Google Scholar vs. Medline – Pt. 2 – Currency

Are you looking for the latest articles on a disease or a drug? Which is best to use, Google Scholar or Medline? Let’s do a test search on ezetimbe/simvastatin drug combination in both systems. When you search ezetimbe and simvastatin in Google scholar Basic Search (even if you change the display to Recent Articles), the first screen of the display contains articles from 2005, 2004, 2006, 2004, respectively. In Scholar, you must limit to 2008 in the advanced search mode in order to get the 2008 articles to appear first on the screen. Do the same search in PubMed Medline, the first 49 articles are from 2008.  The results from both searches are pictured on the Library’s website http://library.luhs.org/googlesch.html.  For Part 1(Medline versus Google Scholar) go to http://hslibrarynews.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/medline-versus-google-scholar/