Training: Online Learning Tools for Clinician-Researchers
How OBSSR’s free trainings expand access to research methods for psychologists in practice
Field Notes - CPA Research in Action | 2025
Training: Online Learning Tools for Clinician-Researchers
How OBSSR’s free trainings expand access to research methods for psychologists in practice
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. (n.d.). Online Training Resources. National Institutes of Health. https://obssr.od.nih.gov/research-resources/training
Too often, the barriers to contributing to research—especially from within busy health and community settings—are time, access, and training. The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) has stepped in to help bridge that gap. By offering high-quality, free online training in areas like clinical trial design, data analytics, and emerging research methods, OBSSR makes it easier for psychologists to contribute meaningfully to applied science, whether from clinics, classrooms, or community organizations.
These trainings are ideal for clinicians, supervisors, early-career psychologists, and students who want to grow their research skills without taking time away from direct service. The following resources offer practical, flexible ways to build competency in good clinical practice, data science, and modern methodologies, with an eye toward impact, ethics, and equity.
1. Building Research Integrity and Access: Good Clinical Practice for Social and Behavioral Research
Clinical trials in behavioral health settings are becoming more common, but many practitioners haven’t received formal training in the standards that govern them. OBSSR’s Good Clinical Practice (GCP) course offers a user-friendly, self-paced introduction to the ethical and procedural foundations of clinical research.
Updated in 2024 to reflect new regulatory guidance and accessibility best practices, the course now includes:
A new module on stakeholder and community engagement
Improved training on reporting requirements and compliance
Tools that support IRB navigation, participant protection, and data integrity
Whether you’re launching a pilot, contributing to a funded study, or training interns in research ethics, this course supports clinical psychologists in maintaining the rigor, transparency, and protections essential to participant-centered research.
Access:
NIH-funded researchers: Society of Behavioral Medicine
Educators & institutions: Download for LMS
2. Demystifying Data Science: The TADA-BSSR Webinar Series
Behavioral health professionals increasingly encounter complex datasets—whether through quality improvement projects, EHR dashboards, or multi-site evaluations. But how do we ensure that this data is analyzed in ways that are valid, equitable, and actionable?
The Training in Advanced Data Analytics for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (TADA-BSSR) webinar series introduces applied researchers to cutting-edge tools and common pitfalls in behavioral data analysis. The sessions emphasize practical strategies for:
Avoiding selection bias and analytic missteps
Translating theory into computational process models
Strengthening analytic rigor using validity frameworks
Impact: These trainings are especially valuable for psychologists leading community-based research or developing interventions informed by real-world data. By grounding big data analytics in behavioral science frameworks, the series enhances both the credibility and relevance of applied findings.
Highlights include:
Translating Domain Knowledge into Mechanistic Models
Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions and behavior modeling (Hekler et al., 2021)Selection Bias and Inference in COVID-19 Research
Unpacking threats to population-level conclusions (Bergstrom, 2021)Strengthening Validity in Drug Harm Research
Practical use of Cook & Campbell’s framework (Cooper & Waller, 2021)
3. Learning Modern Methods: OBSSR Methodology Seminars
As psychology evolves alongside technology, so do the tools available for data collection and analysis. OBSSR’s methodology seminar series provides clinicians and researchers with foundational introductions to emerging techniques, such as predictive modeling, text mining, and nontraditional survey methods.
These sessions are particularly impactful for:
Clinicians gathering practice-based or digital health data
Supervisors helping students learn applied methodology
Public psychologists studying health behavior in complex systems
Featured Seminars:
Text Mining for Social Science (2019): An introduction to extracting patterns and trends from large text datasets—especially useful for analyzing digital health narratives, case notes, or online support group content.
Predictive Modeling for Health Research (2018): A practical overview of using machine learning to forecast behavioral outcomes and identify risk profiles.
Emerging Survey Methods (2017): Explore SMS-based surveys, sensor data, and recruitment through social media, essential for reaching underrepresented populations and studying real-world behavior in context.
Impact: These trainings help psychologists move beyond traditional survey designs and expand their capacity to study the behaviors, systems, and communities they serve, without losing sight of methodological rigor.
Training Access, Equity, and the Future of Clinician Research
By making high-quality training tools freely available online, OBSSR is removing one of the biggest barriers to participation in research: access. These resources enable psychologists to:
Meet NIH training requirements
Engage in IRB-reviewed practice-based research
Translate insights from care settings into scientific contributions
Train and supervise future clinician-researchers
Whether you’re supporting community-engaged science or strengthening your own skills, these offerings create a pipeline of access—from practice to publication, and from real-world questions to rigorous answers.
🡒 Explore all training resources here:
https://obssr.od.nih.gov/research-resources/training
This article was developed with the support of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to assist with synthesis and drafting. Final content reflects human review, editorial oversight, and professional judgment.