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Health and Social Care

Library subject guide for nursing, midwifery, AHPs, health and social care

Finding and Using Professional Sources

As well as using academic sources such as books and journals, an important part of evidence-based practice is the ability to link theory and research to practice. These types of sources are sometimes referred to as grey literature, defined by Cochrane as “There are many definitions of grey literature, but it is usually taken to mean literature that is not formally published in sources such as books or journal articles.” Cochrane Handbook v.5 - Part 2, section 6.2.1.8 Grey literature databases.

There are a number of key source types beyond books and journals that you will be expected to use in your assignments and some examples of these are shown below.

Diagram of grey literature source types

 

Please see the following video which demonstrates how to search for and evaluate these source types effectively, and also see the other tabs in this section for the links to webpages from the video to find these sources as well.

Searching for Grey Literature (video, 57 min)

Some of the common issues when finding and using web-based sources to be aware of are:

  • Using poor quality web based sources.
  • Using web based sources when an academic source should be used instead.
  • Struggling with how to evaluate web based sources and if they should be used.
  • Struggling to identify the source type of some web based sources and just referencing them as web pages – this should only be used if no other source type fits.
  • Content in grey literature resources might frequently change or be updated by newer versions e.g. statistics, policies etc.
  • Identifying grey literature resources can be time consuming, e.g. not knowing where to search or struggle finding what you need.
Ensure you evaluate the web-based sources and consider:
 
  • Who is the audience of the source? 
    -Is it a website aimed at the general public and anyone who wants some information on the topic?
    -Or is it a source aimed at people who have/need a higher /more expert level of knowledge on the topic?

  • What is the author/organisation’s knowledge and expertise on a topic? Are they a trusted and reputable organisation?

  • Do you trust the information to be accurate and correct? Has your source also used good quality sources and provided references? Is this factual information or opinions?

  • What are the intentions of the source, are they trying to persuade or sell? Consider any bias and whether they are providing a balanced view or siding with one perspective/viewpoint/argument.

  • Is the source recent or up to date, has a source been replaced by a newer one? Important for statistics, latest versions of policies/guidelines etc. If there is no date on the source then this would be a concern in terms of knowing how current it is.

     

     

If you are searching for these types of sources they will not usually we found in academic source locations like the library catalogue, or academic databases. Instead these sources are usually found on websites and via search engines. Where possible try to identify relevant government departments, organisations, and charities in a particular field and search for publications and information directly on their own websites.

If you are using a search engine try to following tips to help find what you need more effectively:

•Try adding terms that describe what type of source or document you are looking for such as ‘report’ or ‘policy’ as well as well as your topic search terms.
 
•Try including a country name in your search terms to narrow down geographically where needed.
 
•You can also use site searching on google, so type your topic keyword terms followed by:

  site:gov.uk   OR  site:nhs.uk

 

•You can also search by filetype on google when you site search. Reports are often in a pdf format so you can type your topic keyword terms followed by:

  filetype:pdf

 

•Web addresses and  URLs for the government webpages of every country in the world can be found at the United Nations Country URLs resource.
Try to always use original sources of statistical information. You will often see statistics mentioned in other sources eg, articles, reports, websites etc. These are usually taken from the original source and will have a reference – use this to access the original source. You can check that the data is correct, and also the most up to date set of data. The Subject Guide for TBS has a guide page on finding these sources and also see the list below which gives some key webpages for finding statistics.
 
•UK Data Service - collection includes major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data and qualitative data. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
•Office for National Statistics – provide a range of UK economic, social, and population statistics.
•Data.gov.uk – data published by central government, local authorities, and public bodies.
•Statistics.gov.scot - open access to Scottish Government statistics and data. The site is managed by the Scottish Government on behalf of all producers of official statistics in Scotland. You can search for datasets, places or postcodes. 
•EUROPA Eurostat - direct access to the latest and most complete statistical information available on the European Union, the EU member states, the euro-zone and and other countries, Updated daily. 
•UNESCO Institute for Statistics - global and internationally comparable statistics on education, science, technology, culture and communication. 
•Our World in Data for reliable statistics clearly referenced to the original sources of data they have been taken from so easy to find original sources or secondary reference.
 
The following websites are good sources for Scotland specific healthcare statistics:
 
•National Records of Scotland Census Data Explorer – data from the 2001 and 2011 censuses by topic or area.
 
•National Records of Scotland – good data on births, deaths (including cause), life expectancy, and migration.
 
•Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) – a tool for identifying the deprivation levels across a number of categories (e.g. health, work, education etc.)

 

•Scottish Health Survey - summarises key statistics from the Scottish Health Survey for Scotland, NHS health boards and local authority areas.
 
•Edinburgh City Council Ward Profiles – income, housing, lifestyle, health, disability, education, population, Scottish of Multiple Deprivation data broken down by wards in the city of Edinburgh.
These types of sources can be international, national, and local. Some of these types of documents may also be internal, meaning they are not publicly published outside of a specific organisation. You need to be careful when referencing these in your assignments – they should be anonymised e.g. the organisational author name. Please see the Other Sources section on the APA 7th guide for more guidance on how to reference internal sources.
 
