InfoGuides: Evidence Syntheses-Health Sciences: Search Literature

Determine if studies have been conducted

Search databases, registries and the journal, JBI Evidence Synthesis, to determine that there have been no recently published systematic reviews on the same topic prior to registration of a review title

Cochrane Library
Search Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

JBI Evidence Synthesis
Consult this journal for systematic reviews
PROSPERO
A registry of protocols

Cochrane Library
Search Cochrane Protocols
PubMed
Search for Systematic Reviews

Databases and Grey Literature

JBI Evidence Synthesis
Consult this journal for systematic reviews

APA PsycInfo (EBSCO)
Covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. Includes more than 3.7 million records.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text
Provides full-text to journals in the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing back to 1937. Includes access to health care books, nursing dissertations, conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, Evidence-Based Care Sheets, legal cases, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. Subject coverage includes nursing, biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.
Global Health
Provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene, and more. Contains more than 1.4 million records dating back to 1973.
PubMed
Comprises over 27 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations and abstracts include the fields of biomedicine and health, covering portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering. Provides access to additional relevant web sites and links to the other NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) molecular biology resources.

IEEE Xplore
Provides full-text access to all journals, transactions and conference proceedings published by IEEE and IET. Accesses more than 1,000 books in the IEEE-Wiley eBook Library and IEEE-MIT eBook Library-Computing and Engineering Collection.
Computers and Applied Sciences Complete
Includes indexing and abstracts for academic journals, professional publications, and reference sources. Subject areas include Engineering, Computer Theory & Systems, New Technologies, and Social and Professional context.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library
Citations and full-text articles in the area of computing and information technologies from journals, magazines, and conference proceedings published by the ACM.

ABI/INFORM Collection
The ABI/INFORM Collection includes international coverage and provides researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world.
Business Source Complete
Covers scholarly journals for business topics such as marketing, management, human resources, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Includes author profiles, financial data, books, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, company profiles, SWOT analyses, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, datamonitor, and country reports from 1886.
Public Administration Abstracts
Includes bibliographic records covering areas related to public administration, including public administration theory, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.

Web of Science: Core Collection
Contains citations and searchable author abstracts, covering scholarly literature in journals, books and conference proceedings. Includes: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Book Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Current Chemical Reactions, Index Chemicus, and Emerging Sources Citation Index. Additional resources available by selecting from the dropdown list next to the Core Collection heading.
Academic Search Complete
Provides full-text, peer-reviewed journals, as well as indexing and abstracts for monographs, reports, and conference proceedings. Features content going back as far as 1887.

Cochrane Library
Consists of six databases that contain different types of independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.
JAMAevidence
Uses Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) to help decision makers identify the best available evidence by Providing guides to the systematic consideration of the validity, importance, and applicability of claims about the assessment of health problems and the outcomes of health care. Includes text of two books (Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice and The Rational Clinical Examination: Evidence-Based Clinical Diagnosis), education guides, glossary, calculators, worksheets, question wizards, weekly RSS feed of featured JAMA articles, compiled clinical scenarios, podcasts, and user-level customization features.
DynaMed
A clinical point-of-care reference tool created by physicians for physicians and other health care professionals to assist with evidence-based bedside diagnosis and treatment.

Building the Search: Systematic Reviews Tutorial for searching for systematic reviews in PubMed

Putting Evidence Into Practice by the Oncology Nurses Society ONS PEP resources are designed to provide evidence-based interventions for patient care and teaching. PEP topic teams of nurse scientists, advanced practice nurses, and staff nurses summarize and synthesize the available evidence in PEP topic areas. Topics are patient-centered outcomes, such as symptoms, that are selected by survey of ONS members and determination of availability of evidence in the topic.

Centre for Evidence-Based Research CEBM aims to develop, teach and promote evidence-based health care through conferences, workshops and EBM tools so that all health care professionals can maintain the highest standards of medicine.
Campbell Systematic Reviews-Campbell Collaboration Campbell systematic reviews follow structured guidelines and standards for summarizing the international research evidence on the effects of interventions in crime and justice, education, international development, and social welfare.
Joanna Briggs Institute Australian center for nursing and qualitative reviews
What Works Clearinghouse Effectiveness reviews in education from U.S. Department of Education
Nutrition Evidence Based Review Program from NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
Collaboration for Environmental Evidence International nonprofit addressing environmental policy and practice
Network for Business Sustainability Business leaders review innovation, global supply chains and more

Campbell Systematic Reviews-Campbell Collaboration
Campbell systematic reviews follow structured guidelines and standards for summarizing the international research evidence on the effects of interventions in crime and justice, education, international development, and social welfare.

Grey literature is the unpublished, non-commercial, hard-to-find information that organizations such as professional associations, research institutes, think tanks, and government departments produce. It is produced quickly and by many different organizations, which can be great for finding up-to-date, applicable information

Policy File Index
Access domestic and foreign public policy research and analytical papers on governmental and legal topics, representing the work of think tanks, research groups, and academic institutes from 1990 to present.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text
Provides a comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offering full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. Contains new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text.

Harvard Kennedy School Think Tank Search
A custom Google search of more than 480 think tank websites allowing you to do a broad search on your topic to find analysis by leading think tanks.

Open DOAR
Use the Advanced Search feature for topic searches
Google Advanced Search
Use the site or domain field

Literature Search Methods

Example Search
This search applies the steps described in the articles referenced. Try it on your topic
A systematic approach to searching: an efficient and complete method to develop literature searches
Bramer, W. M., De Jonge, G. B., Rethlefsen, M. L., Mast, F., & Kleijnen, J. (2018). A systematic approach to searching: An efficient and complete method to develop literature searches. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 106(4). https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2018.283
Steps in the process of systematic literature searching with an example search
Supplement to article, Bramer, W. M., De Jonge, G. B., Rethlefsen, M. L., Mast, F., & Kleijnen, J. (2018). A systematic approach to searching: An efficient and complete method to develop literature searches. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 106(4). https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2018.283

Balance recall and precision

Precision: only relevant material vs. Recall: all relevant materials. A trade off is always involved.

Precision is important to get background information on the topic or an overview of the subject area, but retrieving all primary literature is not necessary. Recall is important when the goal is to retrieve ALL relevant citations (e.g. for a grant application or systematic review)

Precision vs. Recall: "The most daunting task lies in achieving the balance between too few and too many articles"
Allison JJ, Kiefe CI, Weissman NW, Carter J, Centor RM. The art and science of searching MEDLINE to answer clinical questions. Finding the right number of articles. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 1999 Spring;15(2):281-96. PMID: 10507188.