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Embase Help Guide

Guide to searching Embase, a biomedical database focused on drugs and pharmacology, medical devices, clinical medicine, and basic sciences relevant to clinical medicine.

Embase Support

For comprehensive Embase help see the Embase Support Center or click the ? link at the top right of Embase pages. Video tutorials are available through the Support Center.

Using Emtree to Search

Emtree terms are a set (thesaurus) of standardized terms that describe the content of articles in Embase. Emtree terms are assigned to each article. Terms are chosen to cover both the central aspects of an article (major headings) and other significant information discussed (minor headings).

By using terms from the Emtree thesaurus, all articles on a given topic can be found regardless of the terminology used by the authors.

Use Emtree to:

  • Identify appropriate terms
  • Confirm definitions
  • Search by a subject
  • Build a search strategy
  • Apply subheadings
  • Focus search results
  • Limit or expand retrieval
  • Add synonyms recommended by Embase

Emtree Database: 

Links to Emtree are found at the top of Embase's website. It allows you to select specific Emtree terms and focus your search. See the PICO Search Demonstration for more details.