Physical Therapy Databases: Home

• Identify the key concepts.
• Determine alternate terms for these concepts, if needed.
• Use Boolean operators to broaden or narrow your search.
  • AND – narrows your search results
  • OR – broadens your search results
  • NOT – narrows your search results
• Use wildcard and truncation sympbols.
  • Symbols used depend on database (*, ?)
• Use built-in subject terms (i.e., MeSH in MEDLINE, CINAHL Headings in CINAHL), thesauri and other indexes – use this specific language whenever possible.
• Using bibliographies (works cited or reference lists) for other relevant articles, etc.
• Refine your search to dates, studies, etc., as appropriate

Google Scholar is a time-saving, scholarly search interface accessible from within the Google interface. With Google Scholar, you can access peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book sections.  For literature searching, specialized databases have more functionality and access more comprehensive results, but Google Scholar is a good tool to use for a search for a known item.