Where should I search for evidence?

1. Search engines

Healthcare specific search engines are freely available resources which allow you to search across a number of good quality, health-related resources.  You will find a wide range of different types of information, including high quality evidence.  These search engines are a particularly good source of secondary evidence in the form of systematic reviews, evidence summaries and guidelines.

Click on the logos to try out these resources

Evidence Search		Provided and managed by NICE Filters enable you to narrow down your search. Filter by type of information to restrict your search to high quality evidence like systematic reviews Good source of guidelines
TRIP		PICO search available Results colour-coded by type of information - easy to identify high quality evidence Good source of both primary and secondary evidence

2. Databases

Databases are the best resources to perform a comprehensive search for published, academic research, both primary research and systematic reviews.

Many databases are subscription resources.  The links below will re-direct you to the Queen Mary login page, where appropriate, if you access them off campus.

Cochrane Library		Excellent resource for evidence based practice High quality pre-appraised reviews freely available full-text Abstracts of other reviews and clinical trials	Cochrane Library guide
PubMed		Search interface for the Medline database Biggest biomedical database Freely available, but the link here will give you easier access to full text articles provided by Queen Mary	PubMed guide
Web of Science		Subscription resource Covers a range of subject areas, including medicine and dentistry	Web of Science guide
Scopus		Subscription resource Covers a range of subject areas, including medicine and dentistry	Scopus guide

3. Guidelines

There are a number of sources where you can search for guidelines and clinical recommendations which are based on the current best evidence.

National Guideline Clearinghouse		Provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services A repository of international clinical guidelines
NICE		Produce evidence based guidance and advice for health, public health and social care practitioners Not much for dentists, but other medical guidance may be helpful
SIGN		Develop evidence based clinical practice guidelines for the NHS in Scotland SIGN have produced their own dental guidelines
ADA		Resources to aid dental professionals in clinical decision making  Clinical practice guidelines Also critical summaries and other resources
Royal College of Surgeons		Clinical guidelines from the Faculty of Dental Surgery Also links to endorsed guidelines produced by individual specialty societies