John Dunkley-Williams
26/09/2024
Evidence | Journals and Databases | Books and e-Books | Publications and Websites
Grey Literature | Topics | Learning and Training | Key Contacts
1. Introduction
This guide was produced in collaboration with the Public Health Wales Evidence Service. The Evidence Service have created several resources to support their colleagues in finding information and evidence relevant to public health. It was thought that combining these resources into this single guide would be useful for other colleagues in NHS Wales who have an interest in public health.
Public Health Wales is one of the 11 organisations which makes up NHS Wales. They are the national public health agency in Wales, working to protect and improve health and well-being and reduce health inequalities for the people of Wales
If you would like to recommend a resource for inclusion to this Subject Guide, please contact us.
2. Evidence
UK Guidelines
These guidelines make evidence-based recommendations on a wide range of topics, from preventing and managing specific conditions, improving health and managing medicines in different settings, to providing social care to adults and children, and planning broader services and interventions to improve the health of communities.
Guidelines on public health topics make recommendations on local interventions that can help prevent disease or improve health. The guidance may focus on a particular topic (such as smoking), a particular population (such as schoolchildren) or a particular setting (such as the workplace). This guidance is aimed at public health professionals, practitioners, and others with a direct or indirect role in public health within the NHS, local authorities and the wider public, voluntary, community and private sectors.
Details on the methods used to produce NICE guidelines are contained in their manual.
The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) develops evidence based clinical practice guidelines for the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland. SIGN guidelines are derived from a systematic review of the scientific literature and are designed as a vehicle for accelerating the translation of new knowledge into action to reduce variations in practice, and improve patient-important outcomes. SIGN guidance is accredited by NICE.
Evidence Sources
The AHRQ sponsors effectiveness and comparative effectiveness reviews. These are systematic reviews of different health care interventions intended to inform care decisions for patients, healthcare providers and policy makers. Details of the approach are contained within their methods guide.
The Campbell Collaboration is an international research network that produces evidence of the effects of social interventions in Crime & Justice, Education, International Development, and Social Welfare.
Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of primary research in human health care and health policy. They are internationally recognised as providing a high standard of evidence review. They investigate the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. They also assess the accuracy of diagnostic tests for given conditions in specific patient groups and settings. The methodological detail used in the reviews is described in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.
The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) is an open community of stakeholders working towards a sustainable global environment and the conservation of biodiversity. CEE seeks to promote and deliver evidence syntheses (systematic reviews and maps) on issues of greatest concern to environmental policy and practice, as a public service. CEE systematic reviews and maps may include public health related outcomes.
The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) is part of the Social Science Research Unit at the UCL Institute of Education. The EPPI-Centre conducts systematic reviews of research evidence across a range of different topic areas. They have a large number of systematic reviews in the fields of education, including initial teacher education (ITE), health promotion and public health, as well as social welfare and international development. EPPI – Centre have developed methods for to systematic review of qualitative research.
List of EPPI-Centre systematic reviews.
The Health Information and Quality Authority is an independent authority in Ireland established to support high-quality and safe care for people using health and social care services. Their health technology assessments cover the clinical and cost-effectiveness of drugs, equipment, diagnostic techniques and public health activities. The methods that are used are detailed in Guidelines for Evaluating the Clinical Effectiveness of Health Technologies in Ireland.
Health Technology Wales (HTW) is the national body working to improve the quality of care in Wales. They collaborate with partners across health, social care and the technology sectors to ensure an all-Wales approach. Their remit covers any health technology that is not a medicine, such as medical devices, surgical procedures, psychological therapies, tele-monitoring or rehabilitation. HTW publish 3 types of reports that are produced following their appraisal process.
The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) is an independent, international, not-for-profit research and development organisation based in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide, South Australia
The Institute publishes JBI Evidence Synthesis. This journal includes systematic and scoping review protocols, diverse types of systematic reviews, and scoping reviews covering multi-disciplinary healthcare related topics that follow methodology and methods developed by JBI.
