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How to Find Information in the Physical Therapy Literature

Looking for information on a topic related to physical therapy? You may have to search through multiple resources to find the research you need - no one database or Web site provides access to every journal or magazine article ever published. The information provided here should make your quest a little easier.

Open Door: APTA's Portal to Evidence Based Practice [Members-only]

American Physical Therapy Association members may take advantage of Open Door: a collection of health care-related journal and trade publication databases, the Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature^® (CINAHL^® ), open access journal resources, and more. Search, review journal issues, keep up-to-date with customized e-mailed keyword alerts, download citations in a variety of styles, output citations into designated bibliographic software products - all in a few clicks. Sign up for monthly alerts reporting database enhancements and new resources. Searching tutorials and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) are included. Make this your first stop in your quest for literature. (Member log-in required).

PubMed^®/MEDLINE^®

PubMed^® is the National Library of Medicine's (NLM^®) electronic database of biomedical citations and abstracts that is searchable on the Web at no cost. It covers the fields of medicine, nursing, and health and rehabilitation sciences, including physical therapy. Journal articles are indexed, and their citations are searchable. A search provides only abstracts of the articles. The full text of the articles may be obtained from a variety of sources, including local medical and healthcare libraries, some public or college libraries, through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine's (NNLM) Loansome Doc service, from local public libraries offering Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services, or through one of several commercial document delivery suppliers (see list at bottom of page). APTA provides a link from its Web site to help users access PubMed^®. Go to the APTA Research page, click on APTA's PubMed^®/MEDLINE^® Search Page, then click on the link that says Search PubMed^®/MEDLINE^®, which will take you to the NLM^® Web site at www.pubmed.gov. Tutorials are available from the PubMed^® search page.

MEDLINE^® is also available as a subscription database at many health services, public, and academic libraries at minimal or no cost. One advantage to going to the library to do the PubMed^® search is that you may be able to obtain copies of the cited research articles from that library. A librarian may also be able to obtain copies for you through the library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) department.

MedlinePlus^®

The National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus^® service includes links to additional sources of health-related information such as news articles, directories, organizations, databases, and medical dictionaries.

CINAHL^®

Another database that may be useful in your research is CINAHL^®, which is the electronic version of the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature^®. APTA members have access to CINAHL^® through the Open Door project. [See section above.] CINAHL^® covers 1961 to the present and includes citations from 1,000+ journals and related magazines, including Physical Therapy: Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association and PT—Magazine of Physical Therapy.

The Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library is another database that may be useful in your research. Cochrane reviews are based on available information about healthcare interventions. They explore the evidence for and against the effectiveness and appropriateness of treatments in specific circumstances. APTA members may access three databases from the Cochrane Library via Open Door [member log-in required]. These databases are: the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews contains the full text of regularly updated systematic reviews and protocols for reviews of the effects of healthcare. The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects contains structured abstracts of critical assessments of systematic reviews from a variety of medical journals. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) is a database of more than 350,000 abstracts of definitive randomized controlled trials and controlled clinical trials from around the globe. Members may search them separately or combined with the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature^® (CINAHL^®).

Members of the public may be able to access this database free of charge at their academic or affiliated healthcare library. Alternatively, individuals may pay for access to the Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library site allows free searching of abstracts; there is a fee for viewing or downloading full-text articles.

Hooked on Evidence

Hooked on Evidence is APTA's "grassroots" effort to develop a database containing current research evidence on the effectiveness of physical therapy interventions. A standardized format is used to summarize information on the study design, methods, interventions, and outcomes of research. Measures of treatment effect size are calculated from available data in the original article. Peer-reviewed articles representing a number of study designs are used including randomized clinical trials, cohort studies, case-control studies and case reports. Dozens of clinical scenarios are available to organize evidence for the physical therapy management of persons with stroke, cerebral palsy, low back pain, knee conditions, and shoulder conditions. APTA member log-in is required to search the database; subscriptions are available to the public.

Additional Sources

• Speak to a Reference Librarian at your institution's affiliated health care library, academic library, or public library. Library staff can often recommend sources of information on your topic.
• PT—Magazine of Physical Therapy and Physical Therapy: Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association both publish author and subject indexes for the current year, in each December issue. You can use these indices to identify articles on your topic. Search or browse the table of contents of PT—Magazine or Physical Therapy back through 1990 via the APTA Web site. Research articles from Physical Therapy: Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association are available free online in their entirety beginning with the January 1990 issue, for APTA members and print journal subscribers only.
• Selected topics from Physical Therapy: Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association. Special collections of Physical Therapy articles are available for purchase through APTA's Member Services Department. Topics include: gait, electrical stimulation, cerebral palsy, balance, cardiopulmonary physical therapy, low back pain, manual therapy, movement science, pediatric orthopedics, physical disability, skeletal muscle, and pharmacology. Visit the Online Store for additional information.
• APTA's Online Store includes many valuable sources of information for PTs and PTAs. You can browse the catalog on APTA's Web site or contact APTA's Member Services Department (800/999-2782, ext 3395) to request that one be sent to you.

How Can I Get Copies of Articles?

1. Try your affiliated healthcare or academic library. It may have the journal title you are looking for in its collection, or staff may be able to obtain the article for you through a Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.
2. Contact a document delivery service provider, set up an account, and order the article through them. Document delivery services charge for copies of articles, and prices vary among companies. Before you make a request, check the company's pricing policy. A list of selected document delivery service providers is included below.
3. Use Loansome Doc, a service of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM^®). When you do a search of the MEDLINE^® database on the Internet, you have the option of ordering the full text of the articles you find. In order to use the Loansome Doc service you must first establish an agreement with a health science library in your area. This library is your ordering library. All of the orders you place using Loansome Doc will be sent to this library. If there is a health science library you use on a regular basis, check with that library to determine if they provide Loansome Doc service. If you need assistance finding a library that can provide this service for you, contact the Regional Medical Library in your area at 800/338-7657. Staff there can provide information about libraries where you may establish a Loansome Doc account. For more information about how to use Loansome Doc, see the fact sheet and tutorial.

Document Delivery Service Providers

To order copies of articles from a document delivery service provider you must first set up an account. For a fee, you may obtain copies of articles from Physical Therapy: Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association, PT—Magazine of Physical Therapy, and other journals related to physical therapy or other health sciences. Contact each vendor for additional information about service it provides.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of service providers. For an extensive list of document delivery service providers see the DocDel.net Web site.

BioDox Document Delivery Services
800 Washington Ave, SE. Suite 201
Minneapolis, MN USA 55414
Telephone: 877/331-5296 or 612/331-5296
Fax: 612/331-5297
E-mail: doxinfo@biodox.com
Website: http://www.biodox.com

Health Information for You
Health Sciences Libraries
University of Washington
Box 357155
Seattle, WA 98195 -7155
Telephone: 206/543-3441
Fax: 206/685-4710
Web site: http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/docservices/illiad.htm

Wisconsin TechSearch
Kurt F Wendt Library
University of Wisconsin-Madison
215 N Randall Ave
Madison, WI 53706-1688
Telephone: 608/262-5917
Fax: 608/262-4739 or toll free: 800/514-1423
E-mail: wts@engr.wisc.edu
Web site: http://wts.wisc.edu/

[Last updated: 02/15/08| Contact: inforesources@apta.org]