International Clinical Librarian Conference - Programme released

9th International Clinical Librarian Conference, in Leicester UK.
21st to 22nd September 2017

We are pleased to announce the programme for the next ICLC conference, organised by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

The conference will be held at Leicester Racecourse, in the vibrant multicultural city of Leicester. Leicester is only 66 minutes away from London via train, and Stratford Upon Avon is only an hour away by car. Leicester is also the home of world famous sports teams, so you could stay on after the conference for some exciting sports viewing!

Accommodation suggestions can be found here and there is free parking at the conference venue.

Register for ICLC17

NEJM Group announces a new website for librarians

Announcement from the New England Journal of Medicine:

You’ll find articles that share the expertise of leading medical librarians, take you behind the scenes of products and events at NEJM Group, and provide resources to help your community take full advantage of our offerings.

Please explore our new site and be sure to register on the home page for an email alert to let you know when new articles are posted.

Visit NEJM LibraryHub

International Clinical Trials Day

James Lind (1716-1794), by Sir George Chalmers

Friday May 19th is International Clinical Trials Day.

The NIHR is holding events under the heading "I am Research", to increase public awareness of research.

We compiled a set of webpages for the Hope Clinical Trials Facility, based at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and the pages include links to information about trials registries, participating in trials, and procedures and reporting guidelines.

Have a browse, on this International Clinical Trials Day.

Why this day?   According to the Association of Clinical Research Professionals site, May 20th 1747 is when James Lind began what was probably the first RCT, investigating scurvy.

The James Lind Library contains material illustrating the development of "fair tests of treatments", and can be browsed by topic.   It has information about Lind's trial here.



Portrait of Lind from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lind#/media/File:James_Lind_by_Chalmers.jpg

Systematic review filter for ProQuest PsycInfo

Looking for systematic reviews, I needed a systematic review filter for ProQuest PsycInfo.  

I had searched other databases for the same project and used SIGN's filters, but SIGN did not have one for PsycInfo and the other PsycInfo ones I had found were for other interfaces.

The idea behind using a filter, and not relying on database publication type limits, is that not every SR is indexed as one, so the filters look for terminology that is common in SRs to identify items that are SRs.

I adapted the University of Texas School of Public Health filter (found via the ISSG Search Filters Resource) for ProQuest.

This was what I came up with:

1. TI,AB,IF((comprehensive* OR integrative OR systematic*) NEAR/3 (bibliographic* OR review* OR literature))

2. TI,AB,IF((meta-analy* or metaanaly* or "research synthesis" or ((information or data) NEAR/3 synthesis) or (data NEAR/2 extract*)))

3. TI,AB,IF(review NEAR/5 (rationale or evidence)) and ME("Literature Review")

4. AB(cinahl or cinhal or (cochrane NEAR/3 trial*) or embase or medline or psyclit or psychlit or pubmed or scopus or "sociological abstracts" or "web of science")

5. ME("systematic review" or "meta analysis")

6. 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4 OR 5

The UTSPH filter is one line, but I got muddled with brackets and found it easier to have several lines...   Line 3 does not include the word PsycInfo because (as I discovered!) every reference in the database has that word in the abstract...