Universiteit Leiden

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Subject guide

Life Science & Technology

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in Life Science & Technology

The library for biology, chemistry and pharmacology is located on the first floor of the Gorlaeus building. In addition, the medical Walaeus library, located at the LUMC, holds a collection of interest for life scientists.

PubMed (note: not PubMed Central) focuses on medical literature and includes information on clinical trials. If you want to know about the effects of a drug or the pharmacokinetics (how the drug is absorbed into the body, processed and secreted) PubMed is a good source. The articles all get Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms), which makes it easy to search for a particular type of drug or effect.

Web of Science is a general and broad database which also includes chemical and medical literature. An advantage of WoS is that it keeps track of citations to articles, making 'top items' easier to find.

ToxNet - a set of databases that addresses the risks of chemicals and toxicity.

Cochrane Library- a series of databases in which medical studies are assessed and compared in order to achieve a proper evaluation of the effect of a drug (Evidence Based Medicine).

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