Evidence-Based Research

Where to Find Evidence (Summary handout: Where to find evidence)

Grey Literature: Search the internet to locate evidence from organizations, academic institutions, and government agencies:

• Professional organization websites may have research and conference proceedings available (URLs end in .org)
• Academic institution websites may have research conducted by the institution's faculty and students available (URLs end in .edu)
• Government agency websites may have research and varies forms of government documents available to the public from their websites (URLs end in .gov)

Journal Articles: Locate journal articles in the following databases available at SPC libraries:

• Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)
• CINAHL Complete (EBSCOhost)
• MEDLINE with Full Text (EBSCHOhost)
• Nursing @ Ovid
• Nursing and Allied Health Source (ProQuest)

Note: HEC students should go to Library Orientation LibGuide and click on the Find Articles tab for information on searching for journal articles.

Clinical Guidelines and Cochrane Reviews: Locate clinical guidelines and Cochran reviews by searching the following:

• CINAHL Complete (database available via SPC Library)
• Cochran Reviews (database available via SPC Library)
• Google (google.com)
• PubMed: This is the National Library of Medicines database (MEDLINE). Though most of these are abstracts only, citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and/or the publisher website. 

Note: See Locating Clinical Guidelines handout for sample searches

Government Documents: Locate government documents by searching the following:

• U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO)

Note: See Searching for Government Documents handout for sample searches

Books: Locate books by searching the following:

• SPC Library Catalog

Note: See Search for Books at SPC Libraries video.

• WorldCat (Search "....10,000 libraries worldwide")