Barwon Health Library Service: Literature Searching/Research Guidance

The library has put together a recommended list of databases for you to search for your literature

• Research Databases - More info...
  • you can filter your databases to search by using dropdown menu at the top of the page.
• Grey Literature Databases - More info...
  • Grey literature is defined as material created by government agencies, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not published by commercial publishers and is not indexed in bibliographic databases.

Google Scholar- This is a custom link which enables linkages to library full text content.

PubMed Clinical Queries - Results are limited to specific clinical research areas

Barwon Health Library Catalogue - Use the 'Resource Type' filter on the left-hand side of the results page to narrow results to just articles or books

PubMed - citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Look for the Library Logo to the top right on the results page after clicking on the article title. LibKey Nomad Chrome browser extension makes accessing full text PDFs even easier through Pubmed

EMBASE- Covers the most important international biomedical literature from 1947 to the present day. Look for the Library Logo on the right for full text and article request options.

Medline - information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Look for the Library Logo on the right for full text and article request options.

Cochrane Library - is a collection of high-quality, independent evidence

CINAHL Complete - provides full text coverage to over 1,300 titles including nursing specialties, speech and language pathology, nutrition, general health and medicine and more.

PsycINFO - a database providing abstracts of peer-reviewed behavioral sciences and mental health journals, articles, books, and more

TripPRO - a clinical search engine designed to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support practice and/or care.

For more suggested databases refer to the full list on this page.
Use the drop down menus at the top of the page to find the best database for your search

By being systematic in your literature searching you will obtain results that are more relevant to your information needs.

The library has developed a Literature Searching Strategy Planner to help you to refine your search question and develop your search in a strategic way.

For information on accessing your articles please refer to Accessing Articles from your Literature Searching

Book a Consultation if you need any expert assistance with your literature searching.

For more information on Evidence Based Practice and Evidence Based Literature see our Evidence Based Practice in Health information page

RefWorks is a reference management system where you can:

1. Collect citations
2. Manage citations, by folder or a searchable database
3. Cite using proper formatting in a variety of citation styles (e.g. APA, AMA, Vancouver, etc)
4. Share research with colleagues

Since RefWorks is accessible from the web, it can be used from any computer connected to the internet.

Click Here for more information on setting up your Refworks account

As you start to search through the literature for evidence you will come across different types of reviews or studies. 

Some of these studies may include:

• A Literature Review which provides an overview of a topic.
• A Systematic Review which addresses a clinical question
• A Meta-Analysis which combines data from other studies
• A Narrative Literature Review which critiques and summarises a body of literature about a topic

See our Types of Reviews Guide for a more comprehensive list of descriptions of the different review types 

JBI has developed some Critical Appraisal Tools  which contains checklists to critically appraise the different  studies and reviews        

PICO is one type of framework to develop an evidence based practice literature search strategies.

The acronym stands for:

• P - Patient, Problem, or Population (What is the condition or disease?)
• I - Intervention (What do you want to do with this patient?)
• C - Comparison, or Control, or Comparator (What is the alternative to the intervention?)
• O - Outcome (What are the relevant outcomes?)
• May add T – type of question – diagnosis/Harm, Therapy, prognosis, prevention, and/or S – study – what would be the best study design/methodology
• Note that your clinical question may not use all the sections in PICO when building your search strategy.

You can also consider alternatives to PICO. including SPIDER, COPES, ECLIPSE, PIPOH, PECODR etc) based on field of study (eg: medicine, OT, social work, speech pathology, oncology etc).

Please contact us or Book a Consultation for more information on using PICO or other evidence based literature searching tools