Sources of evidence range from free but authoritative sites such as The Cochrane Library (free in Australia) to the online databases to which Charles Sturt Library subscribes:

General EBP Resources

• The Cochrane Library
  Probably the biggest and best-known EBP resource, free to Australian users and consisting of several databases. The main databases are:
  • Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
  • Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
  • Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)

• TRIP: Turning Research Into Practice
  A free clinical search engine for finding high-quality research evidence.

• EvidenceAlerts
  A searchable database of the best health-care evidence, where articles are pre-appraised for quality and clinical relevance. Free, but registration is required.

Journal Databases - for a range of materials including systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials:

• MEDLINE
  Recognised as the premier international index of biomedical literature, and available here in the Ovid platform..

• PubMed
  Effectively the public equivalent of MEDLINE, and free to all users.

• CINAHL Plus with Full Text
  CINAHL stands for Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. It is available to Charles Sturt users in the EBSCOhost platform.

• PsycINFO
  Produced by the American Psychological Association and available in the Ovid platform.
   

Abstraction Journals - contain summaries of systematic reviews or of single studies:

• EBM Reviews - ACP Journal Club
  This journal is available as an Ovid database. It consists of two journals, now merged: ACP Journal Club and Evidence-Based Medicine. Each record in the database is an abstract and commentary on an individual study or review. The abstract and commentary is available in full-text, with a citation for the original item.

• Evidence-Based Mental Health
  This eJournal contains commentaries on articles of clinical relevance to psychiatrists and psychologists. Each commentary summarises an article's key findings and implications for clinical practice. Available in various databases so the link here is to the Primo Search record, from where you can choose your preferred access.

• Evidence-Based Nursing
  As for the journal above, this eJournal contain commentaries on articles of relevance to best nursing practice. Each commentary summarises key findings and implications for clinical practice.  Available in various databases so the link here is to the Primo Search record, from where you can choose your preferred access.

Clinical Practice Guidelines 

• Guidelines
  Access to clinical practice guidelines produced for Australian practice and assessed against selection criteria, from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

• Medical Journal of Australia Guidelines
  From the website of the Medical Journal of Australia, Article Types > Guidelines and Statements.

• Guidance
  Evidence-based recommendations from the (UK) National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

• Professional organisations can be a source of practice guidelines.

See also the box below on Grey Literature.

Other specialised resources

• Better evidence
  A free resource of evidence-based practice material related to education, criminal justice, and social welfare, from The Campbell Collaboration.
   
• ACCESSSS
  One-stop access to pre-appraised evidence. Registration is required but free. Search results are hierarchically organised.
   
• PEDro
  A free Australian database of evidence related to physiotherapy.
   
• OTseeker
  A free Australian database of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials related to occupational therapy.
   
• speechBITE
  A free Australian database of evidence-based practice resources at various levels, related to speech pathology.
   
• NeuroBITE (previously PsycBITE)
  A free Australian database of evidence-based practice resources at various levels, related to acquired brain impairment.

Grey literature "refers to print or electronic literature that is produced by government, academia, business and industry, and is not controlled by commercial publishers ... i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body."  (ICGL Luxembourg definition, 1997. Expanded in New York, 2004.)

Grey literature does not form a part of traditional publishing, and is not widely disseminated. It can include a huge range of resources form theses and dissertations, through conference proceedings, government documents, and research reports to digital repositories and registers of clinical trials.

For more information, see Charles Sturt Library's guide on Grey Literature.