Research Databases

Databases and Literature Searching

Databases

Bibliographic Databases

Databases providing access to bibliographic references in journals, books, conference proceedings or other publications. In the main these sources only provide references to items that are not full text.
Some exceptions are included in the list such as Clinical Evidence, the Cochrane Library and Nursing and Allied Health Comprehensive Collection.

Research/Theses and Grey Literature Databases

Provide unpublished information on research in progress or completed research with contact details of researchers; theses and grey literature. These sources make it possible to find this information before publication.

Accessing databases :

NHS Staff

Some databases are only available for NHS staff in England via :

the National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH),
for NHS staff in Scotland via the elibrary
for NHS staff in Wales via Health of Wales Information Service
Northern Ireland via Health on the Net, Northern Ireland

Access from universities

If you work or study at a university please check with your university library for access details to databases.

Free Access

If databases are indicated to be 'Free on the Web' this means they are free to everyone

Clinical Databases accessed via the NeLH

These clinical databases listed below can be accessed through the NeLH using and Athens login and password :

Cinahl - Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature

This database encompasses authoritative coverage of nursing and allied health. It provides access to a large proportion of English-language nursing journals. Coverage is from 1982 onwards.

Psycinfo

Produced by the American Psychological Association, PsycINFO is a comprehensive source for bibliographic coverage of psychology and behavioural sciences literature. Available from 1887 to present.

Embase

This database comprises a collection of biomedical discipline-specific databases. It includes abstracts from other medical disciplines of relevance. Available for the past ten years.

AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine)

AMED covers complementary medicine, occupational therapy and rehabilitation. It covers relevant references from over 500 journals. Available from 1985 onwards.

British Nursing Index

British Nursing Index contains citations from over 220 British and English language nursing related journals.

DH-Data

Articles indexed from about 2,000 mainly English-language journals are included, together with documents of books, reports, pamphlets, administrative circulars and other official publications.

Zetoc

The British Library's Electronic Table of Contents database, contains the table of contents of over 20,000 scientific journals and 16,000 conference proceedings published per year.

More information in online help and training on using Dialog

Other databases

Health and social science information

PubMed / MEDLINE - Free access

This is a major source of reference in the biomedical field. It covers approximately 3,200 journals worldwide and has free access. This can also be accessed through the NeLH clinical databases list.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

ASSIA - Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts - Free to NHS Staff in Scotland

This database covers the whole area of the social sciences from 1987 onwards. It provides information for social workers, health professionals and other caring professions. Subscription required.

http://www.csa.com/factsheets/assia-set-c.php

NMAP - Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Gateway

Nursing & Allied Health Comprehensive Collection is a valuable resource of evaluated websites for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers.

http://www,nmap.ac.uk

e-BMJ Nursing section - Access to the electronic nursing section of the British Medical Journal

http://www.bmj.com/search.dtl

HELMIS - Subscription only

This is a unique source of information for Health Management Policy comprising the Department of Health, the King's Fund and the Nuffield Institute of Health databases.

http://tinyurl.com/5gpuu

Grey literature

SIGLE database - Subscription only

Grey literature documents covered on the British Library SIGLE database include technical or research reports, preprints, committee reports, working papers, dissertations, conference papers, discussion and policy papers, government reports, market surveys etc.

https://stneasy.fiz-karlsruhe.de/html/english/login1.html

Theses

British Thesis Service

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/atyourdesk/docsupply/collection/rct/

This service provides access to most theses submitted for doctoral degrees in the UK and includes theses from most UK universities.

Brief records of theses are available on the British Library catalogue .
http://blpc.bl.uk/
For further information on subjects of theses held contact the British Thesis Service by e-mail or by telephone at 01937 546229 . e-mail - dsc-british-thesis-service@bl.uk Web

Statistics

Statbase database

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/ss.asp

Department of Health Statistics & Surveys

http://www.doh.gov.uk/public/stats1.htm

Research

Current Controlled Trials

http://www.controlled-trials.com

Health Technology Assessment

http://www.ncchta.org/

CenterWatch Clinical Trials Database

http://www.centerwatch.com/

National Research Register

http://www.nihr.ac.uk/databases/Pages/default.aspx

National Collections giving access to healthcare information

The British Library Healthcare Information Service
Floor 2, British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, UK.
Tel: 020 7412 7489
Fax: 020 7412 7954
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpsubject/scitectenv/medicinehealth/index.html
Email: mailto:hcis@bl.uk

National Library of Ireland
Kildare Street, Dublin2, Ireland
Tel: +00 353 1 603 02 00
Fax: +00 353 1 676 66 90
http://www.nli.ie/
Email: mailto:info@nli.ie

National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EW,
Scotland
Tel: 0131 226 4531
Fax: 0131 622 4803
http://www.nls.uk/
Email: enquiries@nls.uk

National Library of Wales
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Cymru/Wales SY23 3BU
Tel: 01970 632 800
Fax: 01970 615 709
Email: holi@llgc.org.uk
http://www.llgc.org.uk/

King's Fund Infomation and Library Service
11-13 Cavendish Square, London, W1M 0AN
Tel: 020 7307 2584/2580
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/library/

Evidence Based Practice

The purpose of this section is to provide a basic understanding of how to search the literature for evidence based practice.

