Start your search for knowledge! The Knowledge Navigator will help you find your way through the different types of healthcare information available, and the various sources for locating it.
Also included are links to relevant critical appraisal checklists, user guides for the different resources and suggested search filters for different types of evidence.
For some resources, you'll need an NHS OpenAthens account for access.
What sort of information are you looking for?
- Clinical Decision Support
- Books and E-books
- Journal Articles
- Preprints of Journal Articles
- Clinical Pathways
- Clinical Practice Guidelines
- Systematic Reviews or Meta-Analyses
- Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)
- Observational Studies
- Qualitative Research
- Case Reports
- Dissertations and Theses
- Grey Literature
- Pre-appraised Evidence
- Economic Evaluations
- Medicines Information
Clinical Decision Support
Clinical decision support or point of care tools are resources that can be used to get quick answers for patient care, so are easy to use and contain filtered information. These tools include details of the evidence used, with citations back to the original research studies, systematic reviews, or guidelines.
UpToDate
UpToDate contains over 11,000 articles, providing evidence-graded treatment recommendations as well as diagnostic and other information for common as well as rare conditions. It also offers a drug interactions checker, patient information leaflets and clinical calculators.
-
Access UpToDate (if accessing off-site, a personal account created onsite, or an NHS OpenAthens account is required)
BMJ Best Practice
BMJ Best Practice provides evidence-graded treatment recommendations as well as diagnostic and other information for many conditions. It also offers a prescribing information and clinical calculators.
Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures
The Royal Marsden Manual provides clinical procedure guidelines for over 350 nursing procedures, along with evidence-graded references.
Books and E-books
Visit the Book tab on Omnisearch and type in the title or some keywords
When searching for books using OmniSearch, you can limit your results to print books or e-books only by using the refine search options for format within our discovery system. Click on a book title for more details.
If the print book is on loan, at another library, or if you'd like it sent to your workplace, you can use the 'Reserve item' facility to request a copy. Otherwise, take a note of the shelfmark (e.g. WY 100 BAL) or special location (e.g. Leadership Zone), and find the book on the shelves.
If the book is an e-book, you'll normally be able to access it immediately with an NHS OpenAthens account. For more information about accessing or downloading e-books visit the E-books page.
If the book is not held locally, you can order a copy from elsewhere.
-
Use the Request a Book form to order a copy
There is no charge for this service.
Journal Articles
Do you have the details of a specific journal article you are looking for (for instance from a reading list or literature search results)?
No, I need to search for journal articles
To locate articles on a specific subject, the best way is to carry out a search in a journal indexing database, or ask a librarian to do this for you.
These databases may cover other types of material (e.g. book chapters, dissertations etc.) but their main focus is journal articles.
For almost all topics related to healthcare, the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub is a good place to start as it combines results from a number of sources, including CINAHL and Medline databases, as well as other sources.
For more advanced searching, try the suggestions below.
What broad area is your search in?
Medicine or surgery
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
EMBASE
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
PubMed
PubMed contains the complete contents of Medline, plus additional citations from, for example, very recent articles yet to appear in Medline, articles published ahead of print, and articles that are outside the scope of Medline. Like Medline, it covers all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It also has a useful 'Similar articles' feature.
However, is does not offer the option of thesaurus searching, and although it provides links to some full-text articles, it doesn't indicate if an article is available via your NHS OpenAthens account.
If you're doing a very comprehensive literature search (for example, for a systematic review) it may be worth searching, but perhaps only the last 3 months or so of references based on date added.
AMED
AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine Database) is a database of journal literature covering alternative and allied therapies and related subjects. It is produced by the British Library, and indexes around 500 journal titles.
It is updated monthly and its scope is international, including French, German, Turkish and Scandinavian material, some of which is unique to AMED.
Nursing or midwifery
CINAHL
CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing & Allied Health Literature) is a good start for evidence searches in all areas of nursing, midwifery and allied health. Although most of the content is from the US, it does index many UK journals.
CINAHL is produced by EBSCO and indexes over 3,700 journals from 1982 onwards. We have access to CINAHL Plus with Full Text which provides additional access to the full-text of 330 active full-text, non-open access journals.
Download our guide to Searching Medline and CINAHL via EBSCO.
