The Cochrane Library

libfhs@soton.ac.uk

University Library

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“Independent evidence to inform decision making in healthcare.”

The Library consists of seven databases:

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) – full-text Cochrane Reviews,

Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) – references for Clinical Trials,

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Cochrane Methodology Register (CMR) – Method Studies: references,

Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE) – Other Reviews,

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Database – Technology Assessments,

NHS Economic Evaluation Database (EED) – Economic Evaluations,

About the Cochrane Collaboration database – Cochrane Groups,

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www.thecochranelibrary.com

CDSR and the ‘About the Cochrane Collaboration’ database are updated monthly, the other databases quarterly. The Cochrane Library is currently freely available to everyone in the UK thanks to funding from the NHS. No password is needed although you will need to ‘Sign up’ if you want to save your searches or create alerts.

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Consider this search example

Identify measures which will lead to the prevention of falls and fall related injuries in the elderly.

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You could try a simple search…

Using the search term

fall

The Cochrane Library will automatically truncate your search terms for you, so this search will retrieve documents that contain…

fall, falls, falling, fallen etc.

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Search Results

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Select the title link to open the full-text Cochrane Review

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Scroll -down

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Look at the ‘Author’s conclusions’ and the ‘Plain language summary’

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Full-text options

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Go Back to your results

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‘Other Reviews’

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Follow the title link

17Reference details

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If you have too many results use the ‘Advanced Search’ option

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Browsing Cochrane Reviews

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Follow these links to browse

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Follow the links

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Use the ‘Full Article (HTML)’ or PDF link to open the Review

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For further information

See the ‘Learn’ and ‘Help’ links on the Cochrane Library homepage,

Or

Contact the Library team who support Health Sciences via… libfhs@soton.ac.uk