Introduction to Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence that help medical practitioners and their patients make informed health decisions. Resources include systematic review, protocols, randomized controlled trials, and clinical answers, in addition to a growing collection of other resources.

What's included in the Cochrane Library?

• Over 8200 systematic reviews and over 2400 protocols - Each review answers a specific, clearly formulated question, investigates the effects of interventions, and is reviewed using stringent guidelines to determine whether there is conclusive evidence about a specific treatment.
• Central Registry of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) - Largest collection of randomized controlled trials. includes details from published articles . While the full text of the articles is not included, it does include bibliographic details and often the abstracts
• Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs) - A CCA provides a concise summary of a Cochrane Review designed to be more accessible in clinical settings. These are written by clinicians for clinicians in a Q&A format that provides the evidence to inform healthcare decisions.
• Editorials and Special Collections - Now includes Health Systems Evidence (HSE) and Social Systems Evidence (SSE) by McMaster University.

On this page:

• Searching in Cochrane Library
• Advanced Search Features
• Video Tutorials for Using Cochrane Library

Searching in Cochrane Library

You can access all content with a single search, or search by Reviews, Trials,  or Clinical Answers. Cochrane allows you to browse through these categories as well as see highlighted and trending reviews.

• MeSH Subject Terms - Use MeSH subject terms to get more relevant results. Subject headings are powerful because they are the words and phrases the database has tagged articles with.
• Keywords - You can also search by keywords to find articles that may not have been labelled with subject headings
• Limiters - Limit your search by date, publication, resource type by using the column on the left side of the screen.
• Truncation - Use the * to get results for all words with a specific root. For example using "nurs*" will get results for nurse, nurses, and nursing. This helps you get more complete results than using "nurse".
• Creating/Signing into personal account - Using the Sign In button, create a personal account in the database. You can save and share searches over multiple sessions. This is an excellent way to track and build your searches.

Advanced Search Features

• Use search filters to search for keywords in Abstracts.
• In Reviews, filter by
  • date
  • events that have affected the review,
  • type of question used addressed by the review
  • language (identifies when translations for content are available)
  • topic (selected by Cochrane)
• In CENTRAL, filter by
  • date (added to CENTRAL database)
  • publication year
  • source (limits to articles from PubMed, EmBase, CT, or WHOICTRP
• PICO Searches - Cochran also allows you to search with PICO filters and view PICO terms in your results.

Video Tutorials for Using Cochrane Library

Find more video and text resources at Cochrane Library's training hub here.