CINAHL can also be searched as part of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub.
To search CINAHL, you will need an NHS OpenAthens account.
EMCare
EMCare is a database for searching the nursing, midwifery and allied health journal literature. It is produced by Elsevier and coverage is from 1995 onwards.
It indexes over 3,700 current international journals and contains over 5 million records.
EMCare can be searched through the Ovid interface, and an NHS OpenAthens account is required.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
British Nursing Index (BNI)
The British Nursing Index (BNI) is a database for searching the journal literature for nursing and midwifery. Its focus is on UK journals, but it does include some international nursing titles. BNI indexes around 250 journals, covering 1994 onwards and is searched using the ProQuest interface.
As BNI is a small database, we would recommend you also search CINAHL for a more comprehensive search on nursing and midwifery topics.
Public Health
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
CINAHL
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) covers all aspects of nursing, midwifery and allied health subjects, and health education.
Download our guide to Searching Medline and CINAHL via EBSCO.
EMBASE
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Campbell Collaboration (C2)
The Campbell Collaboration contains details of a small number of systematic reviews produced in the fields of education, crime and justice and social welfare
Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI Centre)
Allied health
CINAHL (allied health)
CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing & Allied Health Literature) is a good start for evidence searches in all areas of nursing, midwifery and allied health. Although most of the content is from the US, it does index many UK journals.
CINAHL is produced by EBSCO and indexes over 3,700 journals from 1982 onwards. We have access to CINAHL Plus with Full Text which provides additional access to the full-text of 330 active full-text, non-open access journals.
Download our guide to Searching Medline and CINAHL via EBSCO.
CINAHL can also be searched as part of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub.
To search CINAHL, you will need an NHS OpenAthens account.
AMED (allied and complementary medicine)
AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine Database) is a database of journal literature covering alternative and allied therapies and related subjects. It is produced by the British Library, and indexes around 500 journal titles.
It is updated monthly and its scope is international, including French, German, Turkish and Scandinavian material, some of which is unique to AMED.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
PEDro (physiotherapy)
PEDro is a small database of evidence-based information relating to physiotherapy, and is updated montly. It contains 53,000 systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials and clinical practice guidelines.
Randomised controlled trials in PEDro are critically appraised and given a quality score according to the PEDro Scale.
PEDro is free to search and no password is necessary.
PEDro does not link to our journal subscriptions so does not always link to available full-text.
As it is a smaller database, we would recommend also searching CINAHL, EMCare and Medline for physiotherapy topics.
- PEDro (physiotherapy)
OTseeker (occupational therapy)
OTseeker contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) relevant to occupational therapy. From 2016, OTseeker is less comprehensive and other resources should also be searched.
RCTs up to around 2013 have been critically appraised and rated to assist you to evaluate their validity and interpretability.
ERIC (education)
ERIC is is database of journal and other literature covering education. It is produced by the Institute of Education Sciences in the US and contains more than 1.6 million records from 1907 onwards. As well as indexing journals, ERIC contains material such as books, conference papers, curriculum guides, dissertations and policy papers, and contains over 750,000 full-text documents.
To search ERIC, you will need an NHS OpenAthens account.
Mental health
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Social care
Social Policy and Practice
Social Policy and Practice is a database of journal and report literature covering health and wellbeing, play, social and family policy, social care, disability and special needs, equalities, homelessness, crime and youth justice, child protection and safeguarding, mental illness, climate change and policy, and more. It indexes over 600 journals and contains over 400,000 records from 1981 onwards, with over 24,000 new records added every year
Social Policy and Practice focuses on the UK context, and brings together data from six leading collections of social policy and practice resources, namely:
Social Policy and Practice is available to search via the Ovid interface to anyone with an NHS OpenAthens account.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Health services management
HMIC (Health Management Information Consortium)
HMIC includes information from the Department of Health's Library and Information Service, and the King's Fund Information and Library Service. As well as journal articles, HMIC also includes official publications and grey literature.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
No, I'd like a librarian to do a search for me
- Library staff are happy to carry out an evidence search for you, provided it is not for your course (in which case we can provide training instead)
- Complete an evidence search request form, or contact your library directly
- Make sure you explain as fully as possible what you're looking for
Yes, I have the details and I want a copy of the paper
Use the 'Journal' tab on OmniSearch (select your organisation from the dropdown list).
