Research Guides: Medical Student Course Guide for accessing UCI Libraries' Resources: Library Services & Quick Tips

Library Services & Quick Tips

Why Set up a My NCBI account?

Save your PubMed searches and create alerts
Receive new articles from the saved searches
Save collections of articles and share them with your collaborators or peers
Set PubMed display preferences which will make scanning search results much more efficient.

Watch a short video here or follow the step-by-step instructions below:

Go to PubMed@UCI
On the PubMed homepage, click Log in (located in the upper right corner).
Select Google Account and log in with your Gmail username and password.
Note: You can choose to log in with your UCInetID by selecting more login options, then enter Irvine in the search box. Then select "University of California Irvine" and log in with your UCInetID and password. A DUO two-factor authentication is required.
If you already have a My NCBI account, select Link account. If you don't have a My NCBI, select Create a new account.
Once done, this will take you back to the PubMed homepage with your login.
To set up your PubMed Preferences, click on your login name (located in the upper right corner) and select Dashboard. This will take you to the My NCBI page.

Setting your My NCBI Preferences will make sorting through your search results faster and easier.

Watch a short video here or follow the steps below:

See the image below for an example of the selected PubMed Filters that were shown in Step 2: Filters & Icons.

The video below provides a quick tour of the new My NCBI home page and function.

Quick Tips on accessing articles from the UCI Libraries

Last updated: June 9, 2022

If you are connecting from UCI Campus or UC Irvine Health, you automatically have full access to the UCI Library restricted online resources. You do not need to take any steps below. For personal laptops, click here to Register your device for UCI’s wireless access on campus, Click here to register for UC Irvine Health’s Wireless Connection.
If you haven’t connected to the UCI Libraries from off-campus before, the Connect from off-Campus Software VPN tutorials can help you.
Note: WebVPN does not require you to download additional software, but you will encounter problems accessing PubMed@UCI and most of the medical resources and databases. Therefore, you must download, install, and configure the software VPN before visiting PubMed@UCI and other restricted online resources on the Grunigen Medical Library Core Resources page.
When configuring the VPN software, be sure to choose the Group UCIFull. Once you log in and connect to the VPN with your UCInetID, you have full access to all UCI Libraries' online resources with a few exceptions from the Law Library.
Always use PubMed@UCI on the Grunigen Medical Library website to search for medical literature. PubMed@UCI provides access to the icon, which takes users to UC Library Search to access the article online. If the article is not available, it directs users to the Interlibrary Loan request form.

PubMed@UCI This link opens in a new window
Provides access to millions of citations from MEDLINE and life science journals. Includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
An abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Content covers research output in the fields of physical science, health science, life science, technology, medicine, and social sciences.
Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window
The Cochrane Library is a collection of high-quality databases that consists of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Cochrane Clinical Answers, and Epistemonikos Systematic Reviews. CDSR includes all Cochrane Reviews (and protocols) prepared by Cochrane Review Groups. CENTRAL is a highly concentrated source of reports of randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials. CDAs provide a readable, digestible, clinically-focused entry point to rigorous research from Cochrane Reviews.
CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
CINAHL indexes journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing for selected journals back to 1937. Topics covered are related to nursing, physical therapy, health education, social service/healthcare, occupational therapy, and related disciplines. CINAHL also provides access to healthcare books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of professional practice, educational software and audiovisual materials in nursing.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Published by the American Psychological Association (APA), PsycINFO provides an international index for scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. The database includes material of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.
Web of Science: Core Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides access to records from the top journals, conference proceedings, and books in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities to find the high quality research most relevant to the area of interest. Using linked cited references, subject connections between articles can be explored.

Google Scholar
- Google Scholar Part 1 (video)
- Google Scholar Part 2 (video)

How to Address a Research Question and Carry Out a Medical Literature Review This lecture slides review how to structure a research question with the PICO framework, identify relevant search terms and search concepts for advanced searching, determine strength and weaknesses of PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, access journal articles and other library online restricted resources remotely via the VPN software, and use the “UC-eLinksRequest It”to obtain items that are not available from the UCI Libraries.
Publication Tools for Research Communication By the end of this session, students will have the skills to: -determine which citation manager is right for them. - master the basic functionality of EndNote, Mendeley, and ReadCubePapers. - use JBI SUMARI to guide you through the process of conducting a literature review and preparing for a publication. - find the right journal to publish their manuscript. - gain the basic knowledge of scholarly open access vs. traditional publication models. - determine potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals when submitting manuscripts to publications.
Searching the New PubMed in Radiological Sciences This PubMed lecture slides cover the following PubMed search options and features: Free-text search, Search with Boolean logic operators (AND, OR, NOT), using the PubMed Advanced Search Builder, and how to refine the search results with PubMed filters.

The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service enables UC students, faculty, and staff to borrow materials from other libraries that are not available at the UCI Library. Please check UC Library Search before requesting an ILL.

*Request an article not owned by UCI (Interlibrary Loan)

How to Request an Interlibrary Loan.
Step-by-step instructions for submitting an interlibrary loan request from a database search.

Google Advanced Search
- The Google Advanced search is a built-in feature of Google. It provides a search page with various search fields for a user to specify additional requirements for a search. The additional requirements help Google to refine the search.
Google Advanced Image Search
- Google advanced image search allows users to tweak an image search in a number of ways including Color, Safe search, Domain, File types, Size, and keywords.

If you have a complex research question, please contact one of the medical librarians for assistance. Go to "Ask a Librarian (Reference Services)" and select Appointment. In the "Make an Appointment" pull-down, select VIRTUAL (Zoom), then select "Biological and Health Sciences - Biology, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmaceutical, PubMed Health".

If you need immediate help with any technical questions or want tips for accessing research articles, you may use the CHAT, Email, or other options available on the "Ask a Librarian" webpage.