Physical Therapist Assistant

Once you are in a database, you will need to convert your topic or research question into language the computer understands. The following search techniques will help you with this process.

Once you are in a database, you will need to convert your topic or research question into language the computer understands. The following search techniques will help you with this process.

Keywords

The first step is to determine keywords that sum up the main concepts of your topic. Keywords are typically nouns or noun phrases. If you phrase your topic as a research question or thesis, you can often pull keywords from the topic sentence.

Example topic: Does sports tape help alleviate pain?

Keywords: sports tape, pain

Sometimes the keywords from your original topic sentence will not produce the types of results you want. When that happens, try to think of related keywords. These can be other words that have similar meanings, words that are broader (good for when you have too few results), or words that are more specific (good for when you have too many results).

Example related keywords:

Similar: kinesio tape, athletic tape, inflammation
Broader: rehabilitation, injuries
Narrower: athletes, joint pain, taping methods

Truncation

Truncation (shortening your keyword) makes the database look at other possible forms of a word for which you are searching. Use truncation to find plurals and variations on the endings of a word. To truncate, use the asterisk symbol: *. You can enter this symbol by hitting Shift and 8 on the keyboard at the same time or by hitting the asterisk symbol on the number pad.

Search Examples

• You want to find the following terms:
  orthopedic, orthopedics, orthopaedic, orthopaedics
  
  Use orthop*
• You want to find the following terms:
  therapy, therapist, therapeutics
  
  Use therap*
• You want to find the following terms:
  muscle, muscles, muscular, musculoskeletal
  
  Use musc*

Phrase Searching

To find an exact phrase (i.e., words in a row in an exact order), enclose the phrase in quotation marks.

Examples

• "manual therapy"
• "therapeutic exercise"
• "patient care"

Using AND

Combine keywords by putting the word AND between them. This requires that both keywords be present in the database's results. Entries that include keywords connected by AND are referred to as search statements.

Example Search Statements

• parkinson* AND "physical therapy"
• "therapeutic exercise" AND rehab*
• orthop* AND kinesiology

Note: If you use the Advanced Search feature of a database, AND is the default connector between the entry boxes:

Keyword searches rely on your ability to guess what the correct terms are for your topic. In health sciences, sometimes this can be tricky. In cases where your keyword searches are not working, it is a good idea to determine the correct subject terms.

Many databases assign subject headings to groups of similar articles. If you determine the correct subject term for a topic, you can use that term to find other, similar results. In CINAHL, these subject headings are called CINAHL Headings. In MEDLINE, these subject headings are called MeSH.

The searches used to identify CINAHL Headings and MeSH are very similar. The tutorial in the next section walks you through this process.

Our EBSCO subscription provides access to five databases that may be useful for health science research:

• Academic Search Complete
• CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing Allied and Health Literature)
• Health Source Consumer Edition
• MEDLINE
• APA PsycArticles

EBSCO allows you to search across any combination of these databases. To do this, click on

This opens a new window that contains all of the databases that EBSCO provides. Choose as many databases as you like. If you are uncertain of which database to choose, click the arrow by the database title to see a description.

Once you have selected all of the databases you wish to search, click OK. You will be returned to the original search page where you can enter your terms. Please note: some specialized search features and limits (e.g., using MeSH) are not available in a cross-database search.