LibGuides: Research and Scholarly Activity Guide for Psychiatry Faculty, Residents, Fellows, and Students: Databases for Literature Reviews

How do I choose which databases to use?

Where you look depends on your disciplinary area/content of your research question and the publication type you seek.

Look for systematic reviews first in the Cochrane Library, Campbell, PsycINFO (a primary psychology/psychiatry database), and PubMed (MEDLINE) (a primary health and science database).
If you do not find systematic reviews in any of these databases, try looking for any reviews or individual research studies on your topic/question in PsycINFO and PubMed (MEDLINE).
You will also want to check into non-database resources (see Additional Resources for Psychiatry Searches tab to the left).
This is a good time to consult with us if your searches are not bringing back the search results you need.

Cochrane Library
A collection of databases that contain independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Includes Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Methodology Reviews, Cochrane Methodology Register, Health Technology Assessment Database, and NHS Economic Evaluation Database.

Campbell Collaboration
An international social science research network that produces high quality, open and policy-relevant evidence syntheses, plain language summaries and policy briefs.

PsycINFO (Ovid)
Provides access to abstracts of articles, books and dissertations in the psychological, social and behavioral sciences. Produced by the American Psychological Association.
PubMed (MEDLINE)
PubMed and Ovid's MEDLINE both offer tools for searching MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine’s database for journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.