LibGuides: Medical Professionals NHS Library Guide: Grey literature, trial registers and data &amp; statisitics

Information types

Grey literature is commonly defined as literature not formally published in books or journals, and can take many forms. In addition to the sources of clinical trial summaries (detailed separately ), the below offer some commonly used sources for searching grey literature.

Databases and search engines

BASE
BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is a search engines especially for academic web resources, e.g. journal articles, preprints, digital collections, images / videos or research data.
HMIC
From the Health Management Information Consortium. Combines information from the Department of Health, King's Fund and the Nuffield Institute for Health Information. Covers health management, health care planning and hospital administration.
Requires an NHS OpenAthens account.
King's Fund Library database
Search the King's Fund database of health and social care policy literature.
Mednar
Mednar is a free, medically-focused deep web search engine.
TRIP database
Trip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.

Conference abstracts & proceedings

Embase
Use the option to limit to records from Conference Abstracts
Requires an OpenAthens account

Dissertations and theses

EThOS
EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service which aims to maximise the visibility and availability of the UK’s doctoral research theses. Part of the British Library.
NDLTD
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs)
OATD
Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Includes material from from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions.

Pre-print servers

BioRxiv
Preprints in biology
MedRxiv
Preprints in medicine and health sciences

Additional resources

AACODS Checklist
The AACODS checklist is designed to enable evaluation and critical appraisal of grey literature.
CADTH - Grey Matters
CADTH’s grey literature checklist is a useful tool for navigating literature that is not commercially published.
OpenDOAR
OpenDOAR is the quality-assured, global Directory of Open Access Repositories. We host repositories that provide free, open access to academic outputs and resources.
PROSPERO
PROSPERO is an international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health related outcome.
SORA
SORA (St George's Online Research Archive) holds details of publications written by researchers at St George's, University of London (SGUL) and where available either a copy of the full text, or a link to the full text freely available online.

Use the below sources to find information on registered clinical trials, both completed and ongoing.

ClinicalTrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov is a database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted around the world, provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
CENTRAL is comprised of randomized controlled trial (RCT) and quasi-RCT records retrieved from a range of databases and other sources. Part of the Cochrane Library.
EU Clinical Trials Register
The EU Clinical Trials Register contains information on interventional clinical trials on medicines conducted in the European Union (EU), or the European Economic Area (EEA) which started after 1 May 2004.
ISRCTN registry
The International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) registry is a primary clinical trial registry recognised by WHO and ICMJE that accepts all clinical research studies (whether proposed, ongoing or completed).
NIHR Be Part of Research
NIHR service, offering details of studies taking place in the UK. Study data is drawn from the ISRCTN and ClinicalTrials.gov
WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform
The ICTRP Search Portal aims to provide a single point of access to information about ongoing and completed clinical trials. It provides a searchable database containing the trial registration data sets made available by data providers around the world meeting criteria for content and quality control.

UK data and statistics

Department of Health and Social Care
Statistics published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The Health Foundation
Our charts and infographics explore key health and health care trends in an accessible way. Many are available to download for use in your own work.
Hospital Episode Statistics
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is a data warehouse containing details of all admissions, outpatient appointments and A and E attendances at NHS hospitals in England.
The King's Fund - data
Data visualisations of topics including NHS budgets, workforce, funding and activity.
The King's Fund - reports
The Quarterly Monitoring Report features survey results from NHS trust finance directors and CCG finance leads, and interactive charts on selected NHS performance data.
NHS Digital
Data and information from across the health and social care sector in England
NHS England
NHS England statistics on a range of health and care subjects
Office for National Statistics
Health and social care statistics from the ONS.
Office of Health Economics
Public Health England
Public Health England (PHE) collects and publishes statistics on public health topics including health protection and health improvement.

International data and statistics

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Data and statistics from the CDC in the USA.
eurostat
Health data and statistcs from the EU
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
OECD Health Statistics and Health at a Glance are, respectively, the leading statistical database and publication for international comparisons of health and health systems.
WHO Global Health Observatory
World health data, maps and publications from the World Health Organization (WHO)