Laser medicine: Scopus and Pubmed are the best sources
Summary
The four most popular search engines PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar are investigated to assess which search engine is most effective for literature research in laser medicine. Their search features are described and the results of a performance test are compared according to the criteria (1) recall, (2) precision, and (3) importance.
As expected, the search features provided by PubMed/MEDLINE with a comprehensive investigation of medical documents are found to be exceptional compared to the other search engines.
However the most effective search engine for an overview of a topic is Scopus, followed by ScienceDirect and Google Scholar.
With regard to the criterion “importance” Scopus and Google Scholar are
clearly more successful than their competitors.
All in all Scopus is the most effective search engine if one requires only an overview of the topic. For a widespread and in-depth investigation in the area of life science and closely related topics, PubMed/MEDLINE is more appropriate
Tober, Markus. PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus or Google Scholar – Which is the best search engine for an effective literature research in laser medicine? Medical Laser Application. Volume 26, Issue 3, August 2011,
Pages 139-144. Basic Investigations for diagnostic purposes
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1615161511000329
