Psychology: Evidence-Based Practice

Levels of Evidence

Synthesis Reviews

Are you thinking of conducting a synthesis review (systematic review, scoping review, realist review, etc.)?

Consult this Synthesis Review Toolkit which was developed to guide individuals from various academic backgrounds through their journey of conducting a synthesis review.

Key Sources for Finding Evidence Reviews

Cochrane Library "A collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Cochrane reviews represent the highest level of evidence on which to base clinical treatment decisions". Includes:
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Cochrane Library Tip:

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: choose the Advanced Search > Search Limits to limit to Cochrane Reviews.

APA PsycInfo To find find evidence-based reviews in PsycINFO:
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law. .

PsycINFO Tips:

Search by subject headings: Evidence-Based Practice and Best Practices are both recognized subject headings. Combine both of these subject headings with a specific psychological term.
Limit by Methodology: Systematic Review is a Methodology limiter, so to is Meta Analysis (Additional Limits). The broader Literature Review is also available.

MEDLINE (via Ovid) Major bibliographic database for clinical medicine:
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

MedLine Tip:

Limit to Systematic Reviews under Subject Subsets (Additional Limits).

Embase Biomedical and pharmaceutical database
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law. .

Embase Tip:

Limit to EBM-Evidence Based Medicine (or a subset, ex: Systematic Review) under Additional Limits.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Nursing and allied health database
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

CINAHL Tips:

Under "Refine your results", choose "Show More"; Evidence-Based Practice is an option.
In the Publications Type menu, you can select Systematic Review.

What is Evidence-Based Practice?

The APA defines evidence-based practice (EBP) as "the integration of the best available research with clinical expertise in the context of patient characteristics, culture and preferences".

Other commonly-used terminology used within EBP is Empirically Supported Treatments (EST) and Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions (EBPI).

Evidence-Based Behavioral Practice (EBBP)

The Evidence Based Behavioural Practice site "creates training resources to help bridge the gap between behavioral health research and practice".

This comprehensive website includes: