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Physiotherapy: Journals & Databases

Conditions you will learn about as a physiotherapy student...

Recommended article databases for Physiotherapy

Search a range of article databases to find articles on a topic.

If you need to bulk export records from a database, check these steps first.

Biomedical databases:

Clinical evidence databases:

Grey literature databases:

Clinical Trials resources:

Search for past and current trials, OR register your clinical trial

Citation databases

If you find a great article on your topic, you can use a citation database to track down related articles. 

Assess your findings

Evaluating and thinking critically about sources of information are important skills to develop and apply while undertaking research.

Not all information is reliable and appropriate for academic work, and not all information is relevant to your particular topic.

You should challenge and reflect on information that you find; don’t just accept everything you read.

Assess sources, based on:
OROKOHANGA - ‘The Origins’: The source of the information
MANA - ‘The Authority’ of the information
WHAKAPAPA - ‘The Background’ of the information
MĀRAMATANGA - ‘The Content’ and usability of the
information
ARONGA - ‘The Lens’ or objectivity of the information

Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:

SIFT - Evaluating Information Tutorial

Even though the library databases are good sources of information, we still need to evaluate that information before we decide to use it. You can do this by asking the following questions:

  • Is the information relevant to your topic?​
  • Who are the authors, are they experts in the field? Who do they work for? What else have they written?​
  • What evidence is given, what references are given, and what methodology is used?​
  • How is the study funded? Is there a bias?​
  • When was the information written, is it still relevant? Has it been updated or amended in light of new evidence?

Use the acronym BADURL to help you evaluate online sources:
B ... Bias
A ... Authority
D ... Date
U ... URL
R ... Relevance
L ... Links

Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:

What the CRAPP Tutorial

Or apply these terms to assess if the information you have found answers your research question.

Currency

Reliability

Authority

Purpose/Point of view

If the article you need is not online? Get It!

Try these options:

Online OvidSP Medline tutorials

Please note that these tutorials are specific to Yale University staff and students and some information relevant to University of Otago may differ.
OvidSP Essential Training, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale University

Video tutorials

Check out these tutorials to help you get the most out of searching these clinical resources: