Finding Federally Funded Health Information & Alternatives

This guide contains alternatives to federally funded databases, information on where to look when you've encountered a broken link, and other resources.

What You Should Know

• As of April, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has terminated nearly 800 active research projects.
• PubMed Central (PMC) contains more than 5 million articles, most of which are indexed in PubMed. PubMed Central contains manuscripts that have resulted from NIH funded research, in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
• To see what research projects have been canceled, check out:
  • NIH Grant Terminations in 2025 (Noam Ross, rOpenSci and Scott Delaney, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)

Where Can I Search Instead?

• Embase. Harvard Key required.
• Web of Science. Harvard Key required.
• Europe PMC. Freely available.
• Regional databases

Where Do I Go if PubMed Is Down?

PubMed searches a collection of papers called Medline, maintained by the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. Medline is searchable through other platforms, so if the PubMed website is down, you can also use:

• Ovid Medline
• Medline Complete
• Medline via Web of Science. Harvard Key required. 

Overlap in Content

The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), and Cochrane Germany have created a resource that explores alternatives to PubMed and ClinicalTrials. Here's what they found: 

• 64% of the journals in MEDLINE (the bulk of the content found in PubMed) are in Embase
• 94% are in Crossref
• 96% are in Crossref and Embase

What You Should Know

• Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC) is a vital education database that also provides a vast selection of gray literature (materials such as conference abstracts, white papers, reports, working papers, etc.).
• The Department of Education has proposed drastically reducing ERIC's content (by around 45%) starting April 24, 2025. In order to achieve this, the DOE will deselect journals from ERIC's indexing, which means their content will be removed from the database.
• The DOE has not released the list of deselected journals nor have they notified every journal due to workforce reductions but they have started notifying some journals. Grassroots efforts to list which journals are being deselected are underway:
  • Journals No Longer Being Indexed By ERIC
• ERIC will continue to be maintained but with "cost efficiencies." The proposed reduction in content has not been clarified. 

Where Else Can I Search?

• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO). Harvard Key required.
• EdArXiv preprint server (for gray literature)
• ERICA (ERIC Archive)
• Campbell Collaboration's Education Coordinating Group reviews

What Other Options Are There?

The following databases require a subscription:

• Education Source (EBSCO)
• Education Database (ProQuest)
• Educator’s Reference Complete (Gale)

Further Reading

• Selecting a specialized education database for literature reviews and evidence synthesis projects: Compares the coverage of major education databases.
• Why Can't You Just Use Google Instead of ERIC?
• American Educational Research Association and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness vs the Department of Education: ERIC is mentioned in points 136 and 150.

What You Should Know

• Federal funding freezes and cuts have impacted clinical research. While the exact number of trials impacted is hard to pinpoint, it is estimated that over 100 trials may be forced to discontinue their research.
• Lapses in funding have affected landmark trials. For example, the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, which has resulted in more than two hundred publications, can no longer collect patient data due to funding cuts.

Where Can I Search Instead?

• International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). An archive of ClinicalTrials.gov is searchable through the ICTRP but this data is not complete (e.g., study results and documents in records are not available).
• EU Clinical Trials Register
• Clinical Trials Information System (EU)
• Pan African Clinical Trial Registry

Or, search in a specific country's registry:

• ANZCTR trial registry (Australia and New Zealand)
• ReBEC trial registry (Brazil)
• Health Canada trial registry
• ChiCTR trial registry (China)
• RPCEC trial registry (Cuba)
• DRKS trial registry (Germany)
• HKUCTR trial registry (Hong Kong)
• IRCT trial registry (Iran)
• CTRI trial registry (India)
• UMIN CTR trial registry (Japan)
• LBCTR trial registry (Lebanon)
• Overview of Medical Research in the Netherlands trial registry
• PHRR trial registry (The Philippines)
• HSA Clinical Trials Registry (Singapore)
• SANCTR trial registry (South Africa)
• CRiS trial registry (South Korea)
• SLCTR trial registry (Sri Lanka) 
• Swiss National Clinical Trials Portal (Switzerland and Neighboring Countries)
• TCTR trial registry (Thailand)
• Be Part of Research trial registry (United Kingdom)
• ISRCTN trial registry (United Kingdom)