Subject databases
Ensure you search a wide range of subject specific databases in order to capture the full extent of published journal literature on your topic. Databases all index a different set of journals, and while you can expect some overlap you will also find unique content in each database.
Most subject areas will have specific core databases that the majority of systematic reviews will use, and then additional subject-specific databases depending on the topic.
If you're unsure about the key databases to search for your review:
- check the databases listed on the relevant subject guide
- consult the librarian for your subject area
- check other systematic reviews
Key medical and health databases
- Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) This link opens in a new windowAMED provides an alternative medicine database for physicians, therapists, medical researchers and clinicians looking to learn more about alternative treatments with coverage being mainly European.
- CINAHL Ultimate This link opens in a new windowA core research database of Nursing and Allied Health information. Additional materials include Evidence-based Care Sheets, Quick Lessons and continuing Education Modules.
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new windowA collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Find Systematic Reviews, Clinical Trials, Method Studies and more.
- Embase This link opens in a new windowInternational biomedical and pharmacological database, indexing literature from 1947 to the present. Embase has a broad biomedical scope, with in-depth coverage of pharmacology, pharmaceutical science, and clinical research.
- Emcare This link opens in a new windowCovers all nursing specialties and nursing healthcare professions. Emcare includes international coverage of Allied Health, Education and Training, Development and Management, Midwifery, Health and Healthcare Economics, Clinical Medical and Healthcare Social Work, Psychiatry and Mental Health, and Traumatology, Emergency and Critical-Care Medicine.
- MEDLINE This link opens in a new windowAn international database indexing the biomedical literature and produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). MeSH (medical subject headings) is the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus, used in MEDLINE indexing.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowContains peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health specifically Psycho-social, Psychological or Human Experiences.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowComprises more than 26 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to open access full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. Link to ECU subscribed full text via Findit@ECU.
- SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new windowKey database for sports science, indexing journals and other materials in all aspects of sport.
Citation databases
Citation searching is an important addition to database searching and handsearching. It can help you tract a particular study over a period of time - allowing you to follow the the study both forward and backward in time, to see if they are relevant to your review.
To do this, search for a key article, then use the database's functionality to link to citations and references for that article.
Citations and references of key articles are an important supplementary source of published literature and will often help you to discover additional studies that have not appeared in the search results of your database searches.
Citation databases:
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science is a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, and provides both author and journal metrics (performance analytics) of the literature indexed in the database. - Scopus This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, and provides both author and journal metrics (performance analytics) of the literature indexed in the database.
Australian Databases
- Informit This link opens in a new window
An extensive range of authoritative subject-based databases featuring coverage of Australian and international information resources. Including Health, Engineering, Business, Education, Law, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Databases may be searched individually, or collectively by subject groupings or across all databases.
Additional Databases
- Current Contents ConnectProvides access to the tables of contents and bibliographic data from current issues of the world's leading scholarly research journals covering all disciplines.
- Education Source This link opens in a new windowInternational education database. Covers Early Childhood to Higher Education, Multilingual Education, Health Education, and Testing
- ERICERIC is the core database for education, including clinical teaching and medical education.
- OT seekerOT seeker is a database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials are selected from a wide range of sources and can be searched by keywords or diagnosis/subdiscipline (eg. mental health). Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist in evaluation of validity and interpretability.
- PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database) This link opens in a new windowA free database of over 43,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy.
- PsycTestsWebsite: "PsycTESTS® is a research database that provides access to psychological tests, measures, scales, surveys, and other assessments as well as descriptive information about the test and its development and administration."
- REHAB+Searchable database of recent journal article citations, with ratings of their relevance and importance by practicing occupational and physical therapists. You must register with the website to search the database.
- Trip Medical Database This link opens in a new windowA clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.
National Library of Medicine products
Database Searching Tips
1. Identify main concepts and keywords. Search the main concepts first, then limit further as necessary.
2. Find Synonyms (Boolean OR broadens the search to include alternative keywords or subject thesaurus terms):
- pediatrics OR children
- teenagers OR adolescents
3. AND (Boolean AND joins concepts and narrows the search) :
- occupational therapy AND children
- stress AND (occupation OR job)
4. Be aware of differences in American and English spelling and terminology. Most databases use American spelling and terminology as preferred subject terms.
5. Use Truncation (putting * at the end of a word stem will search all forms of the word):
- disab* (disability, disabilities, disabled)
- child* (child, children, childhood, children's)
- manag* (managment, manager, managers)
6. "...." (inverted commas) use for a phrase
- "mental health"
- "occupational therapy"
7. Wildcard ? will search for any single letter in the space. e.g. wom?n will search women, woman, organi?ation will search organisation, organization.
8. Wildcard * can also be used where alternate spelling may contain an extra character. e.g. p*ediatric, will search paediatric or pediatric, behavio*r, will search behaviour or behavior.