Finding the Evidence
Once you have formulated a good clinical question and determined the domain into which it falls, you are ready to start your search for evidence. Begin your search in filtered sources. These are relatively small sized databases that contain the highest forms of evidence, often systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials.
When entering your search use terms that describe the P and I of your PICO question, that is the patient and intervention, and the C or comparison if relevant. Look for desired outcomes in the resources themselves.
Use variant terms, such as transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation OR TENS. Where appropriate, use truncation to retrieve different word endings. For example, immobili* will retrieve immobilize, immobilise, immobilized, immobilised, immobilization and immobilisation.
Use AND when both concepts are required. Use OR when either one term or the other is required. Nest terms joined by OR in parentheses, for example, (chronic OR long term) AND low back pain.
Once you have found one or two good quality studies that address your PICO question, you can stop searching the literature.
- From the Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy, University of Sydney
- Contains references to systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials and practice guidelines only
- RCTs are scored out of 10
- Updated every two weeks
- Truncation symbol is * and can be used at the beginning and end of words
- Menu based interface
- Produced by the Cochrane Collaboration
- Includes the full text of completed Cochrane Reviews and reviews in progress, which are called protocols
- Abstracts of completed reviews can also be found in PEDro
- Includes access to the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and DARE
- Updated quarterly
- Truncation symbol is *
- Use History to review and combine sets
If you have not found a relevant study in either PEDro or Cochrane, move onto the larger, unfiltered databases.
- Available on EBSCO
- Search one concept at a time and combine sets with OR and AND
- Truncation symbol is $
- Under the Limit function, note the publication types: research, clinical trial and systematic review
- Note limit to "Special Interest Categories" for Physical Therapy
- Use the GetIt! link to check if library subscribes to journals of interest
- To learn more about searching CINAHL, see the Help screens
- From the National Library of Medicine (US)
- Contains references to more than 14 million articles
- AND and OR must be upper case
- Updated daily
- Truncation symbol is *
- Use Clinical Queries filters for high quality studies and systematic reviews
- Use Limits for publication types (meta-analysis, randomized controlled trial), ages, dates, language
- Use History to review and combine sets
- To learn more about searching PubMed, see the QuickStart Guide to Searching PubMed.
Consider also searching in such specialized databases as
- EMBASE, a European database similar to MEDLINE
- Ageline, from the American Association of Retired Persons
- Scopus, an interdisciplinary database
- Sport Discus, covering all aspects of sports, including sports medicine and therapy
- Web of Science, an interdisciplinary database.
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