GalterGuides: Evidence-Based Clinical Practice: Unfiltered Information

What is Unfiltered Information?

Evidence is not always available via filtered resources. You may need to search for unfiltered resources, which are original articles or studies, i.e. primary literature. It is possible to use specific search strategies in MEDLINE and other databases to achieve the highest possible level of evidence.

Where to Find Unfiltered Information

PubMed
To limit your PubMed search to the best evidence-producing studies: Click on "Clinical Queries" under "PubMed Tools" on the PubMed home page. This specialized search is intended for clinicians and has built-in search filters. Once you run your initial search, five study categories--therapy, diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, and clinical prediction guides--are provided to help you refine. You may also indicate whether you wish your search to be broad (i.e., include most relevant articles but probably including some less relevant ones) or narrow (i.e., including mostly relevant articles but probably omit a few).
MEDLINE (Ovid)
To limit your Ovid MEDLINE search to the best evidence-producing studies: Use Clinical Queries in Ovid (similar to PubMed, but with additional categories); click on "Additional Limits" to access this feature.
Cochrane Centralized Register of Controlled Trials Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) is a bibliographic database of definitive controlled trials and provides bibliographic information (not full-text) on nearly 500,000 reports of trials identified by Cochrane contributors.
PsycINFO
Produced by the American Psychological Association, this database is a comprehensive index to the professional and academic literature in psychology, counseling and related disciplines. Covers 1860-present.

To limit your PsycINFO search to the best evidence-producing studies: Click on Advanced Search and limit to "methodology" types, such as "randomized controlled trial."

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Allied Health Literature)
To limit your CINAHL search to the best evidence-producing studies: Click on the ‘Limits’ icon to use ‘Clinical Queries’ or limit to ‘Research’ or other ‘publication’ types (i.e., systematic review).