Use the dropdown list to select your organisation - you can select from local NHS organisations or Keele University to check their journal holdings.
Did you find the journal with the year(s) that you need?
Yes, full-text access is available
- Download the article from the appropriate link (check that the dates offered match what you require)
- You'll need an OpenAthens account to access the article
- If you have any problems downloading the article, contact your local library for assistance
- Alternatively, use the Article Request form to order a copy
No, full-text access is not available
- You could try doing a search for the article title in Google Scholar. Sometimes a copy is available in institutional repositories or author websites
- If you are currently studying, your university or college may offer access to the journal
- Otherwise, complete an article request form to request a copy of the article from elsewhere
-
Use the Article Request form to order a copy
Yes, I have the details and I want to see who has cited the paper
This is sometimes also known as 'forward citation searching', and there are couple of resources that can be used.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar
is a good place to find out who has cited a particular paper. Carry out a search for the paper, and the results list should display the number of citations ('Cited by'). Clicking the link will then display the references.
Web of Science
Web of Science includes databases such as the Science Citation Index, and is a good place to check who has cited a paper. Library staff can access this on your behalf - the NHS does not have access, but some educational institutions such as Keele do if you are affiliated to them.
Contact Jason Curtis (jason.curtis1@nhs.net or 01743 492511) in the Shrewsbury Health Library if you need a citation search carried out in Web of Science.
Yes, I have the details and I want to check the paper has not been retracted
A small number of articles are retracted after publication, and if you want to be sure you are not referencing one by mistake, it is worth doing a search for retracted publications. Below are a couple of suggested sources for checking.
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
If you’re searching Medline using the Ovid interface, this is an example strategy that can be copied and pasted into the search box:
retracted publication.pt
Once the search is complete, carry out a search for your paper (e.g. by doing a title search), and then combine the searches together.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
EMBASE
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
If you’re searching EMBASE using the Ovid native interface, this is an example strategy that can be copied and pasted into the search box:
retracted article.sh
Once the search is complete, carry out a search for your paper (e.g. by doing a title search), and then combine the searches together.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
More guidance is available in The Literature Search Process: Guidance for NHS Researchers. This document has been developed by health librarians in Thames Valley, Wessex and South NHS regions to support healthcare researchers in carrying out effective evidence searches according to an agreed set of recommendations.
Preprints of Journal Articles
Preprints are versions of journal articles that have not yet been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication by journal publishers. They can be a good way to see very current research as they haven't had to wait for peer-review which can take months, but they need to be carefully evaluated and critically appraised.
A good place to look for preprints in medicine is medRxiv.
Clinical Pathways
Google is a good place to look for clinical pathways (also called care pathways or care maps).
A lot of clinical pathways are published by individual NHS organisations, and can be found in Google by using relevant terms for clinical pathways combined with your subject and limited to NHS websites.
For example, to find clinical pathways for metformin in diabetes care, you could use the following search strategy:
Follow the link below to run a search for clinical pathways in the NHS, and after opening Google, add your search terms to the end of the search box and re-run the search.
Clinical Practice Guidelines
These are some good places to look for clinical practice guidelines
SaTH Intranet
You’ll only be able to access the Intranet on a PC on the SaTH network (for PCs in the Learning Centre, click on the SaTH Intranet icon)
TRIP Database
Search the TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) database and use the ‘Guidelines’ limit to filter the results (you can also filter for just UK guidelines if necessary). if you're not using an NHS PC, you'll need to register (for free) and login to use the filter.
Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures
The Royal Marsden Manual provides clinical procedure guidelines for over 350 nursing procedures, along with evidence-graded references.
Systematic Reviews or Meta-Analyses
A systematic review is a review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyse and summarise the results of the included studies. Meta-analysis refers to the use of statistical techniques in a systematic review to integrate the results of included studies [from the PRISMA website]
Are you looking for published or unpublished/ongoing reviews?
Published reviews
These are some good places to look for published systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Once you've found one, you could use the CASP Systematic Review Checklist to critically appraise it.
