11 Literature data (draft)
11.1 Soviet research
In the earliest time of EMF science, much research was done in the Soviet Union.
Big portions of this body of research may not be available in literature databases. As a starting point of an exploration of the Soviet research, below is a list of some sources discussing this literature.
11.2 Short notes about general databases for scientific literature
11.2.1 Biomedical and health literature databases
11.2.1.1 Pubmed/MEDLINE
“PubMed is a more user-friendly search engine for MEDLNE” (my translation of snl.no article.
“MEDLINE is the largest and oldest biomedical database in the world” (“MEDLINE Data” n.d.).
PubMed makes content searchable from three databases MEDLINE, PubMed Central and Bookshelf, and MEDLINE is the main component of PubMed:
To be added to a database, a publication must apply and be selected by NLM for inclusion in MEDLINE, PMC, or Bookshelf. PubMed indexes and makes searchable the contents of these databases; MEDLINE is the primary component of PubMed.
11.2.1.2 Embase (by Elsevier)(paid-access)
Embase has a similar scope to PubMed/MEDLINE - a database for biomedical research literature.
Embase claims to contain 99% of journals in MEDLINE, plus 3000 more journals that are not indexed by PubMed. It is stronger on drug literature than MEDLINE. It is also supposed to be better at capturing conference abstracts.
See also the about page at Embase.
11.2.1.3 Cochrane Reviews database
What is a Cochrane review?
A Cochrane Review is a systematic review of research in health care and health policy that is published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.”
A total of 9211 Cochrane Reviews had been published as of March 2024.
11.2.1.4 SveMed+
SweMed has better coverage for Scandinavian literature (from) (AI translation):
SveMed+ is a bibliographic database that contains references to articles from Scandinavian journals in the fields of medicine, dentistry, healthcare, occupational therapy, nursing, and physiotherapy.
11.2.1.5 Epistemonikos
About Epistemonikos from the Norwegian site Helsebiblioteket (AI translation):
Epistemonikos is a free international (multilingual) database that contains systematic reviews on clinical questions. Epistemonikos systematically searches PubMed and other databases for relevant systematic reviews and overviews of reviews on treatment, diagnosis, prognosis, harm, and etiology.
From the quote, it seems to focus on clinical questions, i.e. treatment of disease. Although etiology is also mentioned, so the database may provide useful in some instances for health related questions outside treatment of disease.
11.2.1.6 CINAHL (by EBSCO) (paid-access)
The CINAHL database focuses on nursing, allied health, and healthcare literature:
CINAHL indexes the top nursing and allied health literature available including nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses Association.
It includes:
3,630 active indexed and abstracted journals 3,320 active peer-reviewed indexed and abstracted journals
11.2.1.7 Global Health (by EBSCO) (paid-access)
The Global Health database focuses on global health issues:
Global Health is the only specialized bibliographic, abstracting and indexing database dedicated to public health, completing the picture of international medical and health research by capturing key literature that is not covered by other databases, providing users with a truly global perspective.
It inludes (as of March, 2025):
- 4,500,000 scientific records from 1973 to the present day
- 185,000 records added each year
- 7,000 indexed serials, books, book chapters, reports, conference proceedings, patents, theses, electronic publications and other hard-to-find resources
- 4,480 journals, of which more than 3,600 are unique to Global Health
11.2.1.8 AMED (paid-access)
AMED stands for (Allied and Complementary Medicine).
About AMED from the Norwegian page Helsebiblioteket (AI translated):
AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine) registers journal articles in alternative medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, palliative care, speech therapy, and rehabilitation. It covers nearly 600 journals, many of which are not found in other databases.
11.2.1.9 OVID (paid-access): Search several databases
OVID allows you to search though multiple databases
- MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychInfo, HaPI, AMED, Maternity and Infant Care, Global Health and ERIC (an education-related research database)
- Clinical reference sources: BMJ Best Practices, UpToDate
11.2.1.10 AI tools for literature reviews
A lot of journals (but not all) submit publications to Semantic Scholar.
The following two tools use Semantic scholar as their primary data source:
Elicit.com (148 million scientific papers): Good for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Consesus.app (>220 million scientific papers): Summaries of “scientific consensus” on any question or research question.
Semantic Scholar is great for for instance finding academic papers and citation analysis. At semanticscholar.org, they say that Semantic Scholar is a “free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature”.
11.2.2 Multidisciplinary databases
11.2.2.1 Web of Science (by Clarivate) (paid-access)
Some main features are listed below. For more information see Web of Science website.
Web of Science Core Collection:
– Number of journals: “> 22,171 journals + books and conference proceedings”
– Coverage: Over 91 million records; More than 143,000 books; Over 304,000 conferences.
– Content: “Life sciences, biomedical sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts & humanities. Strongest coverage of natural sciences, health sciences, engineering, computer science, materials sciences.”
