Guides: Biomedical Sciences: Clinical trials and clinical research

Librarians

Leila Torrington

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Panna Patel-Gould

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Top resources

Cochrane Library
A regularly updated collection of evidence-based medicine online resources. A good place for the latest systematic reviews, clinical protocols and clinical trials.
Cochrane Library training hub.
PubMed
The worlds largest research database of biomedical and medical literature by the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM) and is freely available. Contains a range of evidence including clinical trials.
Try not to use quotations or truncation in PubMed.
A useful PubMed video for using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms.
PubMed Online Training.

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Simultaneously searches eight key biology and biomedical databases, including PubMed. You can use Web of Science to explore citation information.
Web of Science basic search tips.

Google Scholar
Easy to use search for scholarly literature for any subject.
To access material found in Google Scholar, you will often need to copy and paste the article title into Te Waharoa (the Library's search engine).
Video on how use Google Scholar.
Google Scholar search tips.

Embase This link opens in a new window
One of the largest biomedical and pharmacology databases. Includes literature on pharmacology, medicine, mental health, public health, health policy, medical devices, conference abstracts and more. Well regarded for conducting systematic reviews.
More information and training material.
Medline via Ovid This link opens in a new window
The U.S. National Library of Medicine premier life sciences database, MEDLINE contains journal articles in biomedicine and life sciences, bioengineering, public health, clinical care and animal science. Well regarded for conducting systematic reviews.
More information and training material.

Books and reference material

Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference

Provides unbiased and evaluated information on drugs and medicines in use around the world.

Evidence Discovery and Assessment in Social Work Practice

Chapter 2; ‘Finding the Evidence for Practice in Social Work’ discusses different types of research sources, searching techniques and evaluation.

How to Read a Paper: the basics of evidence-based medicine

Covers searching the literature and levels of evidence (chapter 2), types of evidence (chapter 3), evaluating evidence from clinical trials (chapter 6).

Concise Medical Dictionary (9th ed.)

Written by a team of medical experts, this market-leading illustrated dictionary contains 12,400 authoritative entries covering all aspects of medical science.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (5th ed.)

Information on medical disorders and concepts. Each article includes in-depth discussion of causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatments, procedures, and other related topics.

Websites for clinical trials

ClinicalTrials.gov (NLM)
A registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants conducted around the world. Maintained by the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM)
ISRCTN Registry (Current Controlled Trials)
A clinical trial registry recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines. The registry accepts all clinical research studies, providing content validation and curation and the unique identification number necessary for publication.
MRC -CTU (Medical Research Council, Clinical Trials Unit)
The MRC Clinical Trials Unit coordinates clinical trials, meta-analyses and epidemiological studies. The unit specializes in infectious diseases, TB, cancer and HIV but also undertakes research in other areas. I recommend the excellent videos on this site about clinical trials, what they are and why they are important.
National Cancer Institute
A comprehensive database of cancer related clinical trials sponsored by the U.S National Cancer Institute.

Videos

Videos from the Medical Research Council, Clinical Trials Unit (MRC CTU)

Clinical trials in general

Referencing Styles

APA (American Psychological Association) is an in-text referencing style commonly used across medicine, biology and the social sciences.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 7th edition (book)
Get a copy of the most recent official APA style guide from the library.
QuickCite for APA
Select APA style to find examples and short explanations for selected reference types. (University of Auckland)
APA Interactive
Copy examples of APA 7th edition references or explore the style formatting rules using this interactive website. (Massey University OWLL)
Reference examples (APA 7th edition)
Examples of the most common types of works e.g. journal articles, books, edited chapters, webpages. (APA Style)

Vancouver and NLM are referencing styles mainly used in medicine.

Referencing / Citation Styles: Vancouver
This guide from Otago University has useful links and examples.
Vancouver citation style: Introduction
If you need more, this guide from the University of Western Australia is also worth a look.
Citing Medicine:The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers
All you need to know (and more) about correct referencing of medical resources.

To learn more about other referencing styles, reference management software, training options and reasons to reference go to the Library website - Guide to Referencing and Citing.