Search for Articles

Simple searching

To locate journal articles, we recommend the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub as a good starting point. This includes CINAHL and Medline databases for journal article searching, as well as other databases for articles and grey literature.

The Hub makes accessing the full-text of articles easier, and if we don't have access to a particular article, you can link to our request form where the item details are added automatically.

An NHS OpenAthens account is required to search the Hub.

For information on getting the best out of searching the Hub, download our guide to Searching the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub or watch our short video.

Advanced searching

For more advanced searching for articles, there are a number of databases available to the NHS. An NHS OpenAthens account is required to search these databases.

EBSCO

  • CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
  • Medline (General medical database)

Download our guide to searching Medline and CINAHL via EBSCO.

Ovid

Download our guide to searching databases using the Ovid interface.

ProQuest

  • AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine)
  • BNI (British Nursing Index)
  • Medline (General medical database)
  • PsycINFO (Psychology and allied fields)

Dialog

  • AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine)

Additional databases

More databases are available, and you can find out more by visiting the Journal Article section of the Knowledge Navigator. The Knowledge Navigator also includes advice on locating specific types of evidence, such as systematic reviews, RCTs and qualitative research.

Still struggling to find articles? You could Request an Evidence Search.

Searching Effectively

To help you locate the information you need quickly and effectively, it is important that you plan your search and use the search tools provided by each database. We can provide help and training on all of the available databases.