Sounds a very broad area does Clinical Research. Good luck with that, fella. Hope you find something.

If you buy one online it may only take a few days.

Hello, I'm currently an undergraduate student in podiatry close to completing my final year. I hope to pursue a Phd that concerns the development of a foot health scale for rheumatoid arthritis to measure the general health status of the foot and the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions (actually dead important, so no sniggering!).
However, I have 1 month to compile my research proposal and a personal statement. How on earth should I go about doing that? Are there any good guideline documents out there or can anyone give me any advice at all?
Many thanks for any advice anyone may be able to offer!

I can recommend a very good book for you: Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows by Andy Field, Sage Publications, London. I used to be worried about statistics (still am) but as long as you know the general rules regarding the statistical tests (parametric or non-parametric, nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) and when to apply them, you'll be fine. Furthermore, the best stats package I found for learning statistics is Sigma Stat 3.1. Essentially, you enter your data and it tells you what to do, why and then does it for you. It's very good. Hope this helps!

Hi Scamp,
Meta-analyses are very difficult to perform, often hampered by study heterogeneity and publication bias. Have you used the Cochrane Reviewer's Handbook, free from Wiley Interscience? It talks at length about how to perform a meta-analysis and the issues concerning such a process. You want the reviewers handbook, and it's completely free! Hope this helps.