Index Medicus and Medline for Occupational Therapists. Part 1: An Overview of Coverage and Searching Methods

Index Medicus and its online equivalent, Medline, is the major bibliographic index in medicine. Although some journals central to occupational therapy are not covered, many citations in areas like rehabilitation and psychiatry will be relevant. Finding references accurately and comprehensively depends on correct searching technique and some understanding of the sophisticated indexing system. An overview of these topics is given in part 1 of the article, followed by a more detailed discussion with emphasis on rehabilitation, psychiatry and community care in part 2. Aspects of the system covered include specificity, coordination and the hierarchical nature of the indexing thesaurus and the relative merits of the published and online formats.