Hierarchy of evidence

When searching for evidence it is best to work down the hierarchy as Moore (1995) sets out below:

The key terms to use when searching for evidence to add to the keywords relevant to your topic include the following:

Meta-analysis

"the use of statistical techniques in a systematic review to integrate the results of included studies. Sometimes used as a synonym for systematic reviews where the review includes meta-analysis".
It should be noted that meta-analyses do not always use a systematic approach to collecting and reviewing the evidence and thus they should not always be considered as a true systematic review.

Systematic review

"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".

Randomised/randomized controlled trial (RCT)

- "an experiment which investigators randomly allocate eligible people into intervention groups to receive or not receive one or more interventions that are being compared. The results are assessed by comparing outcomes in the treatment and control groups". These are considered as the 'gold standard' because they try to reduce bias in the study design.

Cohort studies

"an observational study in which a defined group of people (the cohort) is followed over time. The outcomes of people in subsets of this cohort are compared, to examine for example people who were exposed or not exposed (or exposed at different levels) to a particular intervention or other factor of interest".

Case control study

"a study that starts with identification of people with the disease or outcome of interest (cases) and a suitable control group without the disease or outcome".

[Ref: Cited directly from the Cochrane Library Database Glossary, 2002]

Key resources to search for:

Evidence Based Practice

Cochrane - A database of systematic reviews giving access to full text.

http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/index.html

Trip - Identifies medical literature from a wide range or resources. It's metasearch engine gives a collated ouput from different sources.

http://www.tripdatabase.com/

DARE - A database of structured abstracts of quality assessed reviews.

http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/darefaq.htm

Clinical Evidence - Provides high quality information to people providing and receiving care and those responsible for research, teaching, funding and administration at all levels.

http://www.library.nhs.uk/evidence/

Bandolier - An independent journal about evidence-based healthcare.

http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/

Health Evidence Bulletins, Wales - These act as signposts to the best evidence across a broad range of evidence types and subject areas.

http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/ehcb.htm

Effective Healthcare Bulletins - A bulletin for decision makers which examines the effectiveness of a variety of health care interventions.

http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/ehcb.htm

Effectiveness Matters - Provides updates on the effectiveness of important health interventions for practitioners and decision makers in the NHS, summarising the results of high quality systematic reviews

http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/em.htm

ScHARR - Netting the Evidence - Netting the Evidence is intended to facilitate evidence-based healthcare by providing support and access to helpful organisations and useful learning resources, such as an evidence-based virtual library, software and journals.

http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/ir/netting/

MIDIRS - The Midwives Information and Resource Service holds a database of good practice in midwifery and childcare. This can be accessed only by subscription only.

http://www.midirs.org

SHOW - Scottish Health on the Web gives a comprehensive list of links to resources on evidence based practice. There are links to resources on clinical effectiveness, outcomes and to general information.

http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/

Clinical Guidelines

NICE Guidelines - Gives a list of published guidelines

http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?c=20034

NeLH Guidelines Finder - The Guidelines Finder provides an index to clinical guidelines and currently holds details of over 1000 UK national guidelines with links to Internet downloadable versions of the guidelines. It is updated on a weekly basis.

http://www.library.nhs.uk/GUIDELINESFINDER/

e-Guidelines - A three times a yearly handbook, published on-line summarising guidelines for primary and shared care

http://www.eguidelines.co.uk/

SIGN - Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network - SIGN has a programme of 77 evidence-based clinical guidelines - published, in development, or under review - covering a wide range of topics.

http://www.sign.ac.uk/index.html

New Zealand Guidelines Group - Takes into account effectiveness in International and national clinical research-based evidence; Improved patient/consumer outcomes and satisfaction; Service delivery improvements; and Rational resource use.

http://tinyurl.com/45uzh

Canadian Medical Association Infobase - Clinical practice guidelines

http://mdm.ca/cpgsnew/cpgs/index.asp

National Guidelines Clearing House

http://www.guideline.gov/

Filters and Search Strategies

Filters and search strategies have been predefined to make searching for evidence based literature easier. Some examples are:

University of Illinois, Chicago, Applying Clinical Search Filters

http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsp/resources/filters.shtml

University of Rochester - Evidence Based Filters for Ovid Medline
http://tinyurl.com/52vlf

Searching for best evidence in clinical journals (NHS Research & Development Centre for Evidence Based Medicine)

http://www.cebm.net/

Medline - PubMed filter system

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/clinicaltable.html

Literature Searching

Literature searching can be defined as "a systematic and thorough search of all types of published literature in order to identify as many items as possible that are relevant to a particular topic" (Gash, 1989 p1).

Purposes of searching the literature

To find information for an essay / assignment / report / book / presentation / a course reading list / an interview

Generally keeping up to date with published literature

To support evidence-based practice

To find out information on specific conditions or explore areas in which you are unfamiliar

To find outcome measures

To find information in order to collaborate with others working in similar areas, to find out ways to improve practice and also to prevent reinventing the wheel