The number of participants included in a clinical trial. The sample size should be adequate to provide a high probability of detecting as significant an effect size of a given magnitude if such an effect actually exists. The achieved sample size is the number of participants enrolled, treated or analysed in the study.
An outcome used to evaluate additional effects of an intervention deemed as being less important than the primary outcomes.
A review of individual studies (each of which is called a primary study). A systematic review is a secondary study.
The process of archiving research articles to a repository along with bibliographic metadata (data that describes other data. For items in open access repositories, this usually consists of a full bibliographic reference, abstract, keywords and similar information).
A service user is someone who uses or has used health and/or social care services because of illness or disability. Some people do not like this term because they feel it has negative connotations.
The research setting is the environment in which research is carried out. This could be a laboratory or a 'real' setting, such as the subject's working environment if you are conducting research into people's working lives.
A tool that provides a database of journal and publisher policies on copyright and self-archiving.
A review of evidence on one specific treatment, usually carried out for policy customers such as NICE.
Social care refers to a range of services provided across different settings, usually in the community. These include: home care, day care and residential care for older people; residential care and fostering for children; support for parents of disabled children; supporting mental health service users, physically disabled people and people with learning difficulties; and support for carers.
Social care research involves finding out new knowledge (or testing out existing ideas) to do with social care. For example, social care research might address questions about people’s experience of using different home care services or the best ways to train new foster parents.
School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) is a partnership between nine leading academic centres for primary care research in England. The School aims to increase the evidence base for primary care practice through high quality research and strategic leadership, and to build capacity in primary care research.
In screening / diagnostic tests this is a measure of a test’s ability to correctly identify people who do not have the disease.
School for Public Health Research (SPHR) is a partnership between eight leading academic centres of public health research in England. The School aims to build the evidence base for effective public health practice by bringing together England’s leading public health research expertise in one virtual organisation.
Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) brings both military and civilian trauma surgeons and scientists together in a partnership with the Ministry of Defence, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Birmingham.
School for Social Care Research (SSCR) is a partnership between five leading academic centres for social care research in England. The School aims to develop the evidence base to inform and improve adult social care practice by commissioning and conducting world-class research.
Statistical analysis uses a set of mathematical rules to analyse quantitative data. It can help researchers decide what data means. For example, statistical analysis can assess whether any difference seen between two groups of people (for example between the groups of people in a clinical trial) is likely to be a reliable finding or simply due to chance.
A result that is unlikely to have happened by chance.
Statistics are a set of numbers (quantitative data) obtained through research. For example, the average age of a group of people, or the number of people using a service.
An analysis in which the intervention effect is evaluated in a defined subset of the participants in a trial, or in complementary subsets, such as sex or age.
Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) brings both military and civilian trauma surgeons and scientists together in a partnership with the Ministry of Defence, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Birmingham.
Survivor is a term some people who have used health or social care services use to describe themselves – they see this as a more empowering term than ‘patient’ or ‘sufferer’. For example, some people who have used mental health services or who have experienced mental or emotional distress call themselves survivors of the psychiatric system. Some people who have recovered from cancer call themselves cancer survivors. If someone describes themselves as a survivor researcher, they are making a statement about the fact that they have used health or social care services as well as being a researcher.
A review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyse and summarise the results of the included studies.
