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COVID-19 Research Articles Downloadable Database

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March 19, 2020

Updated January 12, 2024

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COVID-19 Research Guide Home

Important announcement:  

The CDC Database of COVID-19 Research Articles became a collaboration with the WHO to create the WHO COVID-19 database during the pandemic to make it easier for results to be searched, downloaded, and used by researchers worldwide.

The last version of the CDC COVID-19 database was archived and remain available on this website.  Please note that it has stopped updating as of October 9, 2020 and all new articles were integrated into the WHO COVID-19 database.  The WHO Covid-19 Research Database was a resource created in response to the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Its content remains searchable and spans the time period March 2020 to June 2023. Since June 2023, manual updates to the database have been discontinued.

If you have any questions, concerns, or problems accessing the WHO COVID-19 Database please email the CDC Library for assistance.

Materials listed in these guides are selected to provide awareness of quality public health literature and resources. A material’s inclusion does not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Public Health Service (PHS), or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nor does it imply endorsement of the material’s methods or findings.

Download Database of COVID-19 Research Articles Archive

Below are options to download the archive of COVID-19 research articles.  You can search the database of citations by author, keyword (in title, author, abstract, subject headings fields), journal, or abstract when available.  DOI, PMID, and URL links are included when available.

This database was last updated on October 9, 2020.

The CDC Database of COVID-19 Research Articles is now a part of the WHO COVID-19 database.  Our new  search results are now being sent to the WHO COVID-19 Database to make it easier for them to be searched, downloaded, and used by researchers worldwide. The WHO Covid-19 Research Database was a resource created in response to the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Its content remains searchable and spans the time period March 2020 to June 2023. Since June 2023, manual updates to the database have been discontinued.

  • COVID-19 Science Updates
    • To help inform CDC’s COVID-19 Response, as well as to help CDC staff stay up to date on the latest COVID-19 research, the Response’s Office of the Chief Medical Officer has collaborated with the CDC Office of Library Science to create a series called COVID-19 Science Update. This series, the first of its kind for a CDC emergency response, provides brief summaries of new COVID-19-related studies on many topics, including epidemiology, clinical treatment and management, laboratory science, and modeling. As of December 18, 2021, CDC has stopped production of the weekly COVID-19 Science Update.

Excel download:

Citation Management Software (EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, Refman, etc.) download:

The COVID-19 pandemic is a rapidly changing situation.  Some of the research included above is preliminary.  Materials listed in this database are selected to provide awareness of quality public health literature and resources. A material’s inclusion does not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Public Health Service (PHS), or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nor does it imply endorsement of the material’s methods or findings.

Accessing the Full Text

To access the full text, click on the DOI, PMID, or URL links.  While most publishers are making their COVID-19 content Open Access, some articles are accessible only to those with a CDC user id and password. Find a library near you that may be able to help you get access to articles by clicking the following links: https://www.worldcat.org/libraries OR https://www.usa.gov/libraries .

CDC users can use EndNote’s Find Full Text feature to attach the full text PDFs within their EndNote Library.  CDC users, please email Martha Knuth for an EndNote file of all citations.  Once you have your EndNote file downloaded, to get the full-text of journal articles listed in the search results you can do the following steps:

  1. First, try using EndNote’s “Find Full-Text” feature to attach full-text articles to your EndNote Library.
  2. Next, check for full-text availability, via the E-Journals list, at: http://sfxhosted.exlibrisgroup.com/cdc/az  .
  3. If you can’t find full-text online, you can request articles via DocExpress, at: https://docexpress.cdc.gov/illiad/
Methodology

The following databases were searched from Dec. 2019-Oct. 9 2020 for articles related to COVID-19: Medline (Ovid and PubMed), PubMed Central, Embase, CAB Abstracts, Global Health, PsycInfo, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Academic Search Complete, Africa Wide Information, CINAHL, ProQuest Central, SciFinder, the Virtual Health Library, and LitCovid.  Selected grey literature sources were searched as well, including the WHO COVID-19 website, CDC COVID-19 website, Eurosurveillance, China CDC Weekly, Homeland Security Digital Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, bioRxiv (preprints), medRxiv (preprints), chemRxiv (preprints), and SSRN (preprints).

Detailed search strings with synonyms used for COVID-19 are below.

Detailed search strategy for gathering COVID-19 articles, updated October 9, 2020 [PDF – 135 KB]

  • The CDC Database of COVID-19 Research Articles is now a part of the WHO COVID-19 database.  Our new  search results are now being sent to the WHO COVID-19 Database to make it easier for them to be searched, downloaded, and used by researchers worldwide. The WHO Covid-19 Research Database was a resource created in response to the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Its content remains searchable and spans the time period March 2020 to June 2023. Since June 2023, manual updates to the database have been discontinued.

Note on preprints:  Preprints have not been peer-reviewed. They should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or be reported in news media as established information.

Disclaimer
Disclaimer

Materials listed in these guides are selected to provide awareness of quality public health literature and resources. A material’s inclusion does not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Public Health Service (PHS), or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nor does it imply endorsement of the material’s methods or findings. HHS, PHS, and CDC assume no responsibility for the factual accuracy of the items presented. The selection, omission, or content of items does not imply any endorsement or other position taken by HHS, PHS, and CDC. Opinion, findings, and conclusions expressed by the original authors of items included in these materials, or persons quoted therein, are strictly their own and are in no way meant to represent the opinion or views of HHS, PHS, or CDC. References to publications, news sources, and non-CDC Websites are provided solely for informational purposes and do not imply endorsement by HHS, PHS, or CDC.