Table 3.

Databases to be used in the systematic review

Database	Details
AMED	Allied and Complimentary Medicines Database, with a focus on complimentary medicine, palliative care, and professions allied to medicine
ASSIA	Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts; includes literature from psychology, sociology, medicine, anthropology, politics, and law
CENTRAL	Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; summary details of published and unpublished trials
CINAHL	Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. Includes over 2.6 million records dating back to 1981; books and dissertations also included
EMBASE	Excerpta Medica Database covers biomedical and pharmacological literature
ERIC	Education Resources Information Center (ERIC); described as the world’s largest database of educational literature
HMIC	The Health Management Information Consortium; brings together the bibliographic databases of two UK health and social care management systems: the Dept of Health’s library and information services and King’s Fund information and library services. Includes grey literature
MEDLINE	Covers health-related journals worldwide, focusing on evidence/research based work; includes in-process and non-indexed items
PsycINFO	Abstract database providing systematic coverage of psychological literature as far back as the 1800s
PubMed	Includes Medline, plus a comprehensive and broad-ranging selection of health-related journals and books
Discovery	University of Edinburgh accumulated databases and resources