Systematic & scoping reviews

Where to search for existing reviews/protocols

Checking existing reviews/protocols ensures that you are not repeating someone else’s work and that you are not wasting resources. It is always necessary to check whether a systematic review answering your question has already been conducted, or is currently being undertaken. This may help you in choosing or refining a review topic. These sources are useful for determining whether a recent review has already been performed on your topic:

PROSPERO International register of prospective systematic reviews
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Covers all areas of medicine and health
Joanna Briggs Institute EBP Database (OVID) Primarily covers nursing disciplines, with more medical and allied health content available recently
DoPHER Covers both systematic and non-systematic reviews of effectiveness of health promotion and public health worldwide
DARE - Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects
NOTE: no longer active - records available until 31st March 2015
Contains thousands of systematic reviews including several quality assessed reviews
The Campbell Collaboration online library Covers the fields of education, crime and justice, social welfare, international development and nutrition
EPPI-Centre knowledge library Covers a wide range of topics including health conditions, education and social policy, health promotion and public health and health systems and development
NeuroBITE - formerly PsycBITE Covers cognitive, behavioural and other treatments for psychological problems in Acquired Brain Impairment
OTseeker Occupational therapy interventions
PeDRO Physiotherapy evidence database
SpeechBITE Speech pathology treatment evidence
TRIP - Turning research into practice Clinical search engine which located high-quality research evidence, including systematic reviews