Table 1.
Overview of searched databases, trial and dissertation registers and conference proceedings, and the number of references found
| Number | Discipline | Database | Searched time period | References found, n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Education | Academic Search Premier | 1975 to Feb 2007 | 1040 |
| 2 | Medicine | AMED | 1985 to Feb 2007 | 623 |
| 3 | Education | ASSIA | 1987 to March 2007 | 353 |
| 4 | AEI | 1979 to Feb 2007 | 84 | |
| 5 | BEI | 1975 to Feb 2007 | 18 | |
| 6 | Medicine | BNI | 1985 to Feb 2007 | 54 |
| 7 | CINAHL | 1982 to Feb 2007 | 1606 | |
| 8 | Cochrane Library | 1948/1995 to march 2007 | 363 | |
| 9 | Digital dissertations | 1930 to March 2007 | 30 | |
| 10 | DIMDI | 1967 to March 2007 | 130 | |
| 11 | Sports | EMAERALD | 1965 to March 2007 | 134 |
| 12 | Education | ERIC | 1966 to Feb 2007 | 795 |
| 13 | Medicine | GMS meetings | 2002 to March 2007 | 1 |
| 14 | ISI Proceedings | 1990 to March 2007 | 241 | |
| 15 | Music | JSTOR | 1665 (1800) to Feb 2007 | 200 |
| 16 | Psychology | PsycINFO | 1887 to Feb 2007 | 4588 |
| 17 | Music | RILM | 1967 to March 2007 | 180 |
| 18 | Medicine | Scopus | 1996 to Feb 2007 | 2550 |
| 19 | Sports | SPORTDiscus | 1800 to Feb 2007 | 4023 |
| 20 | Sports | SPORLIT, SPOFOR, SPORMED | 1974 to Jan 2007 | 589 |
| 21 | Medicine | ClinicalTrials.gov | 1997 to March 2007 | 12 |
| 22 | ISRCTN | 1998 March 2007 | 2 | |
| 23 | National Research Register | 2000 to March 2007 | 16 | |
| 24 | Web of Science | 1970 to March 2007 | 2837 | |
| 25 | Zetoc | 1993 to March 2007 | 1270 | |
| Total | 21,739 | |||
AMED = Allied and Complementary Medicine, ASSIA = Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, AEI = Australian Education International, BEI = British Education Index, BNI = British Nursing Index, CINAHL = Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, DIMDI = German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information, ERIC = Educational Resources Information Center, GMS = General Medical Services, ISI = Web of Knowledge, JSTOR = Journal STORage, RILM = Répertoire international de Littérature Musicale, SPORLIT = Sporlit(eratur), SPORFOR = Sporfor(schung), SPORMED = Spormed(ia), ISRCTN = International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number