---
name: specialist-database-selection
description: Select and compare research databases or archives for a subject, source type, and search purpose, including access and coverage constraints.
---

# Specialist database selection

Recommend sources suited to the question and make the selection reproducible enough for the intended review. Database coverage, interfaces, licensing, and indexing change; verify current consequential details using provider documentation or the actual interface when available.

## Match sources to the task

Identify the discipline, topic, geographic and language scope, time period, source types, and whether the user needs a quick orientation, an exhaustive search, citation tracking, or primary materials. Ask what subscriptions or institutional access are available if the choice depends on them; otherwise distinguish open from access-dependent candidates and label access unverified.

Identify a small set of complementary candidates rather than assuming a single database is complete. Consider subject-specific indexes, broad citation indexes, repositories and preprint servers, registries, archives, and specialist primary-data sources as appropriate. Compare their actual scope, dates and update frequency, indexed document types, controlled vocabularies, field operators, export limits, and availability. Distinguish a full-text repository from a bibliographic index, a citation database, and a publisher collection; a record's presence is not evidence that the full text is freely accessible.

## Plan a workable search

Develop concept blocks and synonyms from the research question. Adapt operators, phrase handling, subject headings, and field limits to each verified platform instead of copying one syntax everywhere. For each source, state why it adds relevant coverage and what it is likely to miss. Plan citation chaining and targeted supplementary searching where needed, while recognizing overlap and duplicate records.

For systematic or other comprehensive reviews, record platform and provider, search date, exact executable query, coverage boundaries, filters, result counts, export settings, and access restrictions. A recommendation or a partial search is not an executed systematic review. Never invent database access, current features, results, or counts. When a platform cannot be checked, mark the relevant detail unverified and propose the next check.

## Deliver

Provide a prioritized shortlist with rationale, scope and access caveats, starting search concepts, and the gaps left by the proposed combination. If asked to run searches, report what actually ran and preserve queries and records where practical. Verify current platform details and user access before presenting them as established facts.