Use the databases listed on this page to find relevant information on topics related to your studies. They will give you access to both primary and secondary sources of information.
These are the major resources for finding literature and information.
NHS Athens resource
Whilst you are on placement you may be able to register for an NHS Athens account via the hospital's Library services. You will then be able to make full use their Knowledge and Library Hub for literature searching and accessing resources. Even without the login you can search, but you won't be able to access the full resources via the Hub.
Most of these resources are freely available. Those only available to University members have red icons next to the name.
Clinical practice guidelines
Clinical skills & knowledge practice
Drug information
Other useful sites
Physician Associates
General medical bodies
Quality assurance frameworks
Most of these resources are freely available. Those only available to University members have red icons next to the name.
This series of three videos (available via the tabs in this box) cover:
You will need to login using your University email address and password to view the videos.
We also have the following generic guides to literature searching and searching databases:
Literature search plan template and example
Use the following documents to help you plan your literature search to make it as comprehensive as possible.
This video covers using Summon and Web of Science to find journal articles and the search techniques to use to create a comprehensive search
This video covers searching PubMed - basic, advanced and MeSH searching tips.
If you are on campus you will be able to access most e-journals and e-books, and some databases, without entering a username and password because your IP address identifies you as being at the University of Reading.
For any that require a login, see the Off-campus tab.
When you use our e-resources you are agreeing to our Terms of Use. Please take a moment to look at these by following the link below:
When you are off-campus you will need to login to identify yourself as a member of the University of Reading to gain access to our protected databases, e-books and e-journals.
Your login details
You login in the same way as for Blackboard - via Microsoft. Just enter your University username followed by @student.reading.ac.uk (e.g. ab123456@student.reading.ac.uk) and your password. If this is the first time you have logged in via this method when off-campus you will be asked to complete a Multi-Factor Authentication. For more information see:
Getting to the login page...
Watch this short video on how you login to use Library resources.
Our Inter-Library Loans service can get articles, books and other publications not held at Reading from other libraries (usually from the British Library).
For more information see our webpages:
You might have access to additional resources via your NHS Trust library. For instance, they might have access to a wider range of medical-related journals than are covered by our subscriptions. Here are a few local ones.
If you are able to register for an NHS Athens account when on placement then you can make full use of this resource for literature searching and it will give you access to more medical-related journals: