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Athletic Training

This guide will support athletic training students from their first year through their senior year; containing links to relevant library resources and examples of evidence based practice.

Research Basics

  • Step One: What is your research question, if you can easily explain what you are researching in a one sentence question, you will have a much easier time finding relevant resources.
    • What is the most effective on field test for a possible concussion?
  • Step Two: Don't search for the whole question, instead focus on the important parts of the question
    • concussion
    • diagnosis
  • Choose the best database for your research question
    • The where to search tab has a list of suggested databases
      • Searching the databases allows you to find the original research and review articles need for evidence based decision making
    • Wikipedia (and other similar resources) are great for providing background understanding of new terms and concepts, but rarely should these resources be used for class assignments.
      • If you find information in a Wikipedia article that you want to use for an assignment, check if the article links to a more authoritative resource, like a scholarly article or professional organization webpage.
  • After you run your search, check to see that the database is showing the most relevant resources first
    • Also look to see if there are limiters/filters that are appropriate for your search
  • If you find a good article and you see a message saying full text is not available, don't forget that you can request the article using Interlibrary Loan.
    • This is a free service and most articles arrive within a couple of days as pdf file
  • When you use ideas from any source as part of your course assignments, you must cite the original content according to the citation style assigned by your instructor.
    • Check out the AMA style tab for help using AMA
  • At any point, from getting started to help during the search, and specific citation questions you can contact me for help!

Boolean Searching

Boolean terms give you more control of your search. Used correctly they can save time by returning more relevant articles

 

  • AND narrows a search by requiring each term to appear in the result ( a Google search automatically buts AND between each word you type)
    • for example if you wanted results about football players dealing with a concussion you might search football AND concussion
    • Doing an AND search will reduce the number of results you get
  • OR broadens a search, allowing you to search for similar terms
    • For example you could search ACL or Anterior Cruciate Ligament
    • This will increase the number of results you get from a search
    • This strategy is good if your original search didn't return any useful articles
  • NOT removes a term from consideration. This means if an article a term you don't want that article will not show up, even if the words you do want appear.
    • For example if you get a lot of animal studies you could say NOT rats 
    • This will narrow your search and should only be used in rare situations