Help with using the Research Register for Social Care
On this page you can find out about
- Accessibility
- Adding projects
- Finding projects
- Simple search
- Advanced search
- Topic browsing
- Search results
- Viewing results
- Sorting results
- Printing results
- Exporting results
- Project contacts
Accessibility
View the accessibility help page.
Adding projects
Content can only be added by registered users. For more information visit the login/register page.
Finding projects
The Research Register for Social Care Online offers several ways to find information, depending on what you are looking for and your familiarity with online searching.
Simple search
Advanced search
Topic browsing
Simple search
Use the simple search to find a single word or short phrase. The results are based on an exact match of the word or phrase you have entered. This search is referred to as a Free text search
It recommended that the simple search option is used for finding "unique" words, phrases or acronyms
Example: Find out what there is on self directed support
Search results include:
Title: A study of service users experience of the new Self Directed Support (SDS) model
Advanced search
Use the advanced search to find more exact results.
Example: Advocacy projects involving Essex County Council
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The Register uses Social Care Online topics Downloads:
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Search results include:
Research organisation: Essex County Council, Social Care Services
Title: The use of Advocacy in the Safeguarding process
Status: current
Topics: adult protection; advocacy; black and minority ethnic people; mental capacity; social care provision; staff; vulnerable adults; research;
Search criteria
The following fields can be searched:
Free text- anywhere in any of the fields of a record
Local authority
Research organisation
Funding body
Title
Topic - using a term from the topic tree (see Social Care Online topics, below)
The following search operators are supported:
And - produces results that include BOTH terms
Or - produces results that include EITHER term
Not - produces results that have one term but EXCLUDE the other term
A search can also be limited by Design, Method and Status and student research can be excluded from your search results.
Topic browsing
Use the Browse social care topics to find records by topic and see how topics are related.
The topic tree
How to combine topics
How to view related topics
How to search for topics
The topic tree
The topic tree is the way the Research Register for Social Care organises the keywords given to each record. It uses the same structure as Social Care Online. The top level of the topic tree has fifteen main topic areas. Use these to find your topic of interest.
The full topic tree can be viewed or downloaded:
Hierarchical topic tree (122kb PDF file)
Alphabetical topic tree (541kb PDF file)
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Key
- Use the plus sign to expand the topic tree
- Tick the box to add a topic to the combine topics box
- Click on the topic to view the results
- Number of records
How to combine topics
Tick the box beside a topic to add that topic to the Combine topics box. Navigate through the topic tree and add any additional topics you require. Click on 'Search' to view the records for these topics or reset the search by selecting 'clear'.
Note: adding more than two topics may dramatically reduce the results returned
Example:
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Search results include:
Research organisation: Suffolk County Council, Adult and Community Services
Title: Exploration of access to services for the Bangladeshi community in Ipswich identifying benefits and barriers
Note: Combine topics uses AND so will only produce results that include both topics. To search more than one topic e.g. adoption or fostering, change the Boolean operator to OR.
How to view related topics
Tick the box beside a topic and any terms related to that topic will appear to the right of the topic tree. These can also be selected or added to the Combine topics box.
How to search for topics
To find a topic term, add a word to the find topic search box and press Search. Only specific words are used as topic terms (e.g. older people is used rather than elderly people).
If the topic is recognised the search will return a list of topics that include your search term and highlight them with a red arrow.
Search results
Viewing results
Sorting results
Printing results
Exporting results
Viewing results
Search results are presented initially as a Summary
e.g.
Research organisation: Hampshire County Council, Adult Services
Title: Extra Care Housing - a real alternative to residential care?
Status: completed
Topics: extra care housing; housing; residential care; social care provision; research;
To view the full record click on the Title.
To view more than one full record it is necessary to tick the box for each record of interest.
To view All your search results use the Select All button.
Sorting results
The results can be sorted by project Title, Date added, Research Organisation, Local Authority, Funding body, Start date, and End date
Printing results
The summary and full results pages can be printed using the print option on your browser. The printed version removes all headings, footers and menus from the page prior to printing to maximise the space for records.
Note: Using the browser print option will only print the current page of results. To print all the results from a search use the export as text file option and use Notepad or MSWord to open file and print.
Exporting results
Search results can be exported (downloaded) in two ways, as a text file or as an email.
On the results page select the records you wish to export and use the Display/export menu to select an export format:
Project contacts
Further information about research can be requested from the contact. An email link is on the full record.