Article - A narrative writeup of a research project, typically included a description of how the research was conducted, the results of the research, and what conclusions can be drawn from it.
Case Control Studies* - Studies which start with the identification of persons with a disease of interest and a control (comparison, referent) group without the disease. The relationship of an attribute to the disease is examined by comparing diseased and non-diseased persons with regard to the frequency or levels of the attribute in each group.
Clinical Trial* - Work that is the report of a pre-planned clinical study of the safety, efficacy, or optimum dosage schedule of one or more diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques in humans selected according to predetermined criteria of eligibility and observed for predefined evidence of favorable and unfavorable effects. While most clinical trials concern humans, this publication type may be used for clinical veterinary articles meeting the requisites for humans. Specific headings for specific types and phases of clinical trials are also available.
Cohort Studies* - Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.
Conference Proceeding - A written and published record of research presented at an academic conference. Typically includes abstracts or research reports.
Controlled Clinical Trial* - Work consisting of a clinical trial involving one or more test treatments, at least one control treatment, specified outcome measures for evaluating the studied intervention, and a bias-free method for assigning patients to the test treatment. The treatment may be drugs, devices, or procedures studied for diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic effectiveness. Control measures include placebos, active medicine, no-treatment, dosage forms and regimens, historical comparisons, etc. When randomization using mathematical techniques, such as the use of a random numbers table, is employed to assign patients to test or control treatments, the trial is characterized as a RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL.
Critical appraisal - The process of evaluating a research article for its trustworthiness, value, and relevance in a particular context.
EBP - The practice of combining the best available research evidence with your own clinical expertise and the patient's values in the clinical environment.
Evidence synthesis - An umbrella term for advanced review articles that synthesize the available evidence such as systematic reviews and scoping reviews.
Grey literature - Research (or research-adjacent) literature that falls outside the scope of the traditional, peer-reviewed journal article. Includes many different types of literature such as preprints, clinical trial registries, and government reports.
Iterative searching - The process of evaluating your search strategy and search results to continuously revise your search strategy to get better results for your research project.
Library catalog - A tool/search engine for finding resources provided by the library, including books, journal articles, and more.
Literature Review - Also called a Narrative Review. Literature reviews undertake an extensive description and interpretation of previously published literature.
Longitudinal Studies* - Studies in which variables relating to an individual or group of individuals are assessed over a period of time.
Meta-analysis - A systematic review that uses advanced statistical techniques to combine the results of many individual studies to create meaningful insights.
Practice Guideline* - Work consisting of a set of directions or principles to assist the health care practitioner with patient care decisions about appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic, or other clinical procedures for specific clinical circumstances. Practice guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, organizations such as professional societies or governing boards, or by the convening of expert panels. They can provide a foundation for assessing and evaluating the quality and effectiveness of health care in terms of measuring improved health, reduction of variation in services or procedures performed, and reduction of variation in outcomes of health care delivered.
Pre-print - A research article that is published freely online before being peer-reviewed or formally published in an academic journal.
Randomized Controlled Trial* - Work consisting of a clinical trial that involves at least one test treatment and one control treatment, concurrent enrollment and follow-up of the test- and control-treated groups, and in which the treatments to be administered are selected by a random process, such as the use of a random-numbers table.
Research database - A database, typically consisting of research literature, designed to be used for academic research purposes. Research databases typically have a defined scope, some form of quality assurance criteria, and allow for advanced searching techniques.
Review articles - An umbrella term of articles that synthesize existing research literature, including narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and other forms of evidence synthesis.
Scoping Review - A type of review article that uses a systematic, rigorous, and reproducible methodology to analyze the current state of the research literature on a given topic. Scoping reviews often have a wider scope than systematic reviews or address non-clinical questions. Learn more in our Systematic and Scoping Reviews guide.
Search concept - A concept derived from the research question that is used to find research literature. A search concept often includes many search terms or phrases.
Search strategy - The overall strategy used in a research database to find articles on your topic. A search strategy will include clear search concepts, relevant search terms or phrases, and the use of advanced searching techniques.
Search term or phrase - An individual term or phrase used in a search strategy to find relevant articles.
Strategic or systematic searching - Approaching literature searching in a systematic way, often associated with systematic reviews. Systematic searches should be comprehensive, using many search terms and including the use of controlled vocabularies.
Study Design - The overall strategy, including research methods and analytical techniques, used to answer a research question.
Systematic Review - A type of review article that uses a systematic, rigorous, and reproducible methodology to identify all available literature on a topic, and synthesizes it to answer a clinical question and inform clinical practice. Learn more in our Systematic and Scoping Reviews guide.
*National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) definition
**From http://www.cochranelibrary.com/about/about-cochrane-systematic-reviews.html