Research Guides: Evidence Synthesis: Finding Articles

Databases for Finding Reviews

Our library subscribes to many scholarly databases. Many have a "systematic review" filter for searching. You can also include "systematic review" or "scoping review" or any other review type as an additional search term.

Some popular databases that include the "systematic review" filter are:

PubMed This link opens in a new window
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Covers: 1950-. A service of the National Library of Medicine that includes citations from MEDLINE and biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. Offers comprehensive coverage of all areas of human and veterinary medicine, dentistry, nutrition, toxicology, pathology, public health, and health services administration.
MEDLINE Complete (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
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Covers 1950-. A comprehensive index from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, covering journal articles in all areas of the life sciences, with particular emphasis on biomedicine. Includes all areas of human and veterinary medicine, dentistry, nutrition, toxicology, pathology, public health, and health services administration. MEDLINE is a part of the National Library of Medicine's PubMed information suite.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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Covers: 1945-. Indexes high-impact journals in all disciplines. It allows researchers to determine who has cited whom, to track citations, and to find articles that share many references in common.
Use the "Editions" drop down to limit your search to arts and humanities, social sciences, or sciences.

This box was created based on Cornell's Evidence Synthesis Guide.

Cochrane Library

Search Cochrane Library's Cochrane Reviews, Trials, Clinical Answers using regular terms, medical subject headings (MeSH), or PICO.

JBI Evidence Synthesis

Search for systematic reviews published by the Joanna Briggs Institute.

TRIP Medical Database

Search for high quality clinical research evidence with search terms or PICO. You can upgrade to the Pro version for a monthly fee.

Epistemonikos

Combines the best of Evidence-Based Health Care, information technologies and a network of experts to provide a unique tool for people making decisions concerning clinical or health-policy questions. Is searchable in English, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Systematic Review for Animals & Food (SYREAF)

Includes reviews and review protocols for feed and food and any area related in food safety, animal health, and animal welfare.

This box was created based on Cornell's Evidence Synthesis Guide.

Campbell Collaboration

Includes systematic reviews plus evidence and gap maps related to ageing, business and management, crime and justice, disability, education, international development, knowledge translations and implementation, methods, social welfare, children and young persons wellbeing, etc.

Health Evidence

Search Health Evidence for access to 9,316 quality-rated systematic reviews evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions, including cost data.

The Community Guide

Includes evidence reviews in effectiveness and economics relating to public health.

EPPI-Centre

The Evidence for Policy & Practice Information Centre includes systematic reviews across health, education, welfare and other public policy sectors.

This box was created based on Cornell's Evidence Synthesis Guide.

PROSPERO

PROSPERO is an international prospective register of systematic reviews. It also includes rapid reviews and umbrella reviews. It does not include scoping reviews.

OSF

OSF gives access to protocols from other researchers. Many scoping review protocols are deposited here.

This box was created based on Cornell's Evidence Synthesis Guide.

Grey Literature

What is grey literature? Grey (or gray) literature is literature that is not published in traditional academic or commercial publishing venues. Grey lit includes resources like clinical trials, registries, government publications, policy papers, white papers, working papers, theses and dissertations and much more.

Why grey literature? Evidence-based practice is targeted at looking at the "bigger picture" of evidence out there to inform clinical decision-making. Sometimes the publishing bias of "traditional" literature can mean we do not always have other types of evidence easily accessible.

A word of caution. While grey literature has an important part in research and reducing bias, grey literature does not adhere to the same peer-review process, therefore, it is important to use critical evaluation and appraisal when searching and reviewing it.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
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Indexes hundreds of open access and subscription journals, books from the WorldCat database, conference papers and proceedings, white papers, and other academic materials posted on the Web. Google Scholar is not as comprehensive as many subject databases, but it is useful in that it provides one handy place to search across many different disciplines and subject areas.
How to configure Google Scholar to work with Find it!
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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Covers: 1861- with comprehensive full text from 1997-. Provides citations to and full text of millions of works. It includes citations dissertations and theses back to the 18th century and full text for dissertations and theses from the 1990s to the present. See the More info link for exact coverage of UofA theses and dissertations in this database.
Dissertations that are not available for free download online can be borrowed free of charge via Interlibrary Loan.
Center for Research Libraries Catalog This link opens in a new window
Search the CRL (Center for Research Libraries) catalog of international newspapers, theses, microfilms, government documents, and more. CRL is a cooperative collection of esoteric materials from around the globe Because the Libraries are CRL members you may borrow materials on Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad).

