Welcome to the Occupational Therapy Guide.
Audience: Pre-OT & MOT students.
Help Available: please contact librarians at Ask a Librarian or on the Library Tab in the Portal (phone, email, chat)
How to Use: Click a tab to learn more.
APA Citation Style Guide
Evidence Based Practice Guide
Finding Primary Research Articles
Use these search techniques to locate primary research articles inside databases.
- Add the following row of keywords to your search: (methods AND results) OR methodology OR “research” OR “study”. You will want to copy and paste this entire row of keywords into its own search box in the advanced search.
Important! From your list of results, you will still need to examine each article to see if it is primary research.
- Filter by Document/Article/Publication type: health sciences databases often let you limit results by article type. Common options include:
- Clinical Trials
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Cohort Study
- Case study/Case Report
Search for article in Primo & library databases (see databases tab)
Instructions for finding, accessing, & requesting: Finding Journal Articles
Journal Titles
- The American Journal of Occupational Therapy
- Clinical Rehabilitation
- Disability and Rehabilitation (Print Only)
- Early Intervention & School Special Interest Section Quarterly
- Journal of Occupational Science
- Journal of Hand Therapy
- OT Practice
- Occupational Therapy in Health Care
- Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics
- Work
Occupational Therapy EJournals Shelf
Finding Journal Articles By Journal Title in Primo
- Open Primo Journal Title Search
- Search for the Journal’s Title
- Click on the Journal in the search results.
- Search inside the journal for keywords on the journal page.
Books and websites are a great resource for reviewing and mastering course concepts.
- Search for books and ebooks by topic in Primo.
- For instructions finding print books and using ebooks: Finding Books Guide
- Find a specific book
LC Call Numbers
- RJ 52-53 Pediatric Therapeutics
- RM 735 Occupational Therapy
- RM930-931 Rehabilitation therapy
Ebooks
Quick Reference Books
- HealthData.gov: US health and medicine data
- National Center for Health Statistics- Fast Stats Alphabetical list of stats on public health issues
- National Center for Health Statistics- Health annual report Datafinder tool and free infographics
- State Health Facts (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
- World Health Organization Data Repository: Health-related statistics from over 100 countries
NIH Finding and Using Data Free Online Course
Background Information
- Physiopedia
Online Encyclopedia of Physiotherapy - MayoClinic
Overviews of medical conditions and treatments - U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (CDC)
Find the prevalence of medical conditions in the United States
Research Search Tools
Working on a literature review? Try one of these online tools to find additional research studies and grey literature. Search for the article title in Primo to find to full-text.
- OTSeeker
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)
- Epistemonikos
- HSRProj (Health Services Research Projects in Progress) (NIH)
- PLoS Medicine
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
PICO Search Tools
- PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database):
free database of over 19,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. - Trip Database – Clinical Search Engine Clinical search tool designed to allow health professionals to rapidly identify the highest quality clinical evidence for clinical practice. Registered users (registration is free) benefit from extra features such as CPD, search history, and collaborative tools.
- SumSearch
Search Pubmed using PICO
Other Guides
- Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources in the Health Sciences
- Types of Research Studies (Hierarchy of Evidence) PDF
Video Tutorials
Click on the video and the CC icon for captions.