Finding Scientific Studies Online

A general google search for the terms Climate change + health impacts will give you thousands of results! You may want to localise your search by country, timeframe or source.

What you will need to do is go to peer reviewed scientific journals meaning they have been fact checked and are seen to be reliable sources of information. This will make it easier to find the information you want.

These credible peer-reviewed health journals have special climate change sections or reports. Click on the links the Lancet, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and Nature, PubMed, PLOS and scholar.google.com and The Journal of Climate Change and Health

The Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration that independently monitors the evolving impacts of climate change on health. Read their 2023 report here.

You can also refer to the report’s valuable by clicking on this following link.

https://www.lancetcountdown.org/data-platform/health-hazards-exposures-and-impacts

Authors of scientific papers cite findings from other published papers related to their study. A top tip is to look at the list of references. They can be useful sources of additional information on related topics. In case you encounter a paywall, try writing directly to the authors as a journalist, or try locating the study by its title on a regular Google search, for a free version. You can also sign up for regular updates on new research: most journals have a sign-up button on their homepage.

Most published studies begin with a section titled ‘Abstract.’ This is a short summary that tells us the what, where, when, why and the how of the study. Reading the abstract will tell you if it is a story option for your audience.

Other important sources for stories are the editorials, comments or letters to the editor that appear in leading science journals. Editors of science journals also write opinion pieces on scientific questions, or a new finding that has public health significance.

Check out the climate change investigations and stories at the Global Investigative Journalism Network . Here is an informative article on the GIJN site called Climate Change: Investigating the story of the century. Aslo see this short, useful guide on how to use Google’s search engine effectively.

Hallmark of quality studies

There are endless studies on climate change and increasingly on the twin crises of climate change and health. This can be tiresome and confusing. In an age of misinformation and disinformation it is difficult to know who the experts are and who to trust.

To judge the reliability of research studies:

• Make sure the research has been peer reviewed.
• It must be published in a reputable academic journal (not all of them are)
• Talk to other scientists to ask whether they trust the study and the journal.
• Ask a scientist to explain what the study means if you are not sure.
• Check authors’ credentials and the institutions they represent.
• At the end of the paper check the declarations to see who funded the research. (if it Is the oil industry for example, you may want to be sceptical).
• Look for the data from the study in the publication and check whether the data justifies the claims or observations made by the study authors.
• Get to know both climate change and health scientists at local universities. They can become go to sources for context, information and interviews.

⚠️ The more reliable research studies are systematic reviews and meta analyses. These types of studies collate and analyse all available evidence of high quality that try to answer the same research question. Here is an example published in the BMJ. Importantly note the findings of systematic reviews and meta anaysis are only as good as the quantity and quality of studies they include!