University Library: Evidence-Based Practice: Where should I search?

Selecting a database

The Evidence Pyramid provides a guide to levels of quality and the amount of research available at that level.

Bibliographic databases provide access to primary literature of all levels of the pyramid.

Point of Care Resources are secondary sources that bring together high-quality evidence to provide guidelines or recommendations for practice.

Walden University. (2020). Levels of evidence pyramid. https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/healthevidence/evidencepyramid

The Medical Research Library of Brooklyn: SUNY Medical Center. (2014). The Evidence Pyramid. https://guides.downstate.edu/c.php?g=856794&p=6152125

PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed is the free internet platform for searching Medline published by the US National Library of Medicine.

FiNDit
Simple search of most library resources.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
This database contains full text for many of the most used journals in the CINAHL index and is the core research tool for nursing and allied health literature.
Embase This link opens in a new window Embase is a subscription database from Elsevier that provides biomedicine literature. Embase contains journal articles, conference papers and abstracts and reports in biomedicine.
Medline (Ovid) This link opens in a new window
MEDLINE provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The world's most comprehensive full text source for fitness, health and sports studies journals.
APA PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
A major source of full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology, from the APA and affiliates.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, with journals, books and conference proceedings in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window
A regularly updated collection of seven evidence-based medicine databases containing high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window A multidisciplinary, global citation database covering a broad range of subject areas including the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. Useful for tracking where, by whom and how often an article has been cited.

UpToDate This link opens in a new window
UpToDate is an evidence-based clinical decision support tool, synthesizing the latest evidence to recommend best practices for thousands of conditions.
AusDI This link opens in a new window
AusDI delivers rapid access to latest drug monographs, pharmaceutical company product information, consumer medicine information documents product summaries and drug product images.
Note: Before you can access AusDI off campus or on your mobile, you must register for an account using a desktop PC or your laptop while on campus.
BMJ Best Practice This link opens in a new window
BMJ Best Practice is an easy-to-use decision-support tool that provides authoritative answers to clinical questions.
Therapeutic Guidelines This link opens in a new window
Therapeutic Guidelines is an Australian evidence-based resource which recommends therapies for common disorders seen in clinical practice.
Australian Medicines Handbook (AMH) This link opens in a new window
Concise, up-to-date source of independent drug information to facilitate effective, rational, safe and economical prescribing and dispensing. recommendations.

Boolean, truncation, phrase searching and wildcards

The Boolean search technique allows you to combine keywords with the operators 'AND', 'OR' and 'NOT'. They connect your search keywords/concepts together to either narrow or broaden your search results when searching databases. Using these operators, you are able to make your search more precise and save time.

AND: Narrows your search, combines different concepts, and retrieves results which contain both/all keywords.
OR: Broadens your search, combines similar concepts (synonyms), and retrieves results which contain either or both/all keywords. When using 'OR' wrap your synonyms in brackets.
NOT: Narrows your search, excludes unwanted terms from your search.

boolean operators illustrated

The truncation search technique allows you to search databases for variations and plurals of a word all at once. Using truncation will help you search faster because you do not have to manually type multiple endings of a word. The symbol for truncation is usually an asterisk (*), placed at the end of the root word, where the spelling of the word could change.
Note: Be careful where you place the *.
The keyword truncation 'commu*' will search commune,commute, communicate, community etc. which are unrelated words.
The keyword truncation 'touris*' will search tourist, tourists, tourism etc. but not tour or tours.

educat* = educate, education, educated, educational
adoles* = adolescent, adolescents, adolescence
contamina* = contamination, contaminants, contaminated, contaminate, contaminates

Phrase search technique allows you to search databases for an exact phrase. Using quotation marks (" ") around your search term will help you do a more precise search as it will only return results that contain the exact words in the same order.
Note: Only use phrase searching on widely accepted phrases. Be careful placing too many words in quotations, the database might not find any results.

"social media"
"climate change"
"job satisfaction"

Wildcard search technique allows you to search databases for alternate spellings and variations of a word by replacing a letter with question mark (?). It is useful for retrieving results with both US and UK spelling variations of a word. Using wildcard will make your search quicker because you do not have to manually type different spellings of a word.
Note: Wildcard symbols (? #, !) can vary by databases. Please check individual database help pages.

wom?n = woman, women

anal?se = analyse, analyze

Colo?r = color or colour

The key to successful database searching is to practice and use common search techniques along with Boolean searching. It is important to learn these so that you will be able to quickly retrieve relevant information. These videos by University of South Carolina Upstate Library explain some of the basic searching tricks and techniques that will enable you to create a more effective search.

Part 1: Boolean operators (AND OR NOT)
Part 2: Boolean & common search techniques

The interactive keyword tool from University of Wollongong helps you identify keywords in your assignment question and create a search string/query that can be copied and pasted into the search box of FiNDIt and most other databases. Scroll to the bottom of the webpage to use the tool.

Interactive Keyword Builder