Social Work Library Resources: Evidence-Based Practice Resources

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews publishes high-quality reviews on health care interventions.

A journal facilitated by the Campbell Collaboration that publishes a variety of evidence syntheses (systematic reviews, gap maps, etc.) on policy and social science interventions.

"This new Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center aims to provide communities, clinicians, policy-makers and others in the field with the information and tools they need to incorporate evidence-based practices into their communities or clinical settings. The Resource Center contains a collection of scientifically-based resources for a broad range of audiences, including Treatment Improvement Protocols, toolkits, resource guides, clinical practice guidelines, and other science-based resources." (website)

"The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is an investment of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) within the U.S. Department of Education that was established in 2002. The work of the WWC is managed by a team of staff at IES and conducted under a set of contracts held by several leading firms with expertise in education, research methodology, and the dissemination of education research, including Abt Associates, American Institutes for Research, Development Services Group, Inc., and Mathematica." (website)

Blueprints is a registry for evidence-based interventions targeting healthy youth development and crime prevention. NOTE: Blueprints was put into dormancy in 2024. New programs are not being added but existing programs can still be searched.

Some journals specialize in publishing evidence synthesis reviews, while others publish these reviews along with empirical research studies. You can use a relevant academic database to locate these publications. Some databases provide the ability to limit a search by publication type, which can include reviews as an option.

Additionally, most evidence synthesis publication titles include the type of review that was conducted. You can add evidence synthesis keywords onto your existing search with a phrase such as: AND ("systematic review" OR "scoping review" OR "meta analysis" OR "meta-analysis" OR "rapid review" OR "research synthesis" OR "evidence synthesis")