Epistemonikos
Cochrane Library
A search includes all of the databases, but results are displayed for each database and completed systematic reviews can be found under the Cochrane Reviews results tab if any are found.
Download our guide to the Cochrane Library | Download our guide to Interpreting Odds-Ratio Diagrams | Visit the Cochrane Library help page
Medline (medicine and surgery)
Meta-analyses can be found by filtering your search to Limits > Additional Limits > Publication Type > Meta-analysis + Systematic Review (use Ctrl+click to select both types)
Alternatively, for a more sensitive search, you could try the following search strategy using Medline in the Ovid interface:
META-ANALYSIS/ OR (Meta Analysis).pt OR ((comprehensive* OR integrative OR systematic* OR methodologic*) ADJ3 (bibliographic* OR review* OR literature OR overview*)).ti,ab OR (meta-analy* OR metaanaly* OR "research synthesis" OR ((information OR data) ADJ3 synthesis) OR (data ADJ2 extract*)).ti,ab
Copy and paste this into the search box in Ovid and run the search, then carry out your subject search and combine the results. This should pick up most articles that are meta-analyses or systematic reviews, but may include some that are not.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
If you're using Medline via EBSCO, this is a alternative strategy, modified work in the EBSCO interface:
(MH "META-ANALYSIS") OR PT (Meta Analysis) OR TX (((comprehensive* OR integrative OR systematic* OR methodologic*) N3 (bibliographic* OR review* OR literature OR overview*)) OR (meta-analy* OR metaanaly* OR "research synthesis" OR ((information OR data) N3 synthesis) OR (data N2 extract*)))
Copy and paste this into the search box in EBSCO and run the search, then carry out your subject search and combine the results. This should pick up most articles that are meta-analyses or systematic reviews, but will include some that are not.
EMBASE (medicine and sugery, with emphasis on pharmacology)
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
Systematic reviews can be found by using the thesaurus terms 'meta-analysis' or 'systematic review' and combining these with your search.
Alternatively, for a more sensitive search, you could try the following search strategy (this will work in the Ovid interface):
(META-ANALYSIS/ OR SYSTEMATIC REVIEW/) OR ((comprehensive* OR integrative OR systematic* OR methodologic*) ADJ3 (bibliographic* OR review* OR literature OR overview*)).ti,ab OR (meta-analy* OR metaanaly* OR "research synthesis" OR ((information OR data) ADJ3 synthesis) OR (data ADJ2 extract*)).ti,ab
Copy and paste this into the search box and run the search, then carry out your subject search and combine the results. This should pick up most articles that are meta-analyses or systematic reviews, but will include some that are not.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
PsycINFO (psychology and psychiatry)
Many systematic reviews or meta-analyses can be found by filtering your search to Methodology > Meta-analysis + Systematic Review
CINAHL (nursing, midwifery and allied health)
Systematic reviews can by found by using the Search Options prior to running your search and filtering your search to Publication Type > Meta Analyses + Systematic Review (use Ctrl+click to select both types). To apply these filters after running a search, display your search history and edit the relevant search.
Download our guide to Searching Medline and CINAHL via EBSCO.
TRIP Database
Search the TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) database and use the ‘Systematic Reviews’ limit to filter the results. if you're not using an NHS PC, you'll need to register (for free) and login to use the filter, and you won't see as many systematic reviews.
TRIP searches the Cochrane Library, but also includes a number of sources not searched elsewhere
EPPI Centre (health promotion)
PEDro (physiotherapy)
OTseeker (occupational therapy)
OTseeker contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) relevant to occupational therapy. From 2016, OTseeker is less comprehensive and other resources should also be searched.
Campbell Collaboration (C2) (education, crime, justice and social welfare)
Unpublished reviews
Some systematic review protocols are published, and so may be found by searching sources for published reviews.
Another place to look for unpublished or ongoing systematic reviews and meta-analyses is the PROSPERO database. PROSPERO is an international prospective register of systematic reviews, and authors of reviews are encouraged to register their review.
Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)
A Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) is one in which participants are randomly assigned to two or more groups. One group (the experimental group) receives the intervention that is being tested and another (the comparison or control group) receives an alternative treatment or placebo. RCTs are considered a good source of evidence for questions on treatments and diagnosis.
