REMEMBER: Occupational Therapy is a specialized component of the Allied Health Services. When searching a general Health database ALWAYS add the term Occupational Therapy to your search terms to narrow your results to articles that focus on Occupational Therapy.
Instead of a Basic (one line) search select Advanced search and place your search term in the first tier search box and type Occupational Therapy in the second tier box.
Be Smart and Save Time!
Do not use sentences to search for information. Try using keywords and phrases.
Before you search a research database, think about alternative search terms (e.g. adolescents, youth, and young adults).
Keep notes on the research databases and the keywords you have used.
Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
Quotes are helpful when your search terms include a phrase (e.g. "occupational therapy").
Articles represent the most current information published in a field of study. Most academic professionals and researchers prefer articles that are "scholarly" in nature.
Characteristics of scholarly journals include the following qualities:
Trade journals are intended for practitioners in the industry. They include scientific and technical articles, but most are not peer-reviewed.
For more information on this topic go to "What are 'scholarly', 'professional', and 'popular' articles", an information sheet authored by KSU University Libraries.
These resources provide scholarly and professional articles and news information.
Provides full text for more than 4,000 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. An Ebsco Database including Medical Databases that can be added to the initial Academic Search Complete Search Strategies
An Ebsco Database, CINAHL provides access to nursing and allied health literature and information, including such disciplines as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, consumer health, alternative therapies, and health sciences librarianship.
Health Source (Nursing/Academic edition)
An Ebsco Database providing nearly 590 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for over 627 journals.
The Cochrane Library is a collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.
An Ebsco Database: An International index for medical literature, produced by the National Library of Medicine. Addresses all aspects of medicine and health care and offers citations from nearly 4,000 journals, books and book chapters, research and other sources. Includes citations originally found in the print indexes that date from 1950-1965.
PubMed provides free, worldwide access to MEDLINE. Accessing PubMed through this URL will provide links to online, full-text articles available through Kent State University Libraries.
OhioLink Electronic Journal Center (EJC)
Full text articles covering multiple subject areas.
Scholarly resources on JSTOR include Archival and Current Journals, Books, and Primary Sources.
To find the entire text of an article look for the button. Clicking on it will automatically generate a search for the entire article in other library resources such as the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center and LexisNexis Academic.