How to Build a Research Database from Data You Collect to Guide Your Clinical Work

Clinicians who collect progress monitoring data from their clients to guide their clinical work are accruing valuable data that can contribute to the research literature. Our goal in this article is to help clinicians create a research database from the data they collect to guide their clinical work. We begin by offering a rationale to clinicians for undertaking the effort to create a research database. We describe our own experience creating a research database based on our clinical data, and we describe the published empirical studies based on the database. In the main body of the article, we offer step by step guidance to clinicians who wish to create their own research database. We list thirteen steps, beginning with “Select a measure or measures you want to use for progress monitoring . . .” that clinicians can take to build a research database from the data they collect to guide their clinical work. Finally, we offer a brief description of resources that can help clinician researchers with some of the other elements of the research process, including obtaining library access and handling ethical issues.