MedNar
Mednar is a free, medically-focused deep web search engine that uses Explorit Everywhere!, an advanced search technology by Deep Web Technologies. As an alternative to Google, Mednar accelerates your research with a search of authoritative public and deep web resources, returning the most relevant results to one easily navigable page. Unlike Google, a Mednar search occurs in real-time, retrieving relevant medical information as if you were going to each individual website yourself.
Global Index Medicus
The Global Index Medicus (GIM) provides worldwide access to biomedical and public health literature produced by and within low-middle income countries. The main objective is to increase the visibility and usability of this important set of resources. The material is collated and aggregated by WHO Regional Office Libraries on a central search platform allowing retrieval of bibliographical and full text information.
OpenGrey
The System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe used to give open access to 700.000 bibliographical references of grey literature (paper) produced in Europe and allowed to export records and locate the documents.
WHO iris.
World Health Organization's Institutional Repository for Information Sharing.

ClinicalTrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov is a website and online database of clinical research studies and information about their results. The purpose of ClinicalTrials.gov is to provide information about clinical research studies to the public, researchers, and health care professionals. The U.S. government does not review or approve the safety and science of all studies listed on this website.
EU Clinical Trials Register
The European Union Clinical Trials Register allows you to search for protocol and results information on: interventional clinical trials that were approved in the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) under the Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC clinical trials conducted outside the EU/EEA that are linked to European paediatric-medicine development.
WHO | International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
The mission of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform is to ensure that a complete view of research is accessible to all those involved in health care decision making. This will improve research transparency and will ultimately strengthen the validity and value of the scientific evidence base.
Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) is a highly concentrated source of reports of randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials. Most CENTRAL records are taken from bibliographic databases (mainly PubMed and Embase.com), but records are also derived from other published and unpublished sources, including CINAHL, ClinicalTrials.gov and the WHO's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. CENTRAL first began publication in 1996, but its composite nature means that it does not have an inception (start) date, in the way that other traditional biomedical databases do.

medRxiv
medRxiv (pronounced "med-archive") is a free online archive and distribution server for complete but unpublished manuscripts (preprints) in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences. Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
arXiv
arXiv is a free distribution service and an open-access archive for nearly 2.4 million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. Materials on this site are not peer-reviewed by arXiv.
OSF Preprints
Many preprint service providers use OSF. Such as AfricArXiv, AgriXiv, ArabiXiv, BioHackXiv, BodoArXiv, CoP PREPRINTS, Earch ArXiv, Eco/EvoRxiv, ECS arXiv, EdArXiv, EngrXiv, FocUS Archive, Frenxiv,INA-Rxiv, indiarxiv, Law Archive, LawArXiv, LIS Scholarship Archive, MarXiv, MediArXiv, MetaArSiv, MindRxiv, NutriXiv, paleorxiv, PsyArXiv, SocArXiv, SportRxiv, and Thesis Commons.

Searching the Grey Literature by Sarah Bonato
Call Number: Z1033.G73 B6 2018
ISBN: 9781538100639
Publication Date: 2018-06-13
Searching the Grey Literature is for librarians interested in learning more about grey literature. If you have ever been asked for a grey literature search but didn't know where to start, this book will help you craft your search successfully. If you are an expert searcher but find that your library patrons are unfamiliar with the vast body of grey literature, this book may be a useful teaching aid. Those that are both new arrivals and established professionals in the field of librarianship will learn much about grey literature from reading this book, and hopefully acquire new search skills and knowledge. Although a wide range of different types of librarians or information professionals may find the content of this book useful, those working in the areas of health or social science will benefit the most from the book's content. Searching the Grey Literature discuss different aspects of grey literature, including an introduction to grey literature, the value of grey literature, search sources for grey literature and how to conduct needs assessment before beginning a grey literature search. Search techniques for identifying grey literature documents, selecting and evaluating grey literature search sources and best searching practices are also discussed in detail.