Getting Free Access to Medical Research Online

When we are investigating some medical issue, it can be very difficult to get access to reliable scientific information. There is no shortage of web pages offering a wide range of advice ranging from the sensible, through the laughable and the absurd, right through to the outright dangerous. How can we possibly figure out what is trustworthy and what is simply made up.

Scientific and medical research, based on controlled investigative trials, is typically published in academic journals owned by societies and associations. They often work with a publishing company to produce the journal and both the publisher and society makes money out of the subscriptions. They therefore sell access to the journals at a rate which puts it well out of the reach of ordinary people. If you don't work in a place where the subscriptions are paid for you, or have access to a library that has paid for the subscription, you won't get access.

Many people are unhappy about this state of affairs and now there are very many journals making available their content free online. Many academic journals already publish the abstracts of papers online but these often consist of a single paragraph which gives very sparse information about the research. After all, it's a taster designed to get you to buy a subscription.

But there is now a significant number of high quality sites making available scientific research material free to the public. Whether you are checking out an alternative therapy to see if you should trust it, or finding research material for a class paper, or simply curious, you can now get access to a great deal of high quality research through the web. Here are some suggestions for excellent sites and many of them contain further high quality links.

The Public Library of Science

This is a non-profit organisation of scientists and physicians who are committed to giving the public access to accurate, up-to-date, high quality scientific and medical information. It has a comprehensive set of collections on scientific and medical themes, together with an efficient search panel.

PubMed

This is a major medical resource available to anyone free providing they sign up. The sign up process is quick, easy, free, and is used only to advice you when particular subjects are updated. You control completely, what if anything you are told about.

It includes useful summaries of clinical trials, a journals database, a set of matches for common clinical queries, and also very useful further links to consumer health advice, government agencies (American), clinical trials, clinical alerts. One interesting feature is the access to TOXNET, which provides access to around fifteen databases of poisons and toxic substances.

Although many if not most of the articles are heavily technical, you can use the search facility to look for “reviews” which will provide useful overviews of a medical subject.

The Open Directory Project

Known as DMOZ, this project provides links to many archives of free medical and scientific content.

Free Medical Journals

Many of the links provided here are to medical journals which make their content available free (following free registration) after a period of time, typically twelve months. For example, the New England Journal of Medicine makes its content available free after six months but some journals make available their content free straight away.

BioMed Central

All of the journal articles published on BioMed Central are free and open access. This is an extraordinary resource but you may need to register, free, to get access to some parts. It covers a comprehensive range of medical journals running into hundreds if not thousands and you will find a journal on almost anything you care to investigate.

The Cochrane Collaboration

This is a body that carries out meta-analyses on groups of medical research trials. It provides access to summary reports on specific medical areas as well as access to the Cochrane Library, a continuously updated evidence-based healthcare database. Although Wiley Interscience charge for the full-text of the library articles, there is a huge amount of information free and this is an excellent resource. There are also many podcasts that summarise the latest information.

National Institute for Clinical Excellence, NICE

This is the independent organisation in the UK trusted to provide national guidance on health and treatment. It publishes over 600 reports which are all freely available.

The increased availability of scientific and medical research means that whenever we see a dubious claim, we can not only be suspicious but actually investigate it and look at the evidence.  It is now easier than ever to question claims of new therapies and treatments and to look for ourselves at the evidence.  We don't have to take these things on trust.