance.

Seamless Linking
Each Journals@Ovid title is linked to other Journals@Ovid titles, and to other BUMC MEDLINE Plus databases such as MEDLINE, CINAHL and HealthSTAR. Bi-directional linking allows you to start your search in a bibliographic database and link to the full text in Journals@Ovid, or link from Journals@Ovid to citations in bibliographic databases. Additionally, you can link from references in an article to other full text articles. Within the full text display, hypertext features allow you to display an outline of the document and move immediately to a selected section, and link from cited references in the text to the complete reference.

Easy Browsing
Browsing through journals in Journals@Ovid is easy and intuitive. You can browse through the journals by title, or by journal subject, where the journals are grouped according to subject areas. If you know you want articles on a certain topic but you're not familiar with the available literature, journal browsing can help. Given the large number of journals in the database, journal subsets were created to help you find the most relevant journal titles to your area of interest. Each journal in Journals@Ovid is classified in at least one of five categories:

Clinical Medicine

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Life Sciences

Nursing

Physical Science & Engineering

Comprehensive Coverage
In addition to articles, the Journals@Ovid database now contains classified advertisements and announcements, making the database not only useful for conventional research, but for recreational and professional browsing as well. Journal-specific information is available through the About This Journal feature, which provides information such as the journal description, coverage information, publisher, frequency of publication, usage statement (including copyright information and restrictions), and instructions for authors.

The About This Journal button is available from the Table of Contents, full text article displays, and the browse journals display. The About This Journal (see below) section displays as a full text document that can be searched, printed, saved, or emailed.

Printing Graphics
When printing a full text article, the default graphic size is full size. The graphic-size option is available through the full text manager at the end of each article. Graphics can be printed in full, medium, or small (thumbnail) size, or omitted entirely.

Printing, Downloading and Emailing Citations & Full Text
Direct printing and saving are available for easy document output. BUMC MEDLINE Plus searchers can activate their Web browser's internal print and save features whenever desired documents and/or graphics appear on the screen. Most browsers support text saving in multiple file formats, including ASCII (.TXT) and HTML (.HTM). Graphics may be saved in the file format in which they were stored in Ovid.

The citation manager groups together the user's selected documents. This allows efficient printing and saving via the Web browser's internal features. Citation manager can also email documents directly from the Ovid Server. All retrieved documents can be selected with a single click, or individual desired documents can be selected from multiple interface pages. Settings established in the citation manager are retained throughout the user's search session.

The email option allows for retrieved documents to be sent from the Ovid server directly to any email address accessible on the local network and/or the Internet, allowing easy delivery of search results with off-line printing and saving at the searcher's computer.

Multiple output formats allow searchers to view, print, or download retrieved documents in their choice of bibliographic, abstract, table of contents, or full record formats. Reprint format and BRS/Colleague tagged format are also supported, allowing full compatibility with third party software packages such as EndNote, Reference Manager or ProCite. Each format is easily selectable via a menu.

Limit Option Enhancements

• Custom full text limit
  You can search the entire database of bibliographic citations, or limit your search to the full text journals to which the Alumni Medical Library has subscribed.
• Articles with references
  This limit restricts your retrieval to documents that have cited references.
• Articles with graphics
  Limiting to Articles with Graphics restricts retrieval to articles that contain figures, tables, equations, and other types of graphics.
• Original articles
  Select this limit to restrict your search to original articles. Original articles are peer reviewed, and provide experimental or other in-depth analysis of a topic.
• Review articles
  Review articles are extremely useful when you are looking for an overview or an update on a topic. They provide a summary of knowledge and progress, and often include a substantial supporting bibliography.
• Articles with abstracts
  A limit to articles with abstracts restricts the search to articles that include abstracts. Since only substantial articles include abstracts, this limit automatically eliminates shorter works such as editorials and letters.
• Journal subsets
  Select this limit if you want to restrict your search to journals covering one of five general areas of interest (i.e., nursing journals, cancer journals, dental journals, AIM journals...). This is useful if you only want to include a topic's coverage in a specific special interest group.
• Publication types
  Publication Types describe a document's overall form and substance in a broad categories such as original articles, letters to the editor, or editorials. A limit to Publication Type restricts your retrieval to certain types of articles. With the addition of more sections of print journals, several new publication types have been added to help you locate pertinent information and enhance browsing. These include advertisements, announcements, corrections, and meeting abstracts.

Enhanced Searching
Every word of every article in Journals@Ovid is searchable, including references and graphics captions.

The staff of the Library believe that these new features and functions will allow BUMC MEDLINE searchers to utilize journal resources more fully and efficiently. For more information on BUMC MEDLINE Plus, contact a reference librarian at refquest@med-libwww.bu.edu or 617-638-4228.

Use the electronic journals page for more information about the availability of full text and subscriptions to online journals.