This journal only includes HTAs that result from work that is part of the NIHR programme and that have been assessed as being of sufficiently high quality by external reviewers and the journal editors. The HTAs cover technologies to promote health, prevent and treat disease and improve rehabilitation and long-term care. Some of the reports in the journal are systematic reviews.
This journal includes work from the NIHR Public Health Research Programme that are assessed by external reviewers and journal editors as being of sufficiently high scientific quality. Some of the reports in the journal are systematic reviews. The journal covers interventions to improve public health.
This evidence based synthesis programme in the USA was established to provide syntheses of targeted healthcare topics of particular importance to Veterans Affairs managers and policy makers. The program has a range of reports produced using methodologies that adhere to systematic review principles. Some of these publications are only available on the Veterans Affairs intranet.
The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth was set up in October 2013 as part of the What Works network to analyse which policies are most effective in supporting and increasing local economic growth. The Centre is run by the LSE, Centre for Cities, and Arup. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and several government departments. The Centre has developed its own methodology to summarise what works.
Journals and Databases
The NHS Wales e-Library subscribes to or makes accessible the following databases to support colleagues working in public health:
The NHS Wales e-Library subscribes to or makes accessible the following e-Journals to support colleagues working in public health (this is only an introductory list):
Books and e-Books
The NHS Wales e-Library subscribes to the following e-Books to support colleagues working in public health (this is only an introductory list):
Publications and Websites
The following websites have been listed as sources of supplementary literature and information to that which is found in bibliographic databases. Many of these provide access to ‘grey literature*’.
*Definition of grey literature: "information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing, where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body" - Third and Sixth International Conference on Grey Literature, Luxembourg 1997 and New York 2004.earching grey literature can add value to an evidence review by 1) providing access to ongoing research (e.g. preprints, trial registers), 2) helping to avoid publication bias (where negative results are less likely to be published), 3) to support your database searches to ensure no important research has been missed.
There are a variety of ways you can search grey literature, but it is important you look in the right places for the most relevant resources. Depending on what type of material you are looking for, what topic you are researching and how much time you have available, you might decide to only search one, a few, or all these resources. This list is not exhaustive so consider what other sources might be relevant. Examples include: websites of government departments; reputable authorities such as NICE and Royal Colleges, topic specific organisations, conference proceedings and dissertations. There are also many general open access repositories, however it is likely to be more efficient to search topic relevant sources.
General relevant Public Health Organisations and Sources
Nuffield Trust Office of National Statistics Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) Public Health Scotland PHW, also consider: News, Publications and Services and Teams Senedd Cymru Stats for Wales UKHSA UKHSA Research Portal Welsh Affairs Committee Wales Audit Office Welsh Government Welsh Government Circulars World Health Organization Guidance - published, In consultation, In development, Awaiting development, Topic selection NICE advice Standards and indicators
Other sources of grey literature
Theses and Dissertations
EThOS
EThOS is a British Library repository of 400,000+ dissertations and theses, many available in full text.
Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD)
OATD is a database of freely available theses and dissertations.
Includes approximately 50,000 theses and dissertations which have been presented for postgraduate degrees in higher educational institutions in Wales.
Ongoing and Unpublished studies
Clinical Trial Registers
Clinicaltrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov is a resource provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine its database contains privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted around the world. ClinicalTrials.gov is a source of interventional and observational research.
EU Clinical Trials Register
"The European Union Clinical Trials Register allows you to search for protocol and results information on:
interventional clinical trials that are conducted in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA); and clinical trials conducted outside the EU / EEA that are linked to European paediatric-medicine development."
ISRCTNThe ISRCTN registry is a primary clinical trial registry that accepts all clinical research studies (whether proposed, ongoing or completed), providing content validation and curation and the unique identification number necessary for publication. All study records in the database are freely accessible and searchable.
WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
The ICTRP aims to provide a single point of access to information about ongoing and completed clinical trials worldwide. It provides a searchable database containing the trial registration datasets made available by registries around the world meeting the WHO’s criteria for content and quality control.
Topic Specific Sources
Alcohol
Alcohol Change UK
The research hub of Alcohol Change UK (a leading alcohol charity) contains a library of alcohol-related research and fact sheets.
