About the Database “Limit To” content filters

The CABI Digital Library uses four filters to enable users to quickly limit their database search results to specific types of content. In this section we explain how these filters work.

The “Evidence Based Research” filter consists of a pre-made search strategy specifically designed to identify various types of literature which presents evidence synthesis, such as systematic reviews, meta analyses and scoping reviews, that is included in our databases.

The filter has been constructed by CABI’s editorial content team with advice from librarians and information professionals; it is kept under review and updated periodically.

As of November 2023 this is the strategy used for the Evidence Based Research filter:

"literature review" OR "literature reviews" OR "evidence based veterinary" OR "jbi evidence synthesis" OR "overview of reviews" OR "systematic review" OR "systematic reviews" OR "evidence synthesis" OR "evidence syntheses" OR "meta analysis" OR "meta analyses" OR "systematised review" OR "systematized review" OR "systematised reviews" OR "systematized reviews" OR "rapid review" OR "rapid reviews" OR "scoping review" OR "scoping reviews" OR "integrative review" OR "systematic map" OR "systematic mapping" OR "critically appraised topic" OR "critically appraised topics" OR "veterinary evidence" OR "knowledge summary" OR "knowledge summaries" OR "Cochrane register" OR "Cochrane review" OR "Cochrane Library" OR "evidence based practice" OR "evidence map" OR "evidence mapping" OR "mapping evidence review" OR "mapping review" OR "meta narrative review" OR "meta review" OR "mixed methods review" OR "mixed methods synthesis" OR "mixed papers review" OR "overview of reviews" OR "rapid evidence assessment" OR "rapid evidence review" OR "rapid evidence summary" OR "rapid evidence summaries" OR " rapid realist synthesis" OR "rapid living review" OR "rapid review" OR "realist review" OR "evidence gap map" OR "gap map" OR "umbrella review" OR "scoping review" OR "scoping content review" OR "scoping literature review" OR "scoping meta review" OR "scoping report" OR "Campbell Collaboration" OR "Collaboration for Environmental Evidence" OR "narrative review" OR "narrative reviews" OR "evidence review" OR "evidence based review" OR "evidence report" OR "metaanalysis" OR "metaanalyses" OR "systematic overview" OR "structured literature review" OR "mixed research synthesis" OR "mixed studies review" OR "mixed treatment comparison" OR "multiple treatment comparison" OR "realist synthesis" OR "review of reviews" OR "reviews of reviews" OR "systematic literature review" OR "systemic review" OR "narrative synthesis"

The “Grey Literature” filter consists of a pre-made search strategy identifying certain categories of content originating outside of traditional publishing. The content is sourced and selected for inclusion in our databases by CABI’s editorial content team based on CABI’s scoping criteria, and indexed with specific database item types (IT).

The search strategy used for this filter makes use of the Item Type field:

it:("annual report" OR bulletin OR "bulletin article" OR miscellaneous OR patent OR standard OR thesis) OR it:("conference proceedings" NOT "journal issue") OR it:("conference paper" NOT "journal article")

The “Open Access available” filter offers a quick way of zeroing in on literature that is distributed online and identified as “Open Access” free of access charges, and which has been sourced and selected for inclusion in our databases based on CABI’s subject scoping criteria.

The “Full Text available” filter provides access to literature specifically gathered and included in CABI’s Full Text repository of over 790,000 items and growing, made possible by agreement with third party contributors, and which has been specially digitised and indexed by CABI. Nearly 70% of the content is not reliably available anywhere else. This category of content enables researchers to access hard to find material published from across agriculture, health and the life sciences ensuring that they have access to all relevant literature, not just that which is readily available.