Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Coronavirus – Information Resources

*Update 09/03/2020
RCSI Library will no longer update this blog post. For a more up to date version of this information please go to our dedicated LibGuides page libguides.rcsi.ie/COVID19


RCSI Library has collated a selection of resources on the coronavirus including medical databases, government and national healthcare websites, and resources made available by publishers to facilitate international research.


Tips for searching the literature


It is recommended that you search key medical databases to find journal article references, and then access the full text of these articles via our e-journal portal and document supply service.  

Medline/PubMed - medicine
Embase – medicine and pharmacology
Scopus – medicine and science
Cochrane – systematic reviews 
Web of Science – interdisciplinary

A list of RCSI Library resources can be found on our A-Z LibGuides Page

Search strategy 


  • Search for your keywords in all fields - sample keyword search using “inverted commas” for exact phrases:
    coronavirus OR “COVID-19” OR “2019 novel coronavirus disease” OR “2019-nCoV” OR coronavirinae OR “2019 novel coronavirus”
  • Search for Subject Headings to ensure your search is comprehensive.  Subject Headings are provided in some databases: MeSH in PubMed; Emtree in Embase.
  • Combine searches of similar meaning with OR, then combine different topics with AND.  
  • Use Filters if appropriate: do not filter to Human if you think recent animal research may be useful.  Do not limit your results to full text in any database as this will exclude relevant articles from your results set.  Recent articles in press may only provide an abstract if full text is not yet available.
  • Sort your results by most recent.

Searching PubMed


When you do a keyword [All Field] search in PubMed, the results automatically include a subject heading [MeSH] search.   Click on Advanced Search – Details to view the search strategy.  Sort Results by most recent.








Searching Embase


Open Embase from the library A-Z LibGuides page.  In the Advanced Search tick the Mapping options to include Emtree and free text searches.

Embase Disease Term: Coronavirus infection

Embase Emtree Subject Terms: 'coronaviridae'/exp OR 'coronavirinae'/exp

















Searching Scopus


Open Scopus from the A-Z LibGuides page and click on the Advanced tab.  Copy and paste the following search string and click on Search:

TITLE-ABS-KEY(coronavirus OR "Middle East respiratory syndrome" OR "Severe acute respiratory syndrome" OR "Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus" OR "Feline infectious peritonitis virus" OR "Murine hepatitis virus" OR "Avian infectious bronchitis virus") AND RECENT(60)


Searching Cochrane


Search for coronavirus in the Title Abstract Keyword fields and click on the Clinical Trials tab to view registered trials if there are no relevant systematic reviews published yet.



Clinical Summaries 


DynaMed topic
https://www.dynamed.com/condition/covid-19-novel-coronavirus

UpToDate alert
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19

BMJ Best Practice 

https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-gb/3000168#important-update


Guidance for healthcare professionals and the public


Department of Health, Ireland – information for the public
https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/c36c85-covid-19-coronavirus/

Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Ireland
https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/

HSE guidance for the public
https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/coronavirus.html

Department of Health, England - information for the public
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public

Department of Health, England – guidance for healthcare professionals
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/wuhan-novel-coronavirus

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en

World Health Organisation
https://www.who.int/publications-detail/global-surveillance-for-human-infection-with-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/   

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health
https://www.nih.gov/   

U.S. National Library of Medicine - For a pre-set search see the Additional NLM Resources link to Journal Article Citations (PubMed)
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/  

U.S. Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering: interactive map of reported cases
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6



Publishers providing access for researchers 

Wellcome and Nature are among organisations to call for Coronavirus content to be shared openly. A number of publishers including those listed below have made content available:

Wellcome
https://wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/sharing-research-data-and-findings-relevant-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak

Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00307-x

STM
https://www.stm-assoc.org/about-the-industry/coronavirus-2019-ncov/

The New England Journal of Medicine
https://www.nejm.org/coronavirus

Elsevier
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/coronavirus-information-center

The Lancet
https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus

Wiley Online Library
https://novel-coronavirus.onlinelibrary.wiley.com 

Taylor and Francis Group
https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/coronavirus-reading-list/

JAMA Network
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/pages/coronavirus-alert


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