Resources for Researchers

Establish what is known and which trials are already being done

ISRCTN Current Controlled Trials Register (ISRCTN)

Clinicaltrials.gov US Government Clinical Trials Register

EU Clinical Trials Register 

UK NIHR Trials Register

CENTRAL Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials

All trials

The WHO clinical trials Metaregister

James Lind Alliance Stroke Research Priorities UK 2021

Based on a survey of over 1400 stroke survivors, carers, and professionals working with stroke patients a list priorites for stroke research for the next 10 years has been compiled. Please click here to see the results.

Trial Registration

Register your trial on the ISRCTN current controlled trials register or on AllTrials. The R&D department will register the trial for free once all approvals have been given.

Literature search

PubMed searches and regular email updates of the selected topics

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
 

Is my project audit or research?

MRC/ NHS Health Research Authority decision tool for audit versus research 

Develop a research protocol

NIHR Clinical Trials toolkit

Protocol guidance and template for use in a Clinical Trial of an Investigational Medicinal Product (CTIMP) 

Protocol guidance and template for use in qualitative research

NIHR Study Support Service Check this out early in the study planning stage

Calculate the sample size for your trial
Use this link if your main outcome is a proportion.
Use this link if your main outcome is a mean.

Qualitative Research

Quick guide to qualitative research
Introduction to qualitative research methods

How to do a systematic review

Five steps to conducting a systematic review read this first for key principles
PROPSPERO Register your systematic review once protocol finalized
PRISMA checklist and guidance for systematic reviews and meta-analysis
GRADE Cochrane risk of Bias tool, Jadad, and JBI are tools for assessing risk of bias
Doing a systematic review. A concise guidebook for Masters students by Rumona Dickson.

QUADAS tools to assess bias and diagnostic accuracy in tests used in systematic reviews

Evidence appraisal and grading of recommendations

Oxford centre for evidence based medicine levels of evidence and grade of recommendation 

Assessing diagnostic tests

Research Funding

NIHR Grant Finder (Program Grant, HTA, EME, i4i, Health Service Research, Fellowships)

Research Professional website to track potential funders
Keele GrantFinder 

The Stroke Association
Wellcome Trust

British Heart Foundation
Dunhill Medical Trust
BMA Foundation

Post-doc fellowships

NIHR
The Stroke Association
The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship
Dunhill Medical Trust
Francis Crick Institute

Writing a grant application

10 key sentences for grant applications by Parker Derrington 

Excess treatment costs  

Writing up

Getting started Writing a research paper: advice for beginners

ICJME International Committee for Medical Journal Editors Recommendations for writing articles (The Uniform Requirement).

ICH GCP guidance on structure and content of clinical study reports (E3). Consult this on detailed guidance on how to write up research reports (MSc, thesis, research paper).

Clinical Trials: The CONSORT statement is an important research tool that takes an evidence-based approach to improve the quality of reports of randomized trials. The CONSORT flow chart shows how recruitment and study drop outs should be reported. This document must be consulted before recruitment starts and at write-up stage. The CONSORT check list gives prompts to all the information to be included in a research report. More information on each item in the list can be gained by clicking on underlined terms.  Recent extensions guide reporting of pragmatic trials.

Observational Studies: The STROBE statement is provides guidance for the reporting of observational studies. This includes case series, cohort studies and cross sectional studies.

Case Reports: Guidance on writing case reports

Statistics

Most simple statistics (mean, median, SD, t-test) can be done using the Excel functions. Links to common tests not found in Excel are below.

Online Chi Squared 2×2 test calculator
Online Calculators for a wide range of tests eg Mann Whitney, ANOVA, Friedman, Krulsal-Wallis
Regression analysis/ developing models for prognostication

Figures and tables

How to present figures and tables in a scientific paper or in a thesis

References

Full guide to citation conventions for Vancouver, Harvard and  other conventions

Most medical journals use Vancouver (example below)

Name AA, Name  BB…… . Title. Journal (abbreviated). Year;volume(issue)page-page.

Optionally, the article’s unique identifier (DOI or PMID) may be added to the citation.

Resources for PhD/ DM students

Keele Research Support Links to resources from project development to completion

Guidance and forms for submssion of postgraduate theses (PhD, MD, DM Prof Doc)

Postgraduate Research Examination Handbook

Research Governance ensures the delivery of high quality research. Every student should read this before embarking on research.

Resources for Medical Students

Keele guidance for medical students interested in research. Best to get started in y3. Research Opportunities for Keele Medical students

Research Network

Find out about new studies and recrutiment