Both MEDLINE and EMBASE are offered by a number of service providers, via a range of search interfaces; for example Dialog offers both Dialog and DataStar. In addition the US National Library of Medicine and Elsevier both offer access to their own versions of MEDLINE and EMBASE respectively: MEDLINE through PubMed, which is available free of charge on the internet, and EMBASE through EMBASE.com which is available on subscription only. Search syntax varies across interfaces. For example, to search for the Publication Type term ‘Randomized Controlled Trial’ in the various search interfaces it is necessary to enter the term as:
randomized controlled trial.pt. (in Ovid)
randomized controlled trial [pt] (in PubMed)
randomized controlled trial in pt (in SilverPlatter)
Many service providers offer links to full-text versions of articles on other publishers’ web sites, such as the PubMed ‘Links / LinkOut’ feature.