Getting involved

There are many ways to become more ‘research-active’ and aware:

Get used to reading relevant research: have a look at journal content for community pharmacy research (see the Useful Resources box for suggestions). Read the abstracts or full articles if you have access. This will give you a better understanding of the type of research that is possible. It might also help you to identify people who have shared interests to you  (i.e. the article authors/research team) and you could contact them

Identify someone who can help you learn more about research: schools of pharmacy are always a useful starting point. Have a look at their websites to identify what research they undertake and who is involved. Do an online search for pharmacy practice research plus the topic you’re interested in to see who has published in this topic area and who is currently researching it.

Email one of the named people involved in the research, or email the head of school, introduce yourself and tell them that you’d like to look into getting involved with research and ask them to connect you with a relevant individual.

If there isn’t a relevant school of pharmacy, look around for schools of medicine, nursing, etc. Find out about at their research interests and personnel to see if they include research that might be relevant to community pharmacy. Contact them. If they do not reply, contact them again after a couple of weeks

If you receive an invitation to participate in a research project: ask to be provided with the participant information leaflet so that you know who is leading the research, what it involves, the benefits and potential risks, whether it has been approved by an ethics committee and who is funding the research (this might be of importance for avoiding conflicts of interest, for instance)

Funding: if you want to explore a longer term plan for becoming more research active, there are now career pathways funded by, for example, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and, more specifically for pharmacy personnel, Pharmacy Research UK (see the Useful Resources box).