LibGuides: Systematic Review Guide: Search the Evidence

Choosing Databases

The databases listed below are freely available through the institution and are the most relevant to COM researchers and faculty. Choose the databases based on your research question—a systematic review requires one to search through multiple databases.

Database	Scope
OVID MEDLINE	Provides access to MEDLINE database Includes the allied health fields, biological and physical sciences, humanities, and information science NY Tech subscription
PubMed	Provides access to MEDLINE database, in-process citations, and manuscripts. Biomedical and life science literature Publicly available
CINAHL	Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature Nursing, biomedical sciences, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, and 14 other alllied health disciplines NY Tech subscription
Cochrane Collection	Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Cochrane Protocols NY Tech subscription
Scopus	Includes some records from MEDLINE and EMBASE databases Physical sciences, health sciences, social sciences, and life sciences literature NY Tech subscription
ProQuest	Abstracting and indexing for key titles Access to different tailored collection: Health & Medical, Healthcare Administration, Nursing & Allied Health, Psychology NY Tech subscription
Google Scholar	Publications not covered by academic databases Publicly available

Grey Literature

Grey Literature refers to literature outside of traditional commercial publishing. This means it includes literature produced by government agencies, unpublished manuscripts by academics, business or industry documents, dissertations & theses, clinical trials, conference proceedings, and more.

It is recommended to include grey literature as it will include research from emerging areas of interest and also is likely to include research where there were null or negative results since those results often do not get published. Do keep in mind, grey literature usually has not undergone a peer review or editing process the way books and journal publications have been. For government materials, keep in mind longevity and save a copy of the information.

Are you studying adverse effects? All the more incentive to look at grey literature. Due to ethical concerns, some trials may cease if a certain dosage proved to be too harmful. Most systematic reviews of adverse effects did not include unpublished data.

Types of Grey Literature

Unpublished trial data
Policy papers
Pre-print articles
Annual reports
Blogs
Statistical reports

Market reports
Newsletters
Pamphlets
Press releases
Survey results
Regulatory data

Conference abstracts and presentations
Government publications
White papers
Patents
Dissertations & theses

Sources for Grey Literature

⭐️ ClinicalTrials.gov
You can search by condition and/or intervention. The U.S. government does not review or approve the safety and science of all studies listed on this website.
European Medicines Agency
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU). It is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines.
The search at the top box of the homepage searches the entire website for the search term. If you click the Medicines tab in the homepage, it will search for authorised medicines only, based on the active substance or medicine name you type in.
U.K. Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency
The U.K.'s regulating body of medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
The Clinical Trials Search Portal provides access to a central database containing the trial registration data sets provided by registries from around the globe. It also provides links to the full original records.
Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)
This database provides access to over 35,000 quality assessed systematic reviews of health and social care interventions, over 17,000 economic evaluations of health and social care interventions,a nd more.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar could be used to find publications that are not covered by academic databases, especially when a research area has had limited publications. Finds papers, theses, books, abstracts, articles, and citations.
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.
NY Academy of Medicine Grey Literature Report (last updated 2016)
This report is a bimonthly publication of The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) alerting readers to new grey literature publications in health services research and selected public health topics. The database platform is keyword searchable and serves as an archive for the cataloged reports. Although it is no longer updated, existing reports can be found through the NYAM catalog.
medRxiv
medRxiv is a free online archive and distribution server for complete but unpublished manuscripts (preprints) in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences.

Attribution

In addition to credit given for various images, parts of this guide were adapted from work/guides by:

UNC, Johns Hopkins Welch Medical Library, University of Exeter Library, Cornell University

Used with permission or in accordance with Creative Commons Licensing.