Literature Searching

When you open the OVID database platform there are many options to chose from!  EBM Reviews is a collection of evidence-based medicine databases that provide reliable information on the effects of interventions in health care. 

Here's a brief description about each of the databases:

ACP Journal Club  consists of two journals, ACP Journal Club and Evidence-Based Medicine. The editors screen the top clinical journals for articles, and write enhanced abstracts and commentary on the study's value, helping clinicians to quickly understand and apply to their practice important changes in medical knowledge, without having to read and synthesize thousands of journal articles.

Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials contains over 300,000 bibliographic references to controlled trials in health care together with references to clinical trials identified by contributors to the Cochrane Collaboration in MEDLINE and EMBASE. 

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews includes full-text systematic reviews of methodological studies and protocols which summarize the background and the rationale of the review.

Cochrane Clinical Answers contain a clinical question, a short answer, and an opportunity to ‘drill down’ to the evidence from relevant Cochrane reviews.

Cochrane Methodology Register includes journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, conference abstracts and reports of ongoing methodological research. The register aims to include all published reports of empirical methodological studies that could be relevant for inclusion in a Cochrane methodology review, along with comparative and descriptive studies relevant to the conduct of systematic reviews of healthcare interventions.

Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects contains critical assessments of systematic reviews from a variety of medical journals. Its records cover topics such as diagnosis, prevention, rehabilitation, screening, and treatment.

Health Technology Assessment brings together details on ongoing health technology assessments (studies of the medical, social, ethical, and economic implications of healthcare interventions)

NHS Economic Evaluation Database contains over 17,000 records of quality assessed economic evaluations. The database aims to assist decision-makers by systematically identifying and describing economic evaluations, appraising their quality and highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses.

EBM Reviews Full Text -Cochrane DSR, ACP Journal Club, CCA, and DARE allows you to simultaneously search these databases.

All EBM Reviews allows you to search simultaneously all of the Evidence Based Medicine Reviews databases.

Full Text of a Systematic Review

Systematic reviews are not journal articles. The "full text" of the review can be very long, over 50 pages, and even 200 pages.

Ovid offers several ways to view a Cochrane Systematic Review. 

Full Text Review: includes the detailed literature search methods, description of both included and excluded studies, analysis of methodology, and context with other reviews. Full Text Reviews can be downloaded as a pdf, between 50 and 200 pages long.

Abstract Reference may provide most of the immediately useful information (Background, Objectives, Search Methods, Selection, Main Results, and Author's Conclusions). These are long but not available as a pdf. 

Complete Reference  adds to the Abstract Reference, the bibliography listing all relevant studies in that Systematic Review.  It cannot be download as a pdf.  If exported to Refworks or other citation managers, the Complete Reference will include the bibliography in the 'Abstract' field.

Check the right side panel and click on the content you would like to view e.g. Complete Reference or Full Text Review.  

Table of Contents will find all reviews and protocols published by that Cochrane Group of reviewers.  It is not the Table of Contents to the specific review.

BC Cancer Library provides the full text of all Cochrane Systematic Reviews. The link to "Other fulltext options" will not find more content for a Cochrane Systematic Review.

Other Cochrane and EBM Reviews Results

Completed Cochrane Systematic Reviews have the full text available in Ovid. Other EBM Reviews databases provide different "full text" results.

• See the database description (above) to understand what is being provided.
• Cochrane Clinical Answers provide a detailed evidence summary for a clinical question, at the Ovid Full Text link. They are not provided as a PDF, but can be quite long to print (e.g. 15 pages of dense text with significance plots). 
• Most EBM Reviews databases have the full text of the critique or analysis of the study or article, and not the original article itself.  "Other fulltext options" may not take you to the article, either. 
• Search for the original article separately, using the citation given in the record (review, critique, or register).
• Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials does link out to the original article (if available) via Other fulltext options.

If you are having trouble finding the full text for some records, check the record type and look for a reference to other articles.  The title of the original source may be different than the title of the review or summary record. 

You can use keywords to search most of the EBM Reviews databases.