Research Guides: Cochrane Library: Clinical Trials

What is the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials?

CENTRAL includes details of published trials taken from bibliographic databases (notably MEDLINE and EMBASE), and other published and unpublished sources identified through the work of the Cochrane Collaboration. Meeting abstracts are included.

CENTRAL includes the title of the article, information on where it was published and, in many cases, the abstract.

Finding full text for CENTRAL Citations

CENTRAL does NOT include full text articles in the database.

Some records include a "Links" link, or url that might take you to full text. If you are off campus or asked to pay, follow the instructions below to get your article instead

Here are several ways to get to the full text of articles. If one method doesn't lead to the full text, don't give up. Try a different way.

Copy the exact article title or PMID into the PubMed Search box on the LHL Homepage and use Full Text@UAB Library to get full text.
Use Google Scholar, on the LHL homepage. Search article title. (in quotes) Be sure to change preferences to show LHL holdings
Try E-article citation matcher. Be sure to include a Journal, ISSN, DOI, or PMID
Check the catalog (LHL Homepage) or the E-Journals list to see if LHL has the journal online or in print.
Check with a librarian.
If no full text is available, request the article from ILLIAD.
Click here for help in using the Full Text@UAB Library button.

If you are using EndNote X2 or newer to manage citations, you can use EndNote to find many full text articles. Instructions

Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)

This tutorial (4:16) shows examples of a CENTRAL search and result set for clinical trials on COPD. It also provides tips to finding full text for relevant citations.

LHL Homepage Search Box

Click on the image below to go to the LHL Homepage https://library.uab.edu/locations/lister-hill to find full text. See the box on the left to see how.