Database of the week
Week 50
IEEE Xplore - Stay ahead in the fast-changing IT world
IEEE Xplore is a digital library with over 3 million full-text documents in electrical engineering, computer science, electronics, and related disciplines, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and partners. The content includes journals, transactions, magazines, and conference proceedings.
Notifications and Search Alerts
Set up useful content alerts via IEEE Xplore to stay automatically informed about new articles and research relevant to you. By creating a free personal account, you can set up notifications for new publications in your field. Think of weekly updates on journals, conferences, or new standards – straight to your inbox.
You can also create alerts based on search queries. For example, search for a topic you're following, click 'Set Search Alerts', and receive regular notifications about new research matching your interests. This way, you stay informed with the latest research.
Overview of Search Techniques in IEEE Xplore
IEEE Xplore offers four search methods: Basic Search, Advanced Search, Command Search, and Citation Search, each suited to different information needs.
- Basic Search - Simple searching via the global search bar with keywords, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), or phrases in quotation marks. Ideal for quick, broad overviews without many options.
- Advanced Search - Build queries with multiple search bars for specific metadata fields (such as Abstract, Authors, or Publication Title), Boolean via dropdowns, and dates. Suitable for structured, field-specific searches.
- Command Search - Advanced searching with commands, data fields (e.g., DOI, IEEE Terms, Index Terms), Booleans, parentheses, and operators like NEAR; up to 25 terms. Offers maximum control for complex queries.
- Citation Search – Find specific publications using known details like DOI, author, title, ISBN/ISSN, or publication number.
For more practical tips on search techniques, see the help page.
Week 49
Eurostat: a wealth of reliable statistical information about Europe
Do you find statistics difficult and not very exciting? Then make use of the Eurostat website. In addition to hard figures, you will find ready-made interactive statistics with explanations, infographics and much more.
What is Eurostat?
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. It provides up-to-date, high-quality data and statistics on Europe on a wide range of topics in the fields of economics, people and society, and labour, income and social security.
From an up-to-date overview of the reception of Ukrainian refugees to a comparison of the housing market in different European countries.
You can easily compare countries and regions and follow developments over time. This makes it an important source for both education and research.
The public Eurostat website is very comprehensive, but accessible, and you can find the data in various ways.
Statistics
- The Statistical themes present the data interactively and provide explanations. See, for example, the theme Housing in Europe.
- The Data visualisations offer attractive interactive presentations of the data, such as My country in a bubble.
- All statistics can also be found in the Database. The data can be exported for import into Excel; there are also options for downloading large amounts of data and for linking.
Education Corner
The Education Corner offers tools and explanations to make statistics easier to understand, such as Statistics 4 Beginners, which covers basic concepts and important statistical indicators.
More information
The website contains a wealth of additional information in the form of news articles, key figures, comprehensive reports and infographics on specific topics.
Week 47
Cochrane Library - most important database for Evidence-based Medicine.
Cochrane Library is the most important database for Evidence-based Medicine. Here you can find, among other things, systematic overviews of the state of medical scientific research, the so-called systematic reviews. These reviews are maintained by groups of healthcare professionals, each with their own specialization (review groups). The Cochrane Library contains the following databases:
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
The CDSR contains full-text reviews and protocols focused on the effects of healthcare. The reviews are systematically structured, including evidence and, where appropriate, statistical information. - Protocols are published to announce that these topics are being worked on, so that duplication is avoided. Protocols are full-text available.
- Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Central)
Central is a bibliography of controlled trials identified by staff of the Cochrane Collaboration and is part of an international project to create an unbiased source of data for systematic reviews through hand searching of relevant journals. Central also includes reports from conference proceedings and other literature not available in Medline or other bibliographic databases. Trials do not contain the full text of the article, only the bibliographic details and abstract.
Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCA’s)
CCA’s provide a readable, digestible, clinically-focused entry point to rigorous research from Cochrane Reviews. They are designed to be actionable and to inform point-of-care decision-making. Each CCA contains a clinical question, a short answer, and data for the outcomes from the Cochrane Review deemed most relevant to practicing healthcare professionals, our target audience.