Find Articles - Physical Therapist Assistant - Researching in the Technical Phase - Library at Montgomery County Community College

Databases for Physical Therapist Assistants

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
What's included: Academic Search Complete is a scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Uses include: Searching index and abstracts records for various journals and publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
What's included: Our largest online reference collection. Uses include: Resources for study such as atlases, biographies, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.
Health Source - Consumer Edition This link opens in a new window
What's included: Articles for patients on nutrition, exercise, medical self care, childcare, drug and alcohol abuse, and more. Uses include: Searching the medical dictionary and drug guide for research topics.
This database is a rich collection of consumer health information providing access to nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines, including American Fitness, Better Nutrition, Fit Pregnancy, Harvard Health Letter, HealthFacts, Men's Health, Muscle & Fitness, Prevention, Vegetarian Times, and many others. This database also includes searchable full text for more than 1,000 health-related pamphlets and 130 health reference books, including books published by the People's Medical Society. Additionally, Health Source: Consumer Edition contains more than 4,500 Clinical Reference Systems reports (in English and Spanish). This database covers topics such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, drugs & alcohol, aging, fitness, nutrition & dietetics, children's health, women's health, etc.
PLOS: Public Library of Science This link opens in a new window
What's included: Peer-reviewed, open access journal articles on all fields of science and medicine. Uses include: Review articles for your research on exercise wellness.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
What's included: Citations of articles covering biomedical and life sciences. Links to Full-Text when available. Uses include: The Topic-Specific Queries tool will assist in finding records, subjects, and topics for research.
PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
What's included: PubMed Central (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM). Uses include: Review full text articles via PubReader on any mobile device.

Finding Systematic Reviews and Clinical Queries in PubMed

PubMed's systematic review articles are highly valued in the physical therapist community, as they demonstrate growing consensus on scientific topics. After running a search in PubMed, go to the sidebar under "Article Type" and check the box to limit to systematic reviews.

Also try this search of PubMed Clinical Queries. See the difference in the results when you set the scope to Broad vs Narrow.

Peer Reviewed Journals for PTA Students

Peer reviewed journals are a student's best source of original research in the field. To read the most current issue of a professional journal is to keep up to date on the latest scholarly conversation in the field, and be more aware of the issues and trends that are most relevant to your peers. To search a database that collects the most current issues as well as previous issues, using key words to focus on specific topics, is to understand how the conversation has evolved into its latest form, and what future evidence-based research may be pursued on topics of great importance.

When quoting directly or paraphrasing from peer reviewed sources from professional journals, be sure to give credit to the authors using the proper method of citation.

Below: Peer Review explanation video and Peer Review Explanation (two-sided pdf)