Web of Science platform
– Number of journals: “> 34,651 journals + books, proceedings, patents, and data sets”
– Coverage: Over 217 million records (journals, books, and proceedings);59 million patent families (> 115 million patents); More than 13 million data sets
– Content: “Biomedical sciences, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts & humanities. Strongest coverage of natural sciences & engineering, computer science, materials sciences, patents, data sets. Regional Citation indexes provide deep coverage in sciences, social sciences, and humanities for Korea, Russia (suspended as of March 2022), Latin America, and China.”
11.2.2.2 Scopus (by Elsevier)
What is Scopus (from Wikipedia):
Scopus is Elsevier’s abstract and citation database launched in 2004.[1] Scopus covers 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-level subject fields: life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. It covers three types of sources: book series, journals, and trade journals. Scopus also allows patent searches in a dedicated patent database Lexis-Nexis, albeit with a limited functionality.[2]
11.2.3 Technical disciplines literature databases
11.2.3.1 IEEE Xplore:
IEEE Xplore lists 6,266,140 items as of April 1 2024.
This can be an important additional source for literature related to electromagnetic fields, as it relates to health, even if articles will be more on the technical side, than about health per se.
If you for instance search “James Benford” you will see a few example for articles that are not found in PubMed.
A quick search for “Microwave health” returned 2114 items on April 1 2024, and may give some indication on the number of studies to expect to find of more direct relevance for health in IEEE Xplore.
11.2.5 Databases that possibly capture literature in languages other than English
11.2.5.1 LIVIVO by ZB MED (German)
About LIVIVO:
LIVIVO is Europe’s largest search engine for literature and information (research data) in the field of life sciences. It is run by ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences. Drawing on nearly 80 million data records, it brings together under one roof the specialist subjects of medicine and health and nutritional, environmental and agricultural sciences. With comprehensive coverage of its core subjects, it supports interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in academic and scientific works.
About ZB MED:
ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences is Germany’s national infrastructure and research hub for data and information in the life sciences. Our digital services support research projects that benefit people and the environment: from medicine and biodiversity to environmental protection.
11.2.5.2 LILACS
The most important index of the technical-scientific literature in Latin America and the Caribbean, LILACS, was created in 1985 to record scientific and technical production in health. It has been maintained and updated by a network of more than 600 institutions of education, government, and health research and coordinated by Latin America and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and World Health Organization (WHO).
LILACS contains scientific and technical literature from over 908 journals from 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with free access. About 900,000 records from articles with peer review, theses and dissertations, government documents, conference proceedings, and books; more than 480,000 of them are available with the full-text link in open access.
The LILACS Methodology is a set of standards, manuals, guides, and applications in continuous development, intended for the collection, selection, description, indexing of documents, and generation of databases. This centralised methodology enables the cooperation between Latin American and Caribbean countries to create local and national databases, all feeding into the LILACS database. Currently, the databases LILACS, BBO, BDENF, MEDCARIB, and national databases of the countries of Latin America are part of the LILACS System.
Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) is the multilingual and structured vocabulary created by BIREME to serve as a unique language in indexing articles from scientific journals, books, congress proceedings, technical reports, and other types of materials, and also for searching and retrieving subjects from scientific literature from information sources available on the Virtual Health Library (VHL) such as LILACS, MEDLINE, and others. It was developed from the MeSH with the purpose of permitting the use of common terminology for searching in multiple languages, and providing a consistent and unique environment for the retrieval of information. DeCS vocabulary is dynamic and totals 34,118 descriptors and qualifiers, of which 29,716 come from MeSH, and 4,402 are exclusive.
The quote is from this link.
11.3 Finding a journal to publish in
11.3.1 Impact factor
When choosing an journal, the impact factor may be useful to factor in to your decision.
Some lists of impact factors for potential journals may exit. For instance a researcher listed “the best journals in electromagnetic fields and waves in 2019”, at ResearchGate in June, 2021:
Note that impact factors may vary overtime. For instance the for the journal Frontiers in Public Health, which has an own section for the speciality of Radiation and Health, the impact factor was 3.709, then 6.461 in 2022. The journals usually list their impact factor at their website (the impact factor was 3.0 for Frontiers in Public Health in March 2025).
11.3.2 h-index
Another indicator to look at is the h-index, which is the largest number h such that h articles published [for a given period] have at least h citations each.
A list at Google Scholarlists the h5-index for the top publications within the category Physics & Medicine/Electromagnetism. A screenshot of the list from 30 March 2025 is shown below.
None of the lists mentioned above may however not be the most relevant for publications specifially related to health and EMFs.
11.3.3 Scimago Journal & Country Rank
At Scimago Journal & Country Rank you can inspect different metrics of journal indicating the quality of the research in it.