How can I exclude MEDLINE documents from EMBASE?

The manufacturer Elsevier has expanded EMBASE by 2,000 journals with about eight million new documents which come from the MEDLINE database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) and have not been evaluated for EMBASE up to now. By means of the daily update of the database, further new MEDLINE documents are added constantly. Only documents that are completely indexed (STATUS=MEDLINE) were adjusted in EMBASE.

Designation of MEDLINE documents

With DIMDI, you can recognise the new documents in EMBASE by the entry "MEDLINE" in the "Subunit" (SU) data field. In DIMDI SmartSearch, you can search for this subunit in the expert search with the command SU=MEDLINE. In DIMDI ClassicSearch, you can search for this subunit with the command FIND SU=MEDLINE.

Exclusion of MEDLINE documents

Standing orders and searches with DIMDI that are carried out simultaneously in both databases may now contain numerous duplicates among the search results. To exclude MEDLINE documents from your searches in EMBASE for standing orders or in saved searches, use the Boolean operator "NOT" when using the search query SU=MEDLINE. When carrying out a simultaneous search in MEDLINE and EMBASE, you can reduce your costs by using this command before removing duplicates.

Journals that preexisted in both databases are not labeled. Therefore it is not possible to exclude them by means of the datafield SU. Premium users, however, may remove duplicates with the function "duplicates" or the command "check duplicates".

Proceeding the following steps MEDLINE documents can be eliminated out of EMBASE:

Instruction DIMDI SmartSearch

1. Start DIMDI SmartSearch.

2. Process your query and display all search steps.

3. With the navigation menu at the left, switch to "expert search".

4a Search exclusively in EMBASE

• Enter: final step NOT SU=MEDLINE
  e.g. 4 NOT SU=MEDLINE
  With Boolean operator "NOT", the MEDLINE documents will be removed from the final search query.
• Press the "go" button.

4b Search in several databases (EMBASE and at least MEDLINE):

• Enter: final step NOT (BASE=EMBASE AND SU=MEDLINE)
  e.g. 4 NOT (BASE=EMBASE AND SU=MEDLINE) 
  With Boolean operator "NOT", the MEDLINE documents will be removed from the final search query.
• Press the "go" button.
• If you want to remove the duplicates from your search results (only possible for premium users), now click on the "duplicate" button.

Instruction DIMDI ClassicSearch

1. Start DIMDI ClassicSearch.

2. Process your query.

3a Search exclusively in EMBASE:

• Enter: FIND final step NOT SU=MEDLINE
  e.g. FIND 4 NOT SU=MEDLINE
  With Boolean operator "NOT", the MEDLINE documents will be removed from the final search query.

3b Search in several databases (EMBASE and at least MEDLINE):

• Enter: FIND final step NOT (BASE=EMBASE AND SU=MEDLINE)
  e.g. FIND 4 NOT (BASE=EMBASE AND SU=MEDLINE)
  With Boolean operator "NOT", the MEDLINE documents will be removed from the final search query.
• To exclude duplicates from your search result, please use the "check duplicates" command (CH DUP).