Skip to Main Content

Athletic Training, Exercise Physiology, & Physical Therapy

This guide points out some of our many resources that are relevant to the field. As well as great tutorials and tips for searching, citing, finding, and evaluating information and resources.

Resources for your Infographic Project

Articles as Evidence increases your evidence-based practice approach = non-negotiable

First, understand that finding articles and using them as evidence for your point, topic, etc. is a part of Evidence-Based Practice, which is the standard for your profession.  "Evidence based practice (EBP) is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care." --Sackett, Straus, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 2000.

Looking to the literature to supply statistics, examples, and theory to why you are answering your question or supporting your topic in such a way demonstrates your credibility. If you are not credible, then why should a patient believe you? Why should a colleague work with you? What if you didn't use literature to back up your decision and you discovered that you made a medical error?

Searching Tips

Links to Where to Search for Evidence:

PubMed - One of the best places to search for medical/health-related research studies. Nice features of PubMed include:

  • Filter by study type
  • Find similar articles to ones that already interests you

SportDiscus - Focuses on sport-related research, a smaller place than PubMed, but also excellent.

TRIP - Searches medical/health research as well as best practices and guidelines. Nice features of TRIP include:

Credibility Assessment in a Nutshell:

If a research article, then:

  • What type of article or study are you looking at? (More information on study types and methodology here) Does your question rely on a specific type of study methodology? And are the methods and limitations clear in the article?
  • Is the article peer-reviewed? Best way to be sure if the journal is peer-reviewed is to Google the journal, go to the homepage, and look in the ABOUT section or FOR AUTHORS to see if they have a peer-review process.
  • When was it published? Does that matter to your topic? Shoot for within 10 years, if you can.
  • How do their references section look? Good variety?
  • Evaluating a Journal Article PDF - Hanna's chart for how to evaluate a journal article quickly for credibility and topic relevance.

Levels of Evidence

Subjects: Health and Medicine, Recreation and Sports