Physical Therapy: Searching the Literature: Select a Resource (databases)

1. Identify a clinical problem
2. Create a well-defined research question (using PICO)
3. Translate PICO into a search strategy
   • Brainstorm and gather synonyms
   • Construct the search strategy
4. Select most likely resources (databases)
5. Tailor search strategy to database(s)
6. Save search & export citations to reference manager

Scopus

Scopus is a large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. It includes scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings. 

For tips on searching Scopus, see the Scopus LibGuide. 

What about Google or Google Scholar?

• Imprecise searching
• Results are numerous and not necessarily displayed in a helpful order
• The sources searched by Google Scholar are not disclosed
• Currently, it is unknown how often Google Scholar is updated
• Useful for finding a specific article (search by title)

PubMed

Contains references to scholarly journals in the areas of biomedicine and health. At the heart of this search system is the MEDLINE database, a premier collection of citations maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Offers access to over 5,400 biomedical journal citations from the U.S. and 80 foreign countries. Contains over 26 million references from 1946.

For tips on searching PubMed see the PubMed: Ten Tips LibGuide.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text

Provides indexing for more than 4,500 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing back to 1937. Offers complete coverage of English-language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses’ Association, covering nursing, biomedicine, librarianship, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.

CINAHL tutorial

PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database)

Provides evidence-based information for physiotherapy (physical therapy) practice. Includes over 40,000 systematic reviews, practice guidelines, and randomized trials.

For tips on searching see: PEDro Search Help.

TRIP

A clinical search engine designed to retrieve high quality research evidence such as systematic reviews, guidelines, medical images, patient leaflets, and peer-reviewed articles. The aim of the TRIP database is to allow health professionals to easily find the highest-quality material available on the web in support of evidence-based practice.

For direct linking to the UTHSC journals, log in to TRIP and select our institution from the drop-down menu. Full Text: HSCLink will appear under citations.