Finding a Clinical Research Network
There are three ways to look for a network:
- to find a network listed by name sorted alphabetically.
- to find a network from a text search for a keyword or words.
- to find networks meeting specific criteria using exact terms or words with similar meanings.
Because of differences among these methods, your results for the same topic may vary slightly. If you don't find what you are looking for with one type of search, try another.
Browse Networks
will bring up a full alphabetical list of all networks that responded the Core Survey and agreed to have the information posted in the Inventory. Clicking on the name of any network in the browse listing will open up that network's profile of responses to the Core Survey. This is the quickest way to get information on a network whose name you know. The Core Survey information includes date established, types of studies, types of participating entities, funding sources, study topics, and special populations.
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Keyword Search
allows search terms, separated by a commas, to be entered in the search box. You can search on study area, the study type, location, funding, network name, network acronym, study populations, and participating entities. If you enter more than one term you can choose to see results that include all your terms by checking the "all keywords" box. Or, you can choose to see results that have any one of the terms by checking the "any keywords" box.
A search term can be a single word or phrase. For example "Spinal Muscular Atrophy" is a single search term. "Spinal Muscular Atrophy, pediatric" is two terms.
Hint: You can narrow your search by using .
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Advanced Search
provides a form for specifying search criteria. A record will be returned in the network summary listing when the criteria are found in specific fields of a network's profile. For example if you selected "U.S. Federal government" for funding and entered "HIV" in study areas, all networks with both HIV and U.S. Federal government funding will be returned. If you selected more than one response within a single search field such as "Clinical Trials, Phase I" and "Clinical Trials, Phase II" in types of studies, records returned will include either phase I or phase II types of studies and other criteria specified in the search fields.
It is not necessary to choose a response for all items. Choosing more items will make your search more precise; choosing fewer items will make you search broader.
Hint: You can use to search for specific text anywhere within the network's profile.
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Advanced Search Terms
Network Name
Search network name for specific words
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Conditions/Topics
Specify the health problem or conditions being studied in the text search box. The search will look for all conditions listed and their synonyms. A hit will be returned if any condition is found.
Examples:
HIV
Oncology
Blood safety
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Types of Studies
From the list box select all the study types you are interested in. The results will include networks that listed any of the selected study types.
The phase of a clinical trial describes the type of questions it is seeking to answer:
Clinical trial, Phase I is the first test of a new drug or treatment in a small group to evaluate safety, to determine a safe dosage range and to identify side effects.
Clinical trial, Phase II is a study to determine effectiveness and safety of drug or treatment.
Clinical trial, Phase III is the test of study drug or treatment to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Clinical trial, Phase IV is a follow-up study to evaluate risks benefits and optimal uses after a treatment is already available for general use.
Field or community intervention studies are trials set outside the clinical setting, testing a health intervention on healthy population.
Other intervention studies including behavioral studies include intervention studies in a clinical setting or behavioral interventions in clinical or community setting.
Observational epidemiology studies include the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states in specified populations in which the investigator does not have control of the environment in which the observation takes place.
Other observational studies include other studies in clinical or non clinical environment in which the investigator does not control circumstance but observes only.
Outcomes research studies include outcomes research seeks to understand the end results of particular health care practices and interventions. It relies on measures and instruments to measure the results experienced by people who receive particular health care practices and interventions.
These categories are those selected by respondents to the Core Survey. Unless you are only interested in one specific type of study, leaving this blank will bring up all types of studies meeting other research criteria. A review of the summary results will show all responses.
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Funding
Select from the list box of funding sources to restrict search to specific types of organizations responsible for providing financial support for studies. More than one selection can be searched on. The search will return all networks reporting any one of the items selected i.e. an OR search. All support categories are included when no item is selected.
Specific Agency
When U.S. federal government is selected, items in a second list box are made available. A selection in this box will restrict the results to networks receiving funding from the particular U.S. government institute or agency selected. All sources of U.S. federal funding will be returned if no selection is made in the second list box.
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Geographic Coverage
From the drop down box specify the narrowest category that fits your search needs. The response categories reflect the scope of geographic coverage. If you want to search on a particular country, state or municipality, using with the geographic location name as the keyword is a better search strategy.
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Participating Entities
This search field refers to the institutions or agencies that comprise the membership of each network. To search this item, select from the drop down box. The search will find networks that include the selected categories.
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Special Populations
These populations were the response selections for a question about the current focus of the network's research. If your selection does not result in a match, you can try typing the population as a keyword in the . Or search on other criteria and read data summary to see if the population is listed in another context than current focus.
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Year Established
This field is the year the network was established. You can select the Before button to get a listing of networks established before the year specified. On will list only the networks reporting the exact year of establishment. After will list all networks established after the specified date. This is a useful search item if you are returning to the search to see there have been new networks established since the last time you searched.
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