Are you looking for published or unpublished/ongoing trials?
Published RCTs
These are some good places to look for published Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). Once you’ve found one, you could use the CASP Randomised Controlled Trial Checklist to critically appraise it.
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Many RCTs can be found by filtering your search to Limits > Additional Limits > Publication Type > Randomized Controlled Trial
Alternatively, for a more sensitive search, you could try the following search strategy (based on a Cochrane search strategy):
((randomized controlled trial).pt OR (controlled clinical trial).pt OR (randomi?ed).ti,ab OR (placebo).ti,ab OR (randomly).ti,ab OR (trial).ti OR "CLINICAL TRIALS AS TOPIC"/) NOT (ANIMALS/ NOT (HUMANS/ AND ANIMALS/))
Copy and paste this into the search box and run the search, then carry out your subject search and combine the results. This should pick up almost all articles that are randomised controlled trials, but will include some that are not.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
EMBASE
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
Many RCTs can be found by using the thesaurus term 'randomized controlled trial' and combining this with your search
Alternatively, for a more sensitive search, you could try the following search strategy (based on a Cochrane search strategy):
'CROSSOVER PROCEDURE'/ OR 'DOUBLE-BLIND PROCEDURE'/ OR 'RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL'/ OR 'SINGLE-BLIND PROCEDURE'/ OR (random* OR factorial* OR crossover* OR (cross ADJ over*) OR placebo* OR (doubl* ADJ blind*) OR (singl* ADJ blind*) OR assign* OR allocat* OR volunteer*).ti,ab
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Cochrane Library
A search of the Cochrane Library includes all of the databases, with results for RCTs displayed under the Trials tab if any are found.
This contains records from Medline and EMBASE, along with other published and unpublished trials
Download our guide to the Cochrane Library | Visit the Cochrane Library help page
PEDro (physiotherapy)
PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database and provides details of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy.
Most RCTs have been rated for quality to discriminate between trials which are likely to be valid and interpretable and those which are not.
OTseeker (occupational therapy)
OTseeker contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) relevant to occupational therapy. From 2016, OTseeker is less comprehensive and other resources should also be searched.
RCTs up to around 2013 have been critically appraised and rated to assist you to evaluate their validity and interpretability.
Unpublished or ongoing RCTs
ClinicalTrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov in an international registry and summary results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies.
International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Registry (ISRCTN registry)
The ISRCTN registry is a primary clinical trial registry recognised by WHO and ICMJE that accepts all clinical research studies and provides a unique identification number necessary for publication. Some none-RCTs are included.
You may also wish to search within Grey literature sources such as conference abstracts for details of unpublished RCTs.
Observational Studies
Observational studies can include cohort studies and case control studies. Where there are no RCTs available (perhaps because it is not appropriate to conduct one) they may be the best evidence available. Observational studies can help answer questions on prognosis, etiology and harms.
These are some good places to look for published observational studies. Once you’ve found one, you could use the CASP Cohort Study Checklist or CASP Case Control Checklist to critically appraise it if it is one of these two types of study.
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Observational studies can be retrieved by performing a subject search as normal, and then performing the following search (paste it into the search box) which is then combined with your subject search:
COMPARATIVE STUDIES/ OR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES/ OR TIME FACTORS/ OR (chang*).ti,ab OR (evaluat*).ti,ab OR (reviewed).ti,ab OR (prospective*).ti,ab OR (retrospective*).ti,ab OR (baseline).ti,ab OR (cohort).ti,ab OR ("case series").ti,ab OR (consecutive*).ti,ab OR (compare*).ti,ab OR (compara*).ti,ab
This is a very 'sensitive' search, so will pick up a lot of references to studies that are not observational, but it should ensure you get all the observational studies available. More information on this filter is available in this article.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
EMBASE
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
Observational studies can be retrieved by performing a subject search as normal, and then performing the following search (paste it into the search box) which is then combined with your subject search:
CONTROLLED STUDY/ OR TREATMENT OUTCOME/ OR MAJOR CLINICAL STUDY/ OR (chang*).ti,ab OR (evaluat*).ti,ab OR (reviewed).ti,ab OR (compare*).ti,ab OR (compara*).ti,ab
This is a very 'sensitive' search, so will pick up a lot of references to studies that are not observational, but it should ensure you get all the observational studies available. More information on this filter is available in this article.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research can help to understand the human experience of health and illness, and is an important part of evidence-based healthcare. Qualitative research can use various methods, such as grounded theory, phenomenology, or focus groups.
