About Finding Articles and Evidence
All of the resources listed on this page are either freely available or are available through subscriptions (marked with lock icon). If you are off-campus, you may be prompted to sign in with hawk id and password.If you experience any difficulty with access or would like to recommend a resource to add, please contact the guide owner.
The databases listed on this page are excellent places to start a literature search. Please schedule a consultation if you need help finding, organizing, or formatting references.
Orthopedics Liaison Librarian
Point of Care Tools for Finding Evidence
- Cochrane Clinical Answers This link opens in a new window "Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs) provide a readable, digestible, clinically focused entry point to rigorous research from Cochrane systematic reviews. They are designed to be actionable and to inform decision making at the point of care. Each Cochrane Clinical Answer contains a clinical question, a short answer, and an opportunity to ‘drill down’ to the evidence from relevant Cochrane reviews."
- DynaMed This link opens in a new window DynaMed Plus (Dynamic Medical Information System) is a quick and easy-to-use medical reference system designed for use at the point of care. It contains clinically organized summaries of thousands of topics and is updated several times daily from review of the research literature. Providing the most current, unbiased, evidence-based information to enable physicians to help them provide the best care possible to their patients, DynaMed is a useful resource in clinical, educational and research settings.
- UpToDate This link opens in a new window UpToDate is a practical clinical information service designed to provide instant access to just the information you need. It is written by a recognized faculty of experts who each address a specific clinical issue. They synthesize the latest evidence and best practices and provide detailed recommendations. [Access to UpToDate is co-funded by the Carver College of Medicine and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.]
Key Health Sciences Literature Databases
Refer to the list below for a starting point in finding health sciences literature. Select the UI LInk button to determine if electronic access is available. 
- Embase This link opens in a new window Due to higher security needed, EMBASE now requires a login for all exports. [Help Searching Embase]A biomedical and pharmaceutical database contains bibliographic records with abstracts from EMBASE (1974-present) and Medline (1966-present) deduplicated and searchable with EMTREE. (See the available Help Sheet)
- PubMed This link opens in a new window Provides access to bibliographic information in Medline and other sources. (See the available Help Sheet). For full functionality, log in to your MyNCBI account..
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- CINAHL This link opens in a new window RECOMMEND USING CHROME [Help Sheet for Search CINAHL - PDF] CINAHL Plus provides indexing for 3,024 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing back to 1937. CINAHL Plus also contains searchable cited references for more than 1,160 journals. Full text material includes more than 80 journals plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. Offering complete coverage of English-language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association, CINAHL covers nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines. NB: 20 concurrent user limit
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- Web of Science This link opens in a new window [Help Searching Web of Science]A citation reference that includes Science Citation Index (1900-present), Social Science Citation Index (1900-present), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Book Citation Index- Science (2005-present), Book Citation Index- Social Sciences & Humanities (2005-present), and Medline, and links to Journal Citation Reports and EndNote web version. If you experience trouble connecting to WoS from off-campus, try clearing your cache or changing browsers. Firefox seems to be best for this.
- Scopus This link opens in a new window [Help Searching Scopus]Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new window The APA PsycINFO database from the American Psychological Association (APA) covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. PsycINFO's peer-reviewed coverage is worldwide, and includes references and abstracts to 2,400 journals in more than 30 languages, and book chapters and books in the English language. Coverage spans 1600s – present and includes over 5 million peer-reviewed records.
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the world's best medical research studies, and are recognised as the gold standard in evidence-based healthcare.
EBP Overview
Evidence-Based Clinical Practice (EBCP): Evidence-based practice is the judicious use of the best research evidence (found in health sciences literature), clinical expertise (what the health care provider knows) and patient values (what the patient wants and believes) to create a plan of action regarding patient care. Evidence-based practice is an umbrella term that covers evidence-based medicine, evidence-based dentistry, evidence-based public health, evidence-based nursing and etc.
Additional EBP Learning Resources
- JAMAevidence This link opens in a new windowIncludes text of two books (Users' guides to the medical literature : a manual for evidence-based clinical practice and The rational clinical examination : evidence-based clinical diagnosis), education guides, glossary, calculators, worksheets, question wizards, weekly RSS feed of featured JAMA articles, compiled clinical scenarios, podcasts, and user-level customization features.
Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: a Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice, 3E by ISBN: 0071790713Publication Date: 2014-12-30The leading guide to the principles and clinical applications of evidence-based medicine. Revised and updated to reflect the latest in medical research and evidence-based resources.
The Rational Clinical Examination by ISBN: 9780071590303Publication Date: 2008-09-15The ultimate guide to the evidence-based clinical encounter. Completely updated with new literature analyses, here is a uniquely practical, clinically relevant approach to the use of evidence in the content of physical examination.
More Guides for Critical Appraisal
- Evidence Based Medicine ToolkitFrom the University of Alberta, this resources provides tools for identifying, assessing, and applying relevant evidence to make better health care decisions.
- AFP EBM ToolkitThis resource from American Family Physician provides a variety of EBM resources.
- Interpreting and Understanding Meta-analysis Graphs--A Practical GuideRied, Karin. Australian Family Physician 35, no. 8 (2006): 635-8. This article provides help for appraising forest plots in meta-analyses.
How to Read a Paper Series
- How to Read a Paper: Papers that Report Diagnostic or Screening TestsBritish Medical Journal
CMAJ Evidence-Based Medicine Series
The following series of articles from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, published between 2004 and 2005, include tips for learners of EBM and overcoming challenges for instructors of EBM.