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OCCT 7030: Doctoral Capstone Proposal Development: Select a Resource

Select a Database

PubMed and CINAHL will have articles relevant to occupational therapy. You can find more key databases and journals here: Occupational Therapy: Evidence-Based Practice.  

Go to the library's A-Z Databases page to access all databases that the library subscribes to.

OT Specific Databases

OT Seeker

OT Seeker is a database of abstracts of systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist therapists to evaluate their validity and interpretability.

PubMed

PubMed logo

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.

Specialized Tools:

  • MESH (Medical Subject Headings) - a controlled, hierarchy structured searchable vocabulary.
  • Filters - Search limits based on language, publication types, and age means that literature can be quickly sifted for relevant articles

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

CINAHL

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

Scopus

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. 

Google Scholar?

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)