There are 5 databases of particular interest for researching Evidence-Based medicine.
To search the Cochrane Library, enter a term or terms into the single search box located on the main page on the right-hand side. If you want to narrow your search from the beginning, click the link under the main search box, “Advanced Search”.
Advanced Search
1. Enter the first search term in the box to search “Title, Abstract, or Keywords.” If this limits your search too much, change the drop-down box to “Search All Text.”
2. To enter a second term, click the + icon and a new search box will be added. Select the appropriate connecting term on the left. AND, OR or NOT. “AND” will look for both terms in the “Title, Abstract, or Keywords”. “OR” will look for either term in the “Title, Abstract or Keywords.” “NOT” will include the first term but not the second. Enter your search term.
3. Enter more boxes as desired.
4. Click Go.
5. On the next screen in the right-hand column, you can limit to the database you are viewing results. The top radio button will give you theCochrane Reviews.
6. If you need to limit further, by date for example, click the Search Limits in the search box. You can limit the date range of your results. Typically this should be the last 5-10 years. Click Apply.
Once the results appear, click on the title to take you to the record which includes the full-text of the item.
NOTE: If you did not get a good representative number of results, you may need to broaden your search by using synonyms or closely related words.
To search the PubMed, enter a term or terms into the single search box located at the top of the main page. Terms can be separated by the operators AND, OR, and NOT. If you want to narrow your search from the beginning, click the link under the main search box, “Limit”. The most important limit is by date. There is also an “Advanced” link which gives you more options, but is complex to use.
To search the PEDro, click on either the simple search or the advanced search. The advantage to the Advanced Search is limiting by date. In either simple or advanced you can enter the operators AND, OR, and NOT. I would not recommend using most of the other search boxes under Advanced unless you are looking for a particular article or have too many results. Click on the title to see the full-text. Many of these link to a generic journal page, but you can check Full-text Finder and find the full-text if available to Marietta College users.
To search the TRIP database, enter a term or terms into the single search box located on the main page on the left-hand side. Terms can be separated by the operators AND, OR, and NOT. One nice feature of this database is after you search, there are filters on the results page for the type of article. Click on the title to access full-text. Many of the these links went to PubMed which should lead you to full-text articles if available from Marietta College.
To search the SUMSearch 2, enter a term or terms into the single search box located on the main page on the left-hand side. This site does support the “AND” operator but I’m not sure about “OR” or “NOT.” (The database returned inconsistent numbers) If you want to narrow your search from the beginning, there are a few options under the main search box. This site only displays the first 50 citations. SUMSearch lists the PMID (PubMed Identifier) or the DOI (Digital object identifier). Click on the PMID if available and you can identify whether it is available full-text to you. If no PMID, then the DOI (Digital Object Identifer) is the next best bet.
PMID: PubMed Identifier
Once at PubMed, if a full-text link displays, full-text may be available online.
DOI: Digital object identifier
Usually links to the publisher’s site. Sometimes goes to the article; sometimes to the journal; sometimes to the publisher’s homepage. If you see Marietta College or OhioLINK somewhere on the page, chances are you will be able to get the article full-text. The DOI must begin with http://dx.doi.org/[DOI]
Full-text Finder: A list of all the electronic, print and microfilm titles available to Marietta College users. Full-text finder
ILL form: If you cannot get the article full-text, you can try to request it through our ILL service.
