Witer Learning Resource Centre research services
Information/research requests
We can:
- Recommend web accessible resources to search
- Suggest alternative words or boolean logic to help refine the search
- Provide limited searching on a topic/keywords. If you are unsuccessful searching available resources, we can expand the search and provide a list of up to 20 citations
Research services do not include:
- Comprehensive searching of all possible literature on a topic. We provide a list of up to 20 citations
- Critical evaluation of search results. It is your responsibility to determine the validity and usefulness of the search results
- Rush requests
To request research or information fill out an Information Request Form.
Finding clinically relevant research
Note: These databases contain both restricted and free journal articles.
| Database | Details |
|---|---|
| The Cochrane Library |
The Cochrane Library provides systematic review abstracts, technology assessments, economic evaluations and individual clinical trials. |
| TRIP | Access to evidence-based medicine: synopses, clinical questions, systematic reviews, guidelines etc. |
| PubMed | Most comprehensive biomedical journal index |
| PubMed Central Canada | A partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI), the Canadian National Science Library, and the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM). All material is Open Acess and free of charge. |
| PubMed Clinical Queries | Quick search for clinical queries |
| BioMed Central | Peer-reviewed biomedical research |
| Google Scholar | Extensive coverage of optometric content |
Finding patient information
| Database | Details |
|---|---|
| MedlinePlus | Produced by the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health's website for patients brings you free information about diseases, conditions, and wellness issues in plain language summaries. |
| TRIP | Use the "Patient Information" tab following a search for your research question of interest. |
| eTherapeutics | Pharmaceutical drug overviews available under the "Info for Patients" tab. |
| American Optometric Association | The Centre for Healthy Vision pages provide public-focused information for patients. |
| Cochrane Library |
The Cochrane Library provides free plain language summaries for all their systematic reviews. |
In addition to our available electronic resources, the Association of Vision Science Libraries provides a current list of free open access journals.
