Research Help
Need help with a literature review?
Your subject librarian can meet with you to help refine your search terms, advise on appropriate databases, discuss how to manage your search results, and consult on systematic or scoping review methods.
Book an online appointment here or contact ursula.ellis@ubc.ca.
If you're working on a systematic or scoping review, please complete this form:
woodward.library.ubc.ca/research-help/evidence-synthesis/
Workshops are regularly offered on a wide range of topics, including literature reviews and systematic reviews.
Key Resources
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Library Access browser extensionInstall to get easier, faster access to full text articles and ebooks.
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MEDLINE (Ovid)Premier biomedical database with over 30 million journal articles in the life sciences. Similar to Pubmed in content, this OvidSP interface facilitates structured searching and allows editing of search histories.
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PubMed (1946 - present)Premier database containing over 30 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a focus on biomedicine. Freely available and includes MEDLINE. This link goes to the version with UBC elink.
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EMBASE (Ovid)International (but European-focused) biomedical database with strengths in drug-related and rehabilitation sciences subjects.
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des LibrisSearchable access to current public documents issued by Canadian public policy and health research agencies and think tanks, as well as books from over 70 Canadian publishers.
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Web of Science Core CollectionMultidisciplinary database of journal articles and conference proceedings, used for citation analysis of research. Includes access to EndNote Basic, a web-based version of EndNote.
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NCCPH PortalFind reports and resources from the 6 Canadian National Collaborating Centres for Public Health (Indigenous Health, Determinants of Health, Environmental Health, Public Policy, Infectious Diseases, and Methods and Tools)
Featured resource: Understanding Research Evidence videos from NCCMT
Quick explanations of review types, relative risk, NNT, types of reviews, odds ratios, confidence intervals, forest plots, clinical significance, and more. Produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools.
Critical Appraisal Resources
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MetaQATCritical appraisal checklist from Public Health Ontario (tool starts on page 12 of the PDF). Useful for any research design.
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Clinical Evidence Made Easy by ISBN: 9781907904202Publication Date: 2014-05-15Second half of this book includes appraisal checklists for a variety of different types of evidence. -
Evidence-Based Practice Across the Health Professions by ISBN: 0729582272Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Statistics Canada Real Time Remote Access
The Statistics Canada's Real Time Remote Access (RTRA) program allows authorized users to run SAS programs against selected Statistics Canada microdata. See the Statistics Canada website for more information on the program and the complete list of surveys and metadata.
The video below provides more detail on the RTRA program, as well as describing alternative data sources to the microdata available in Research Data Centres. The health-focused content begins around 40:00.