Cochrane Library General Information
What is Cochrane Library?
The Cochrane Library (ISSN 1465-1858) is a collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.
- Cochrane LibraryHigh-quality, independent evidence includes Cochrane systematic reviews plus the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and the Clinical Answers database. Coverage: Current. Produced by the Cochrane Collaboration.
- Cochrane Database of Systematic ReviewsSystematic reviews in health care and health policy prepared by The Cochrane Collaboration. Systematic reviews use Cochrane's methodology and seek to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Coverage: Current. Produced by the Cochrane Collaboration.
- Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)Randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials in health care database. Records derived from PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and ClinicalTrials.gov, as well as other published and unpublished sources. Produced John Wiley & Sons Ltd with contributions by Elsevier and EBSCO Publishing.
Accessing Cochrane Library
Visit the Himmelfarb Library homepage at himmelfarb.gwu.edu. In the Popular Resources box under Databases, select All Databases, then find and select Cochrane Library.
Cochrane Library Tutorials
Watch the video above or read the instructions below to learn how to conduct a search in Cochrane Library.
Conducting an Advanced Search
In Advanced Search, there are four tabs to choose from.
- Search allows you to enter a basic search. You can specify search fields here, such as title or author.
- Search Manager gives you the ability to build a more complex search with multiple lines.
- Medical Terms (MeSH) allows you to search by NLM medical subject headings.
- PICO Search allows you to search by PICO terms.
Using Search Manager
Here, you can add and combine lines to your search strategy. You can also specify search fields and search MeSH terms.
Consider the following example (click on image to expand it). In Line 1, we are searching for the keywords "child" AND "psychiatry" in the title/abstract/keyword field. In Line 2, we are searching for the MeSH term "child". In Line 3, we are combining our searches from Lines 1 and 2.
The number in the blue box to the right of each line tells us how many search results that search gets. Click on the blue box to see the results.
Click on image to expand it in a new tab.
Search Results
The search results are separated into several tabs.
So what's included under each tab?
- Cochrane Reviews: Published systematic reviews
- Cochrane Protocols: Systematic reviews in progress
- Trials: Randomized controlled trials (from CENTRAL Register of Controlled Trials)
- Clinical Answers: Summaries of Cochrane reviews, written for clinicians by clinicians
To the right of these tabs, there is a drop-down tab ("More") which provides access to Health Systems Evidence and Social Systems Evidence, repositories from McMaster Health Forum.
Exporting Results
1. Click Select All or select the specific articles you want from the results lists.
2. Click Export Selected Citation(s).
3. Choose the RIS (EndNote) format and click Download.
