Useful information
In this section you will find information on:
- Databases and registers
- Developing a research question
- Patient and public involvement
- Study design
- Preparing a grant application
- Reporting guidelines
- Attribution of costs
- Courses and training
Databases and registers 
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) produce guidance, advice, quality standards and information services for health, public health and social care.
The Cochrane Library is a collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making, and a seventh database that provides information about Cochrane groups.
The PROSPERO register 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.
ClinicalTrials.gov is a registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants.
The Research Design Service have produced a useful video to identify whether your research idea is novel.
Developing a research question
The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine in Oxford provides a set of tools that can help you develop your research question.
The Research Design Service have developed a useful resource on formulating a research question.
Patient and public involvement
INVOLVE have produced briefing notes for researchers on how to involve members of the public in research.
The Research Design Service have produced a handbook that offers detailed guidance on involving patients and members of the public in research projects.
Study design
The British Medical Journal have collated a series of articles on how to read a paper, which give a useful introduction to a range of study designs and types of research questions that they can address.
The Clinical Trials Toolkit provides practical advice to researchers in designing and conducting publicly funded clinical trials in the UK. Through the use of an interactive routemap, this site provides information on best practice and outlines the current legal and practical requirements for conducting clinical trials.
The MRC provide advice and guidance on the 
development, evaluation and implementation of complex interventions.
NICE public health guidance provides a set of generic principles that can be used for planning, delivering and evaluating behaviour change interventions.
The MRC provides guidance on how and when ‘natural experiments’ can be used to good effect.
The Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London run research method courses to help healthcare professionals design and conduct high quality research studies.
Preparing a grant application
The NIHR offer the hints and tips below on how to successfully apply for funding.
The Research Design Service provide a useful checklist for funding success.
Reporting guidelines
The CONSORT Statement is an evidence-based set of recommendations for reporting randomised trials. It offers a standard way for authors to prepare reports of trial findings, helping their complete and transparent reporting, and aiding their critical appraisal and interpretation.
The SPIRIT Initiative (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials) developed evidence-based guidance for the content of trial protocols. SPIRIT aims to provide high-quality standards for trial protocols, while helping to streamline the process from protocol development to research ethics board approval.
To improve the completeness of reporting, and ultimately the replicability, of interventions, an international group of experts and stakeholders developed the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist and guide.
The EQUATOR network maintains a comprehensive collection of online resources providing up-to-date information and tools relating to health research reporting.
The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) developed checklists that are designed to be used for the critical appraisal of Systematic Reviews, Randomised Controlled Trials, Cohort Studies, Case Control Studies, Economic Evaluations, Diagnostic Studies, Qualitative studies and Clinical Prediction Rule.
Attribution of costs
The Department of Health provide a framework for the NHS and its partners to identify, recover and attribute the costs of health and social care R&D (ACoRD), in a transparent, and consistent manner. It clarifies the distinction between the 3 costs of research: research costs; NHS support costs; treatment costs.
Courses and training
The following taught courses and self-paced online resources are available to all staff and students at King’s Health partners:
- The King’s Health Partners’ Learning Hub [link TBC] offers brief guides to how to find and interpret the latest journal articles in your field and tips on how to write academic essays. There is also step-by-step guidance to designing a research study or quality improvement project, and advice on how to obtain consent from adults and children to participate in research.
- The Biomedical Research Centre offers Research Methods Courses on a range of quantitative and qualitative methods for research and data analysis, as well as introductions to systematic reviews and critical appraisal of evidence. They also address general issues, including implementation science and involving patients and service users in research.
- King’s College London’s Library Services and Reay House Library also offer free hands-on training courses to help you improve your skills in finding and understanding the evidence.
- King’s Health Partners also offers a weekly Designing Clinical Research course taught over three months to guide medical trainees and allied health professionals through the process of developing a clinical research protocol. Please contact educationacademy@kcl.ac.uk for more details.