Searching the Biomedical & LIfe Sciences Literature

Pubmed Central (PMC)

PMC is the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.  

PMC International (PMCI)

PMCI is a collaborative effort between the US NIH and NLM (National Library of Medicine), the publishers whose journal content makes up the PMC archive, and organizations in other countries that share the interest of the NIH and NLM in archiving life sciences literature.  Currently the NLM supports two PMCI Centres:  UKPMC (United Kingdom) and PMC Canada.

BioMed Central

BioMed is a Science, Technology and Medicine publisher and has pioneered the open access publishing model, with the conviction that open access is essential to ensure the rapid and efficient communication of research findings.  All original research articles published by BioMed Central are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication.

Searching for Evidence and Systematic Reviews

The Cochrane Collaboration

The Cochrane Collaboration is an independent, not-for profit organization, funded by a variety of sources including governments, universities, hospital trusts, charities and personal donations.  Its contributors are a mix of volunteers and paid staff based all around the world.  The core mission of this collaboration is to produce systematic reviews of health interventions, however its contributors are involved in a number of related activities, including advocacy for evidence-based decision-making, providing training in Cochrane Review preparation, developing the methodology for preparing reviews, and translating them from English into a variety of different languages.

Health Systems Evidence

Launched by McMaster University Health Forum on December 12, 2011, as “the world’s most comprehensive, free access point for high-quality evidence on health systems” this is a redeveloped version of the site created two years ago. Relevant to policy makers, researchers and health care providers, continually updated syntheses of research studies that address health system governance, financial, economic and care delivery strategies are accessible, along with value-added summaries, quality rating and currency of syntheses, and countries in which studies were conducted. Free registration isrequired.

Systematic Reviews Journal

All articles published by Systematic Reviews are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers.