Sources eUvidence indexes for medical literature search
The corpus underlying eUvidence is restricted to peer-reviewed medical literature, Cochrane systematic reviews, and European regulatory and HTA references. Every citation in a synthesised answer points to a paper in this corpus.
Peer-reviewed medical journals
The bulk of the corpus is peer-reviewed journal literature indexed through PubMed/MEDLINE, with open-access full text via DOAJ. PubMed covers the major general-medicine and specialty journals European clinicians cite in practice:
- General medicine: New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, JAMA, BMJ, Annals of Internal Medicine.
- Cardiology: European Heart Journal, Circulation, JACC, Eur J Heart Fail.
- Oncology: Lancet Oncology, Annals of Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, ESMO Open.
- Endocrinology / diabetes: Diabetologia, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Diabetes Care.
- Infectious disease: Lancet Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Eurosurveillance.
- Plus specialty journals across neurology, gastroenterology, nephrology, respiratory medicine, paediatrics, and others.
For these journals eUvidence searches and cites the article metadata and abstract indexed in PubMed; open-access articles (via DOAJ) are searchable in full. It does not hold the full text of paywalled articles. Where a journal is paywalled, eUvidence links to the DOI so you can open the original in your institutional context.
Cochrane systematic reviews
Cochrane systematic reviews are part of the corpus and are weighted highly when relevant to a query. Cochrane reviews aggregate evidence across trials and grade certainty using GRADE methodology; when a Cochrane review bears on a clinical topic, it is typically among the first citations surfaced.
European regulatory and HTA references
European regulatory bodies and Health Technology Assessment agencies publish authoritative guidance and assessments that are part of the corpus:
- EMA (European Medicines Agency): drug authorisations, public assessment reports, scientific guidelines.
- NICE (UK): clinical guidelines, technology appraisals.
- HAS (France): recommandations de bonne pratique, avis sur les médicaments.
- KCE (Belgium): clinical practice guidelines and HTA reports.
These references appear alongside the primary trial literature when they bear on a topic. Citation pills make clear which references are guidelines and which are primary studies.
What is excluded
The corpus deliberately excludes content that has not cleared editorial peer review or that has known conflict-of-interest framing:
- Pre-prints (medRxiv, bioRxiv, SSRN) are not surfaced as primary evidence.
- Conference abstracts and posters are not surfaced as primary evidence.
- Pharmaceutical marketing content and sponsored review articles flagged as marketing are excluded.
- Patient-information sites and lay-press summaries are excluded from the source set.
Frequently asked questions
- Does eUvidence index Cochrane systematic reviews?
- Yes. Cochrane systematic reviews are part of the corpus. Cochrane reviews are weighted highly because they aggregate evidence across trials and grade certainty using GRADE methodology. When the literature on a topic includes a relevant Cochrane review, it is typically among the cited references.
- Can I access JAMA, NEJM, and the Lancet through eUvidence?
- eUvidence indexes article metadata and abstracts through PubMed/MEDLINE, plus open-access full text through DOAJ and Cochrane reviews. For paywalled journals (the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, the Lancet, BMJ, and others) it surfaces and cites the abstract and links to the DOI so you can open the full article in your institutional context. It does not hold the full text of paywalled articles.
- Are European guidelines and regulatory references included?
- Yes. The corpus includes European regulatory and HTA references: EMA (European Medicines Agency), NICE (UK), HAS (France), KCE (Belgium). These are surfaced as cited references when they bear on the topic, alongside the primary trial literature.
- What is excluded from the corpus?
- Pre-prints (e.g. medRxiv, bioRxiv) are not surfaced as primary evidence. Conference abstracts and posters are not surfaced as primary evidence. Pharmaceutical marketing content, sponsored review articles flagged as marketing, and patient-information sites are excluded. The intent is that every citation points to a paper that has cleared editorial peer review.
- How often is the index updated?
- The literature index is refreshed continuously as new papers are indexed in the underlying medical databases. There is normally a short delay between publication and availability in eUvidence as new content propagates through the indexing pipeline.
- Why is European-publication priority weighting useful?
- European regulatory and clinical practice contexts differ from those of other regions. Drug authorisations, reimbursement decisions, and guideline recommendations are made by European bodies (EMA, NICE, HAS, KCE, etc.). Weighting European publications and guidelines higher when they bear on a topic makes the synthesis more useful for a European healthcare professional applying the literature in their own regulatory and practice context. Non-European publications (NEJM, JAMA, etc.) remain indexed at the abstract level and cited; the weighting is a tie-break, not an exclusion.