LibGuides: Biomedical Engineering Research Guide: Articles and Databases

Biomedical Engineering Articles and Databases

On this page, you can learn when articles are most useful for research and how to borrow articles from other libraries with Interlibrary Loan.

We’ve also curated the most relevant Biomedical Engineering databases for engineering and medical articles. They are split into categories to help you find the best match for your research. If these selections don’t fit what you’re looking for, check our full list of Biomedical Engineering databases for more options.

Please note that you'll need to log in with your UML credentials before you can view article or database content.

Best Bets

These are top resources we recommend for getting started with your research:

Engineering Village (Compendex) This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic records and abstracts of scientific and engineering research. Compendex content is sourced from thousands of publishers from around the world, including major engineering societies such as IEEE, ASME, SAE and ACM. Coverage: 1996 - current
Biological Science Collection This link opens in a new window
Citations and abstracts from journals, patents, conference proceedings, books, and reports. Combines key databases like Biological Sciences, MEDLINE, and TOXLINE with full-text titles from around the world, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, and government publications. Publication dates: 1946 - current
PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed comprises more than 19 million citations for biomedical articles from MEDLINE and life science journals. Citations may include links to full-text articles from PubMed Central or publisher web sites.
EngNetBase This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to mechanical, electrical, biomedical, industrial, chemical engineering and material science handbooks and textbooks from CRC press.

Exploring More

Try these options to expand your research:

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Technical literature in electrical engineering and computer engineering. Includes access to journals on biomedical circuits and systems, bioinformatics, medical imaging, medical robotics, nanobioscience, and more. Coverage: 1864 - current
SciFinder-n Login This link opens in a new window
Access to the complete Chemical Abstracts Service and Medline databases. Registration required before using and popups must be enabled in your browser.
Coverage: CAS 1907 - current & Medline 1950 - current
ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) is a core publisher in mechanical engineering. The ASME database features journal articles from sources focused on biomedical science, such as the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, the Journal of Medical Devices, and the Journal of Nanotechnology in Engineering and Medicine. Publication dates: varies by journal, oldest dated from 1916
American Chemical Society (ACS) Journals This link opens in a new window
A collection of top academic journals published by the American Chemical Society covering topics such as biomaterials, chemical and biomedical imaging, nanoscience, synthetic biology, polymers, and more. Publication dates: 1879 - current

Deep Dives

These materials are recommended for more intensive research:

National Center for Biotechnology Information
NCBI provides access to biomedical and genomic information, including PubMed, Gene and PubChem, among others. Its search and retrieval system provides users with integrated access to literature on genome sequencing, DNA, taxonomy, proteins, and more.
Europe PMC (EPMC)
Europe PMC is hosted by EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) which aims to make the world’s public biological data freely available to the scientific community. Europe PMC is partnered with PubMed Central (PMC), and endorsed and supported by a group of international science funders as their repository of choice.
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
The mission of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is to transform through engineering the understanding of disease and its prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment.

About Articles

What are Articles?

Articles are essays or reports published within a larger container like a journal, newspaper, or magazine. That larger container is called a "periodical" because it is published periodically, or on a regular basis. Different types of periodicals are made for different audiences (popular, scholarly, or trade) and you can learn more about those distinctions with our Types of Sources guide.

Articles are good for...

Current, up-to-date information
- Periodicals are generally quicker to publish than books or long-form films.
Literature reviews and other reviews of a topic
- These elements are often placed at the start of an article to set the stage.
A deep dive into a specific research question, experiment, or study
- Articles often focus on a narrower topic than books.
Peer-reviewed information
- Newspaper articles go through at least some fact-checking, while academic articles are typically reviewed by other scholars and dedicated editors.

To learn more about searching for articles, visit the Library’s Guide to Article Quick Search.

About Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a free service that allows UML Library patrons to access items we don’t own by borrowing from partner libraries.

How do I use Interlibrary Loan?

Create an account
- Visit our ILL Login Page and click "First Time Users."
- On the new page, scroll down and click "Continue to new user registration."
- Fill out the form and click "Submit Information."
Place your request
- Once you’ve created your account, visit our Guide to Interlibrary Loan to learn how to submit an ILL request through our Library’s catalog and databases.

Can I get Interlibrary Loan items quickly?

Depending on how rare the item is or which libraries own a copy, it might take longer to process your ILL request. Be sure to allow enough time for your item to arrive.
- Physical books, CDs, and DVDs usually arrive within 2-14 business days
- Articles and book chapters often arrive in 1-2 business days, sent by email as a PDF

If you have questions about your ILL request or account, please send an email to ILLSOUTH@uml.edu.