Evidence-Based Dentistry: Searching
for Evidence

Lister Hill Library has both online journals and an extensive print journal collection.  Some print journals in the collection are over 100 years old!  Currently, we purchase e-journals, not print.  Use the library catalog or e-journal list to see what holdings the library has for a specific journal.

To find journal articles, use a database to search by subject, author or specific journal. The  list of LHL resources is found on the Databases page.  You can also use the quick links for the PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar databases located on the LHL homepage.

Some useful databases for finding evidence for dentistry are:

• Cochrane Library (systematic reviews and more)
• Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source  (dentistry journals)
• PubMed  (biomedical)
• Google Scholar  (Google search of scholarly articles)
• Scopus  (science, social sciences,biomedical and more, includes times cited and bibliographies)

After retrieving citations, link to full text when available using the green  "Full Text @ UAB Libraries" button . 

If the article is not available at LHL, LHL Interlibrary Loan can get the article for you in 1-2 business days for UAB affiliates.  Learn more about all document delivery services.

1. Identify key concepts and brainstorm search terms and synonyms. Watch this tutorial to learn more

2.  Build search strings using "AND" "OR" and, sometimes, *"NOT"

•  Learn more about Boolean operators here 
• "AND" narrows your topic, "OR" broadens it

3.  Choose the right resources or databases to search. Use articles to find evidence for evidence-based dentistry.

4. Each database searches differently. Some use subject terms that include popular synonyms.  Others search by keyword. Use search tips or Help files in each database to focus your searches

5.  Ask a Librarian if you get stuck.

*Use NOT only rarely; employing NOT in a search can easily lead to missing articles that might have been useful and on-topic