LibGuides: Systematic Reviews &amp; Evidence Synthesis: Databases and Sources

Databases and Sources

Databases You Will Probably Search

Reviews and readers expect these databases to be searched in most systematic literature reviews. You'll need a reason not to search them.

PubMed
Covers over 5,700 journals in the biomedical and health sciences and years covered late 1940's - present, with additional older medical literature selectively added. Search using keywords or the controlled vocabulary called MeSH. PubMed will automatically match your keyword terms to MeSH terms. For additional tips, see the Library's PubMed page.
Cochrane Library
A collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence - systematic reviews, clinical answers, register of controlled trials - to inform healthcare decision-making.
Embase
Embase database covers around 8,600 journals from 100 countries, Subjects covered include all disciplines of medicine and biomedical science with particular strengths in the fields of drug research, pharmacology and toxicology. It also includes coverage of Allied Health subjects as well as Public Health topics. A key resource for systematic reviews, particularly ones involving drug therapy.
Web of Science
Indexes over 18,000 journals in all subjects (coverage back to 1900 for science and social science journals), as well as 80,000 books and more than 180K conference proceedings. Includes the popular "cited reference search" to identify papers which have cited a previously published work or author. Can also sort by "times cited" and find related articles based on commonly cited works.

Databases You Might Search

These databases can be an important complement to your search. They can be essential in their specialized topic areas.

BIOSIS Citation Index
BIOSIS coverage is from 1926 to present and includes around 6,000 journals, conference proceedings, books, & technical reports in all aspects of biological sciences. The BIOSIS Citation Index database is an excellent database for all biological information, including marine biology, biological oceanography, marine ecology, developmental biology, and molecular biology. This is the preferred database to use over BIOSIS Previews because you can search for cited references.
CINAHL
1937 - present. Covers indexing of over 5000 journals in nursing and the allied health sciences, with full text for over 700 of those journals. Coverage includes nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative & complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.
PsycINFO
1597-present. From the American Psychological Association. Provides access to scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Includes journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations. Includes approximately 2,500 journals. Updated weekly.
African Index Medicus (AIM)
In order to give access to information published in or related to Africa and to encourage local publishing, the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA), has produced an international index to African health literature and information sources.
Compendex
Indexes 20+ million journal and trade magazine articles, conference papers, standards, books, and other materials in all engineering disciplines. Core database for mechanical, aerospace, civil, structural, chemical, and environmental engineering, as well as materials science and nanotechnology. ****You can now cross search with Inspec for a more comprehensive search of the engineering literature; duplicate references can be removed.
Inspec
Indexes 16+ million journal articles and conference papers in physics, electrical engineering and electronics, and computer science. Also good for related disciplines like geophysics, astronomy, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, ocean engineering, and acoustics. Indexes IEEE conference papers and standards. ****You can now cross search with Compendex for a more comprehensive search of the engineering literature; duplicate results can be removed.
Sociological Abstracts
1963-present. Abstracts journal articles, monographs, dissertations, conference proceedings, other research covering sociology, social work, and related social sciences. Also includes selected web resources.
LILACS (Latin American & Caribbean Health Sciences Literature)
LILACS covers literature related to the health sciences and has been published in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean since 1982, and is published by WHO Regional Offices. It contains articles from about 670 of the most well-known journals in the medicine field, plus other documents such as: theses, books, conference proceedings, scientific reports and governmental publications.

Resources for Conference Proceedings and other Grey Literature

Truly unbiased searches look for unpublished literature in a number of places, included meeting abstracts, white papers, clinical trial registries, and searching by hand.

BIOSIS Citation Index
BIOSIS coverage is from 1926 to present and includes around 6,000 journals, conference proceedings, books, & technical reports in all aspects of biological sciences. The BIOSIS Citation Index database is an excellent database for all biological information, including marine biology, biological oceanography, marine ecology, developmental biology, and molecular biology. This is the preferred database to use over BIOSIS Previews because you can search for cited references.

GreyNet
A helpful resource for identifying sources of grey literature - with some searchable content.
NLM Gateway
Clinical trials and meeting information. Will identify studies, but the data will have to be pursued by contacting authors.

OpenGrey
OpenGrey, System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, is your open access to bibliographical references of grey literature produced in Europe and allows you to export records and locate the documents. Examples of grey literature include technical or research reports, doctoral dissertations, some conference papers, some official publications, and other types of grey literature. OpenGrey covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and Humanities.

Google Scholar
When you are not sure which database to use, the cross-disciplinary nature of Scholar can be useful.