ATTR 691 Research in Occupational Therapy: Home

In summary, you are trying to make a change (the Intervention) from some other old way (the Comparison) for someone (the Population) to make things better in some way (the Outcome). Sometimes the Time period is included, too--are you interested in short term outcomes or long term outcomes?

P = Population
I = Intervention
C = Comparison
O = Outcome
T = Time

There is not One Right Way to search. But there are strategies that have proven useful. 

1. Narrow to results that have an assigned database Subject (or MeSH) relevant to your topic.
2. Narrow to results where the Subject (or MeSH) is a Major Subject.
3. Narrow to results of higher Levels of Evidence within Evidence-Based Practice (EBP).
4. Narrow to more recent results.
5. Narrow to results that have your search word(s) in the title of the source.
6. Broaden results by including synonyms, acronyms, or other terms used to discuss the concepts of your topic
7. "Pearl Growing" or Pearl Gathering. Look at your results for ideas for how to improve your search. Look for additional terms and concepts to include or exclude.
8. When you find a good source, use its references to find additional older sources.
9. When you find a good source, use the Web of Science database to find other newer sources which Cited this source.
10. Try searching in a different database or website or search engine.
11. In the health sciences, see if anyone created a database-specific Search Hedge/Filter for your topic or for concepts of your topic.

There are many databases that include information and sources relevant to occupational therapy. Some subscription databases are provided by the ISU Library. Some databases are free to use with an individual membership. Others are free to use by anyone.

There are also credible information resources on the Internet. Pay attention to what entity provides and maintains the resource to help judge its quality and credibility.

National occupational therapy organizations and their resources.