These are some good places to look for articles that use qualitative research methodologies. Once you've found one, you could use the CASP Qualitative Research Checklist to critically appraise it.
CINAHL
If you’re searching CINAHL using the EBSCO interface, this is an example strategy that can be copied and pasted into the search box:
(MH "Attitude+") OR (MH "Interviews+") OR (MH "Qualitative Studies+")
Once the search is complete, carry out a search for your topic of interest, and then combine the searches together.
These searches are fairly ‘sensitive’ and will pick up most articles that are qualitative research, but will include some that are not. However, they will vastly reduce the number of non-qualitative research articles in your results and make it easier to find qualitative research.
Download our guide to Searching Medline and CINAHL via EBSCO.
Medline
If you’re searching Medline using the Ovid interface, this is an example strategy that can be copied and pasted into the search box:
exp "QUALITATIVE RESEARCH"/ OR qualitative.ti,ab OR interview*.ti,ab OR experience*.ti,ab
Once the search is complete, carry out a search for your topic of interest, and then combine the searches together.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
If you’re searching Medline via the EBSCO interface, an example strategy to use is:
(MH "Qualitative Research+") OR (MP "Qualitative") OR (MP "Interview*") OR (MP "Experience*")
Copy and paste the strategy into the search box and run the search. Once the search is complete, carry out a search for your topic of interest, and then combine the searches together (you’ll need to view the search history to combine searches).
These searches are fairly ‘sensitive’ and will pick up most articles that are qualitative research, but will include some that are not. However, they will vastly reduce the number of non-qualitative research articles in your results and make it easier to find qualitative research.
Download our guide to Searching Medline and CINAHL via EBSCO.
Case Reports
These are some good places to look for case reports
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Case reports can be found by filtering your search to Limits > Additional Limits > Publication Types > Case Reports
EMBASE
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
Case reports can be found by using the thesaurus term ‘case reports’ and combining this with your search
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
BMJ Case Reports
BMJ Case Reports contains over 11,000 articles. It is indexed in Medline, but is worth searching separately. Access to the full-text of case reports is only available to Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust staff, but you can request copies of items from us.
Publishing a case report in BMJ Case Reports
Staff of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust can submit case reports to BMJ Case Reports using out Fellowship number which is 915046
Dissertations and Theses
These are some good places to look for dissertations
ProQuest Hospital Collection nursing dissertations
The ProQuest Hospital Collection contains over 30,000 nursing dissertations in full-text.
DART Europe E-Thesis Portal
DART Europe E-Thesis Portal contains details of over 1,100,000 open access research theses from universities in 29 European countries.
EThOS
The British Library's EThOS service contains details of over 400,000 UK doctoral theses. Some of these have links to full-text.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations is an international database of theses and dissertations, containing over 6 million records.
Grey Literature
Grey literature generally means material that is either unpublished or has been published in non-commercial form, and can include government reports, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, and research reports. Resources for locating Dissertations and Theses and Preprints are available separately.
These are some good places to look for grey literature. Once you've found some literature, you could use the AACODS Checklist to critically appraise it (unless there is a more appropriate CASP checklist).
HMIC (Health Management Information Consortium)
HMIC is good source for UK health related grey literature.
HMIC includes information from the Department of Health's Library and Information Service, and the King's Fund Information and Library Service. As well as official publications and grey literature, HMIC also indexes journal articles.
EMBASE (for conference abstracts)
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature. As of August 2019, 2.5 million conference abstracts from about 7,000 conferences are indexed in EMBASE.
Many conference abstracts are never published as full research articles, and those that are eventually published tend to be the ones with more positive results.
Conference abstracts can be found by doing a normal search in EMBASE, but it is possible to narrow your search to conference abstracts only by applying limits to your search using Limits > Additional Limits > Records From > Conference Abstracts
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
OAIster Database
OAIster contains more than 30 million records of open access grey literature resources, covering all subjects.
