Evidence searches to support teaching and presentations

Guidance for this type of search.

Notes

The suggested time to allocate to this search: from 2-5 hours.

Please read:

  • "All evidence searches" (see "Quick links") before proceeding
  • and the "Supplement" section for examples of this type of search

Planning

This search need not be exhaustive if the purpose is to provide an update and/or overview of a topic for the requester.

Results can be limited to those published in the last 5-10 years unless a historical focus is required, or if there is a lack of recent evidence.

Execution

Try searching Clinical Decision Support tools and emailing relevant entries to the requester, or copying and pasting relevant text from entries - along with hyperlinks to the full entries - into a report.

Search the Trip Database using these filters to identify recent high quality evidence:

  • “Latest and Greatest” or
  • the “all secondary evidence”, plus
  • the last-5-years

Consider searching other high tier evidence sources such as the:

  • Cochrane Library
  • Campbell Collaboration

Consider a search of your local discovery tool or the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub (KLHub), using the following limits from the menu on the left column of the results screen to narrow your results down:

  • peer-reviewed evidence
  • full text availability, from the last 5 years
  • the “search within the full text” option removed
  • the “apply relevant subjects” option removed
  • English language

Search the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) if the subject of the search involves teaching and consider a search of the NHS Learning Hub if the requester is looking for learning/teaching materials.

Limit database results to review papers/important trials/consensus statements/guidelines.

If the steps above do not yield anything useful, search appropriate bibliographic databases (and preprint servers) according to your topic.

Results

Aim to provide up to 25 results as a word or PDF report with the search strategy included (but be reassured that if your topic is very narrow there may not be 25 results!)

Include the full text of papers wherever possible, and/or highlight the open access papers amongst your results, so the requester can easily share them with students or colleagues if needed.