Skip to Main Content

Systematic Reviews

What is Translating?

Translation

The translation process is where the search strategy is adapted to search within the other prespecified databases. This ensures all possible research has been acquired for screening. The three databases Cochrane recommends* for systematic reviews include: 

*Refer to Cochrane Handbook Chapter 4: Searching for and selecting studies, #section-4-3-1-1

Embase

Covers literature stretching back to 1947. It utilizes the Emtree subject heading list. Embase is an Elsevier product with over 32 million records, and it includes MEDLINE titles. It is important to use both Embase and MEDLINE because Embase does have more titles indexed than MEDLINE. 

Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)

The CENTRAL database should be searched because of its concentration of random controlled trials (RCTs). Systematic reviews should capitalize their research on these study types for proper investigations of how an intervention performed in a clinical setting. CENTRAL's records come from a host of biomedical databases. These include: Embase; PubMed/MELDINE; CINAHL; ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO'S ICTRP, KoreaMed, Cochrane's Specialized Registers, and hand searched sources.* 

*The information above was found here, where you can learn more about how CENTRAL is created. 

MEDLINE

This database provides all the resources available in PubMed. Research teams are encouraged to use MEDLINE instead of PubMed because of MEDLINE'S advanced search features. This enables the information specialist to have more tools to develop a more comprehensive search. UTHealth students and users can access MEDLINE (Ovid) through the Texas Medical Center Library.

Translation Demo