British Library Document Supply Centre Inside Serials & Conference Proceedings
The British Library Document Supply Centre Inside Serials & Conference Proceedings database is an index containing article details from the top 20,000 journals requested from the Document Supply Centre, along with papers from over 16,000 conference proceedings each year, covering all subjects.
It can be searched within the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub using an NHS OpenAthens account, and results can be filtered to just those from the British Library Document Supply Centre Inside Serials & Conference Proceedings database by using the 'Limit by Databases' filter on the left-hand side.
Pre-appraised Evidence
Pre-appraised literature has been reviewed for methodological quality, and finding an appraised version of an article can save time when doing a critical appraisal.
These are some useful resources for locating pre-appraised literature.
Systematic reviews or meta-analyses
Systematic reviews are considered to be a source of pre-appraised evidence as the included studies are critically appraised.
Journals of secondary publication / Abstraction journals (journal articles)
These journals take articles from elsewhere, summarise them and provide expert commentary.
PEDro (RCTs in physiotherapy)
PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database and provides details or randomised controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy.
Most RCTs have been rated for quality to discriminate between trials which are likely to be valid and interpretable and those which are not.
Economic Evaluations
These are some good places to look for economic evaluations. Once you've found an economic evaluation, you could use the CASP Economic Evaluation Checklist to critically appraise it.
CEA Registry
The CEA (Cost-Effectiveness Analysis) Registry is a collection of over 10,000 articles containing cost-utility analyses.
Medline
Medline is a very comprehensive database, with coverage of all areas of medicine, including nursing, allied health, public health and mental health. It contains over 23 million references, from over 5,600 scholarly journals.
Economic evaluations can be found by using a search strategy such as this one for Medline in the Ovid interface:
(ec).fs OR (cost).ti OR exp *"HEALTH CARE COSTS"/ OR exp *"COSTS AND COST ANALYSIS"/
Copy and paste this into the search box and run the search, then carry out your subject search and combine the two. More strategies can be found on the McMaster University website but they will need to be adapted for the interface you are using.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
EMBASE
EMBASE covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health. It is particularly strong on pharmaceutical information, and has an emphasis on European literature.
Economic evaluations can be found by using a search strategy such as this one for EMBASE:
exp *"COST EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS"/ OR exp *"ECONOMIC EVALUATION"/ OR (cost).ti OR (economic).ti,ab
Copy and paste this into the search box and run the search, then carry out your subject search and combine the two. More strategies can be found on the McMaster University website but they will need to be adapted for the interface you are using.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Medicines Information
These are some good places to look for medicines information. For more detailed information and advice on medicines use, you could try contacting the Medicine Information Service based at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
British National Formulary (BNF)
The BNF provides authoritative and practical information on the selection and clinical use of medicines.
It can be accessed electronically via NICE.
BNF for Children (BNFc)
Like the BNF, this can be accessed electronically via NICE.
electronic Medicines Compendium (eMC)
Gives access to Summaries of Product Characteristics (SPCs) and Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) for most UK-licensed products. SPCs are useful for checking the licensed indications, doses, cautions, contraindications, adverse affects and monitoring requirements of a medicine.
UpToDate drug interactions database
UpToDate includes a drug interactions database with content from Lexicomp. This allows you to enter a patient's medications (including herbal remedies where appropriate) to check for any interactions and their seriousness.
Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry
This can be accessed as an e-book via an NHS OpenAthens account.
EMBASE
EMBASE indexes journal literature, and although it covers all aspects of medicine, nursing, allied health, health policy, and public health, it is particularly strong on pharmaceutical literature.
EMBASE has much more detailed indexing of drug-related articles than Medline.
When using thesaurus searching for a specific drug, you can apply subheadings that offer choices of different routes of drug administration as well as 'adverse drug reaction', 'drug comparison' and 'drug dosage'.
Download our guide to Searching Healthcare Databases using Ovid
Medicine Information Service
The Medicines Information Service at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital may be able to provide further information and advice on medicines use, and has access to additional medicines information resources. For more information contact:
Medicines Information and Management
Pharmacy Department
Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
Tel: 01743 261175 or x1175
SaTH Intranet site