More About Clinical Studies
- Duke University: Study DesignThis superb guide created by the librarians at Duke University presents a hierarchy of study designs.
- ASHA: Assessing the EvidenceFrom the American Speech Language Hearing Association
- Yale University: The Clinical QuestionYale's overview of how different studies match the type of research question.
Non-Preappraised Research
Non pre-appraised research, or original clinical studies, can be strong sources of evidence when practice guidelines & systematic reviews are not available. Also, practice guidelines can get out of date fairly quickly, so reading newly published studies can provide you with more up-to-date information. High-quality, rigorous, original studies may include (but aren't restricted to) randomized control trials (RCTs), cohort studies, and case-controlled studies. Key sources of pre-appraised research include:
- PubMed This link opens in a new window Comprehensive coverage of abstracts to the biomedical literature. Includes medicine, the allied health disciplines, and biomedical literature. Materials range from 1809 Onwards, with more recent decades better represented.
- CINAHL: Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature This link opens in a new window Covers journal publications from the nursing and allied health professions. While it primarily covers journal citations, it also includes book chapter abstracts, dissertations, and conference abstracts.
- APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window Provides access to articles, books and book chapters, and dissertations that cover the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Includes material of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.
- Embase This link opens in a new window Embase.com is the database equivalent of EXCERPTA MEDICA. It is a comprehensive, international database covering Anesthesiology, Human Genetics, Gerontology, Drug Research, Pharmacology, Drug Side Effects and Interactions, Toxicology, Human Medicine (Clinical and Experimental), including Pediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynecology, Basic Biological Sciences, Biotechnology, Biomedicine, Health Policy and Management, Pharmacoeconomics, Public and Occupational Health, Environmental Health, Pollution Control, Substance Dependence and Abuse, Psychiatry, Forensic Science, Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Nursing.
Clinical Queries
Both PubMed & CINAHL have a tool that allows you to search for studies that may best address your research question. This is called the Clinical Queries filter. You can set up your search to find studies that address the following types of questions: Therapy (intervention), Etiology, Diagnosis, and Prognosis.
Here is an example of how you can set up a search in PubMED to retrieve articles that address treatment or interventions:
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