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Indiana University School of Medicine
Ruth Lilly Medical Library

Medical Library Research Guide

PUBLICATION TYPES

OVERVIEW

  • You will not find everyone’s publications and other scholarly works in one place.

  • Medline (either PubMed or Ovid) retrieves roughly 80% to 95% of the existing journal article citations for any given author, depending on the topic. For instance, articles in the fields of psychology or rehabilitation are likely not all included in Medline.See below for a list of databases available at the Ruth Lilly Medical Library.

  • Book chapters or books are only indexed in a few places, e.g. Scopus, EBSCO databases, Google Scholar, or WorldCat. Locate these resources on the databases list. Also included are major medical publishers that can be searched directly. Here are a few examples (all found on the databases list): Books@Ovid, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Wiley Online.

  • Conference abstracts, papers, posters, brochures, websites (also known as the "gray literature") can also be hard to locate and must be searched in particular databases, e.g. EMBASE, Scopus, Engineering Village, Web of Science, WorldCat or Google Scholar. Click here for more information on grey literature.

  • Clinical trials or grants must be searched separately from the other publication types. Go here for more information on clinical trials.

AUTHOR SEARCHING TIPS

Overview

  • Authors are not consistent in their use or non-use of middle initials and this must be taken into account when searching.
  • Before 2002 author full names may not always be searchable and initials must be used (especially in Medline).
  • Combining an author with an institution is sometimes helpful. However, at IUSM we have seen faculty authors identify their institution (singly or in combination) as: Indiana University School of Medicine, Richard L Roudebush VA Med Ctr, Regenstrief Institute, Riley Hospital for Children, Methodist Hospital, Krannert Institute, Simon Cancer Center, IUSCC, IU Health.
  • Some authors still appear without an institution associated with their name.
  • For a detailed explanation of author affiliation indexing in Scopus and PubMed see this article:

Searching Authors in PubMed 

  • The format to search for this field is: last name followed by a space and up to the first two initials followed by a space and a suffix abbreviation, if applicable, all without periods or a comma after the last name (e.g., fauci as or o'brien jc jr). Initials and suffixes may be omitted when searching.
  • PubMed automatically truncates a search for an author's name to account for varying initials, e.g., o'brien j [au] will retrieve o'brien ja, o'brien jb, o'brien jc jr, as well as o'brien j. To turn off automatic truncation, enclose the author's name in double quotes and tag with [au] in brackets, e.g., "o'brien j" [au] to retrieve just o'brien j.
  • Full names display in the FAU field on the MEDLINE display format.
  • The author identifier in PubMed [auid] includes a unique identifier associated with an author, corporate or investigator name, if supplied by a publisher. The field includes the the organization authority that established the unique identifier, such as, ORCID, ISNI, VIAF, e.g., orcid 0000-0001-5027-4446 [auid].

Searching Authors in  Ovid Medline

  • Use the Authors selection (located above the search box) to browse the author list.
  • An alternative is to type this in directly: loehrer p*.au. to search any P. Loehrer with no or all middle initials.
  • Type this in directly to search the author's full name: loehrer patrick*.fa. Use the truncation in case they did used their middle initial.

Searching Authors in  EMBASE

  • Click on BROWSE at the top of the page. Select Authors. Type in the authors last name and initial only.

Searching Authors in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, etc.

  • Use Scopus to locate and verify authors. Click on the Author Search tab.
  • For Web of Science, Google Scholar etc. use advanced search in the author field. Use initials with the truncation symbol *, e.g. Williams S*.

RESEARCHER/AUTHOR IDS & NETWORKING

Several entities provide free “researcher profiles” and/or unique numbers for individual researchers so that you can be sure, for example, that you have the correct "John Smith" or "Peng Chen".

ReSEARCH Connect (IUSM) Review profiles for 840+ IUSM researchers.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized. PIVOT (formerly Community of Science) now used ORCID identifiers.

PIVOT (formerly Community of Science) - Create a profile for IUPUI or other campuses. Discover the right funding opportunities and effectively collaborate with colleagues.

ResearchGate Connects researchers and make it easy for them to share and access scientific output, knowledge, and expertise.

ResearcherID Each member is assigned a unique identifier to enable researchers to manage their publication lists, track their times cited counts and h-index, identify potential collaborators and avoid author misidentification. In addition, ResearcherID information integrates with the Web of Science and is ORCID compliant, allowing you to claim and showcase your publications from a single one account. Search the registry to find collaborators, review publication lists and explore how research is used around the world.