World Health Organization – Alcohol topic webpage
The WHO alcohol topic page details global alcohol harm strategies. It provides data and statistics, policy documents, and a small number of publications that may support background reading.
Diet
National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) – Diet and Nutrition
NatCen is an independent UK social research organisation. Research outputs include quantitative and qualitative surveys focused on behaviours, attitudes and trends, as well as reviews.
Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN)
SACN provides systematic and rapid reviews, position statements and reports from specialist working groups on narrowly focused topics that inform policy decision making on nutrition and diet.
Environment
Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations
Collaboration for Environmental Evidence Database of Evidence Reviews (CEEDER)
CEEDER produces evidence reviews and evidence overviews of environemntal science research. Each review's reliability is assessed based on both review methodology and the primary data included.
Gambling
National Centre for Social Research(NatCen) - Gambling
NatCen is an independent UK social research organisation. Research outputs include quantitative and qualitative surveys focused on behaviours, attitudes and trends, as well as reviews.
Public Health England – gambling related harms evidence review
This 2019 review looks at the prevalence, risk factors and public health harms associated with gambling and the economic and social burden in England.
Health economics
Centre for Health Economics
An institute that produces policy relevant research and innovative methods that advance the use of health economics to improve population health.
Health economics: a guide for public health teams
Links to reports and tools to identify the public health interventions which provide the best return on investment (ROI) and cost-effectiveness.
Health Economics Research Centre (HERC)
Provide research on economic aspects of health and disease, the costs and benefits of prevention and treatment, and the design and evaluation of health systems.
Office of Health Economics (OHE)
OHE provides authoritative resources, research and analyses in health economics, health policy and health statistics through independent research.
Housing and Homelessness
Centre for Homelessness Impact
Illicit Drugs
European Centre for Drugs and Drug Addications (EMCDDA)
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is the leading authority on illicit drugs in the European Union. The EMCDDA produces a wide range of thematic publications in a variety of formats including reports pertaining to individual illicit drugs, national drug reports, literature reviews and more.
Injuries and accidents
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) – Road Safety
The Road Safety Observatory aims to provide free access to independent road safety research and information. It provides summaries and reviews of research, along with links to original road safety research reports.
Mental Health
Mental Health Foundation
Mental Health Foundation publish studies and reports on what protects mental health and the causes of poor mental health and how to tackle them.
National Centre for Research (NatCen) – Mental Health and Wellbeing
NatCen is an independent UK social research organisation. Research outputs include quantitative and qualitative surveys focused on behaviours, attitudes and trends, as well as reviews.
Physical Activity
The National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM)
A collaboration between universities, healthcare trusts, local authorities and private and voluntary sector organisations which aims to assess the health, wellbeing and economic benefits of physical activity, sport and exercise.
Sexual Health
WHO sexual health topic page
Provides data and statistics, policy documents, and a small number of publications that may support background reading.
Smoking
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
A public health charity run by specialists in the field of tobacco control, which works to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco. Publishes documents produced by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking & Health, including meetings and seminars, bulletins and reports. Also provide webinars to help inform background research.
Social Care
Foundations, What Works Centre for Children and Families
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
An independent and people-focused, operating at policy and practice levels with a huge database of 'what works' good practice, eLearning tools and resources. Working beyond and across social care and health and children's and adults sectors, they contribute to the development and implementation of better care, support and safeguarding at national and local level.
Work
National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) – Work and Employment
NatCen is an independent UK social research organisation. Research outputs include quantitative and qualitative surveys focused on behaviours, attitudes and trends, as well as reviews.
Learning and Training
A resource providing a broad range of learning materials relevant to public health.
Faculty of Public Health: Learning Resources
Provides links to online learning resources for those who wish to understand more about public health, refresh their knowledge and develop new skills
The Public Health Practitioners Accredited programme (PHPAP)
Provides an opportunity to develop professional competence and expertise for public health practitioners and wider public health workforce.
Key Contacts
Public Health Wales Evidence Service
NHS Wales Library Service | NHSWLS
Royal Society for Public Health UK