TRIP Medical database – a search engine that finds clinical guidelines, synopses of evidence, systematic reviews, journal articles, clinical trials, medical images and videos, patient information, etc.
NICE Guidance – clinical guidelines and other guidance to guide decision making in clinical practice.
SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) – clinical guidelines. Can see current, in development, proposed, and archived.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland – programme of work supporting the improvement of health and care services.
Scottish Medicines Consortium – prescribing advice for use of medicines across NHSScotland.
ScotPHO Scottish Public Health Observatory – public health information for Scotland. Includes community health profiles.
Public Health Scotland – a particularly useful set of publications and reports.

Dissertations and theses of masters and Doctoral work can be useful resources, particularly if the topic you are searching for does not have a lot of research articles published on it. Please see the guidance below on finding these.

 

Edinburgh Napier:

Search the Edinburgh Napier Research Repository to find recent PhD, DBA and research-based (not taught) Masters theses online.

Hardcopy theses are stored in Merchiston Library, and listed on LibrarySearch.

Other UK institutions:

To find a UK thesis from an institution that is not Edinburgh Napier University, search EThOS - the British Library E-theses Online Service. 
If the thesis is not available full-text online from EThOS, there may be a link to the institutional repository. 

International institutions:

Proquest has a large collection of US Phd and Masters dissertations and theses, narrow your search down to just this source type.

DART Europe searches etheses repositories from European institutions.  Full-text access is available.

What are they?

Pre-print - the author manuscript version of a journal article – before publication and peer review.
Protocol – document that outlines the plan of a research study.
 
Why use them?
Sometimes you may not be able to get full text access to the published article so the pre-print gives you the full text instead. Protocols are useful to see ongoing and proposed research.
 

Where can they be found?

Pre-prints - Institutional repositories.
Pre-print repositories – OSF PrePrints, SSRN.
Systematic review protocol registers – Prospero, Cochrane Library (UK only).
Journals/Databases – some publish protocols for primary research studies and secondary reviews.
Clinical trial repositories – NIHR (UK based), ISRCTN, WHO International Clinical Trials Portal, US Clinicaltrials.gov, Cochrane Library also has trials.
 

What are they?

•Conferences are usually organised by professional societies or organisations and enable academics to present their research findings, discuss ideas, gather feedback and network. 
•Conferences may also be called meetings, symposia, seminars, colloquia, congresses, workshops, or conventions.
•Papers presented at the conference are published in collections called conference proceedings.
•Conference papers and proceedings may be published in journals, sometimes in a supplement, as a book, or on the internet.

 

Where to find them

•LibrarySearch or some subject databases.
•Google Scholar - add the word 'conference' and the year to your search, for example 'conference health 2020’.
•Web of Science: includes a conference proceedings citation index which gives references to publications from conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions in science and technology social science & humanities.
•Look on the conference website or the organisation website  to see if their conference proceedings have been published.
•The author(s) may publish their papers on their own website or on an institutional website or repository.

 

Searching Tips

•You can search with the conference title, the sponsor’s name, the location and/or date of the conference.
•If you are looking for a particular paper you could try the author’s name and the title of the paper.
•From your search results choose Document Type or Source Type and limit to Conference Paper or Conference Proceeding depending on the database.

England and the rest of the UK

 

The UK Parliament website has a Parliamentary Business area where you can access Hansard, publications from the House of Commons and House of Lords, committee publications and Bills and Legislation.
Legislation of the Westminster (UK) Parliament can be found at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/
You can search for Government departments, agencies and public bodies on the UK Government website.
Public Information Online contains publications from the Westminster Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Government and also Non-Parliamentary material.
It provides access to Bills, Command Papers, House of Commons Papers, House of Lords Papers, Hansard, Scottish Parliament Papers, the SP Official Report and Scottish Government Papers.
 
Scotland Specific
 
The Scottish Parliament is committed to holding a full electronic record of the business of the Parliament. This includes the work of the many committees, the legislative process (Bills, Acts of the Scottish Parliament (asp) and Scottish Statutory Instruments) and a range of other publications such as the Business Bulletin, The Official Report (on the previous day in Parliament) and the Official Report: Committee sessions.
Links to publications can be found on the Parliamentary Business page
Legislation of the Scottish Parliament can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ or Westlaw database.
The Scottish Government website -  find information about directorates and public bodies, search for publications or browse by topic.
The National Records of Scotland holds all the statistical data related to the census, births marriages and deaths data including death by causes data, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) data, and Life Expectancy statistics.
They also have the Council Profiles data for across Scotland.
 
International 

 

Europa is the official website of the EU and provides access to a wide variety of publications.

The Publications Office of the European Union publishes the publications of the institutions of the European Union and manages several websites.

EUR-LEX  provides free access to European Union law.

United Nations use the Databases section to access official documents, treaties, statistics and archives.

World Bank provides statistics and publications relating to global development.