In early March I listed the journals used most often by the JHU community in 2014. Now it’s time to do the same for library databases. I did this back in 2011, and the list for 2014 isn’t all that different. The top 5 databases are listed below.

What I wish we could do is get similar stats for Google Scholar. I’m pretty sure JHU use of Google Scholar would overwhelm the numbers you see below. Many graduate students and faculty tell us they rely heavily on Google Scholar for their literature searches. Sometimes it’s the only search tool they use; sometimes they use it in addition to the library databases.

No matter what search tool you use for discovering scholarly literature, your librarian is ready to help you make your search strategy efficient and effective.

Top Databases in 2014

  1. PubMed – Unknown. They only report the number of full text downloads. For 2014 that number is 883,992. I think that means they win.
  2. Journals@Ovid Full Text – 212,022
  3. Web of Science Core Collection – 150,519
  4. CINAHL Plus with Full Text – 131,216
  5. Academic Search Complete – 122,719

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