Research Guides: Occupational Therapy: Find Articles

Search Options

The following options are available to search for articles and other media such as ebooks, images, streaming video:

PowerSearch allows you to search many (almost all) of the library’s resources with a single search query.
It searches our major databases plus online content that is available through Open Access.

When should I use PowerSearch?

PowerSearch is a “best bet” when you are not sure how to start searching for your topic.
PowerSearch is great for when your topic could be covered in multiple subject databases.
PowerSearch can be very helpful when you have searched other databases but are still not finding enough information on your topic.

Another option is to search individual databases. Databases may be multi-disciplinary, covering many topics, or they may be subject specific, covering only one topic.

Use the following databases to find scholarly articles and other information on occupational therapy topics. EBSCO databases may be combined so that you can do one search using many databases.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Best bet for general research. Covers many topics, millions of articles. Peer-reviewed (scholarly) and general interest periodicals. Much of this is full text.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
This database contains abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books and dissertations. It contains approximately 3 million citations and summaries dating as far back as the 1600s with DOIs for over 1.4 million records. Journal coverage, which spans from the 1800s to present, includes international material selected from around 2,400 periodicals in dozens of languages.
CINAHL (NURSING & Allied Health) Ultimate This link opens in a new window
CINAHL Ultimate is the new definitive resource for nursing and allied health research, providing full text for more of the most used journals in the CINAHL index than any other database. It covers more than 50 nursing specialties and includes quick lessons, evidence-based care sheets, CEU modules and research instruments.
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
This database indexes and abstracts articles from periodicals published in the U.S. and elsewhere plus the full-text of selected periodicals. Subjects covered include addiction studies, community health and medical care, corrections, criminal justice, economics, environmental studies, and urban studies.
MEDLINE Ultimate This link opens in a new window
MEDLINE Ultimate offers medical professionals and researchers access to unmatched evidence-based and peer-reviewed full-text content from more of the top biomedical journals. It also offers more international journal coverage than any other MEDLINE database.
Education Source This link opens in a new window
This database covers scholarly research and information to meet the needs of education students, professionals, and policy makers. This massive file offers the world's largest and most complete collection of full-text education journals, and encompasses an international array of English-language periodicals, monographs, yearbooks, and more.
ERIC - Education Resources Information Center This link opens in a new window
The largest education database in the world, contains over 1.3 million citations for journal articles, books, research papers, conference papers, technical papers, dissertations & other materials. Provides full text for over 300,000 of these items. Most journals are peer-reviewed. Sponsored by U.S. government (Dept. of Ed.)

Peer Reviewed Articles?

Does your assignment require that one or more of your sources come from peer-reviewed journals? The chart below explains the difference between scholarly/peer-reviewed sources and sources that come from the popular press (those typically found in a bookstore or newsstand).

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

	Scholarly	Popular
Written by:	Researchers -- experts such as scientists, physicians, historians. Most are employed by colleges and universities but not all.	Staff writers, journalists, bloggers. Authors of articles may not always be identified.
Audience:	Other experts in the same discipline. Articles are a way of sharing knowledge among peers. While college students read a lot of peer-reviewed articles, they are actually written to communicate with other other researchers!	General readers. These sources can be found on a newsstand or in a bookstore.
Vocabulary/Language	Serious, formal, dense. Uses specialized terminology of the profession.	No special language. Easy to read.
Quality control:	Peer-reviewed. This means other researchers within the same discipline have reviewed the article for quality.	Edited by publisher.
Purpose:	To communicate research findings and results of studies.	News. Entertainment.
Appearance/Design:	Little to no advertising. Charts & graphs. No illustrations or photos. Mostly text.	Glossy, attractive design. Advertising.
Length of article:	Long. 10 pages or more is typical.	Short. Feature articles may be longer.
Publication frequency:	Typically infrequent. Monthly or quarterly publication is common.	Daily, weekly, monthly. Varies by publication.
Cost:	Expensive. Often found in libraries & library databases.	Inexpensive, affordable.
Format:	Often includes descriptive title, abstract, literature reviews, methodologies, results & conclusions. Each discipline has its own standards for communicating research but all articles include a list of references. All research is based on prior research.	No special format. Typically does not list references although there are some exceptions.
Examples:	New England Journal of Medicine. Journal of Health, Population & Nutrition. Nicotine & Tobacco Research.	The New York Times The Economist Prevention Magazine Psychology Today People Magazine National Enquirer