Further Information
Can I trust the findings of this piece of evidence?
- This Understanding Health Research tool will guide you through a series of questions to help you understand and review published health research that you have come across.
- This NICE Social Care Guidance Manual has a section on identifying evidence and literature searches within social care.
- This AACODS checklist five criteria (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance) will guide you through a series of questions to help you review and judge the quality of a piece of grey (unpublished) literature that you have come across.
- These resources that the University of Leeds and Lancaster University provide more information about grey literature and how to appraise it.
West of England Academic Health Sciences Network Evidence Repository
The Evidence Repository is a portal for safely sharing non-peer reviewed documents such as evidence searches or reports that are not published elsewhere to promote a culture of shared learning and collaboration. If you work for a university, the NHS or in public health, you are eligible to join the Evidence Repository to view and share evidence and contribute to efficient working by reducing duplication.
NICE Evidence and best practice resources
Provides free open access to a range of evidence services that provide access to high quality evidence and best practice (including some of the services listed below). The services cover health, social care and public health evidence. OpenAthens login required to access the online databases and journals.
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making, including: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs).
University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD)
The CRD specialises in evidence synthesis, assembling and evaluating data from multiple research studies to generate robust evidence to inform health policy and practice. Completed systematic reviews and associated economic evaluations can be found on the CRD databases.
This site gives general guidance about NHS knowledge and library services and connects NHS staff and learners to high quality knowledge and evidence resources.
The King’s Fund’s Library Services provide a free source of information on health and social care policy and management. They can help with literature searches, research support and information queries online, over the phone or in person.
A clinical search engine enabling users to quickly and easily find high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.
The National Institute for Health Research CRN Portfolio
The Clinical Research Network’s portfolio of studies consists of high-quality clinical research studies that are eligible for support from the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) in England.
SCIE Social Care Online Database
A UK database of information and research on all aspects of social care and social work produced by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (CEBM)
CEBM aims to develop, teach and promote evidence-based health care through conferences, workshops and EBM tools. See their PICO advice.
Nuffield Trust is an authoritative and independent source of evidence-based research and policy analysis for improving health care in the UK.
An independent charity working to improve the quality of healthcare in the UK.
The Commissioning Elf is an evidence-based information source for health and social care professionals working in commissioning and the provision of care services.
The Social Care Elf is a resource to help keep up to date on the latest social care research. It is jointly funded by Minervation Ltd, the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the LSE and the NIHR School for Social Care Research as part of the Social Care Evidence in Practice (SCEiP project)
Guidelines for Patient and Public Involvement in Evaluation
These guidelines aim to support anyone working in evaluation to embed patient and public involvement (PPI) into their evaluation activities and to ensure that public contributors really feel part of the evaluation team.
Guidelines for Best Practice in the Ethics and Governance of Service Evaluation
These guidelines offer a framework for the governance of service evaluation and a code of good practice around ethics.