BACKGROUND: Much biomedical research is now undertaken in China. METHODS: Five large biomedical databases originating from China (CBM, CMCC, CNKI, VIP and WANFANG) are described and their utility and accessibility investigated. RESULTS: These databases index 2500 journals largely not familiar to MEDLINE users. Free access, search features, record selection, ease of downloading and cost of subscription varies considerably between databases. CONCLUSION: Searches in all databases benefit from the use of simplified Chinese and all provide links to full text articles. Less than 6% of the 2500 journals in the five databases were listed as being indexed for MEDLINE.
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Xia et al. (2008) studied this question.