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Sources
for
Research Information
A self-study module by Mary
Muhlenhaupt, OTR/L, FAOTA, from Thomas Jefferson University
This site shares the results of
systematic reviews which are organized by practice areas.
"The Campbell Collaboration (C2)
helps people make well-informed decisions by preparing, maintaining and
disseminating systematic reviews in education, crime and justice, and
social welfare. The Campbell Collaboration is an international research
network that produces systematic
reviews of the effects of social interventions. Campbell is based
on voluntary cooperation among researchers of a variety of backgrounds.
A research center from McMaster
University focused on improving the lives of children and youth with
disabilities and their families. Their mission to make their
research on childhood disabilities easily accessible for a wide range
of audiences.
"The Child and Family Studies
Research Programs at Thomas Jefferson University is developing its
web-based resources that are designed to help improve the quality of
services for families and their children with special needs.
Information from published outcome studies of interventions for
children that are based on sensory integration theory is included.
Additional topics will be added, so you might want to re-visit."
"The pediatric evidence-based
care guidelines developed at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical
Center are developed by experts, patients and families to help
pediatricians provide the best possible care to patients."
Tools and resources put together
by the collaborative work of various associations working together to
improve the outcomes for children and youth with disabilities.
This agency is responsible for
advancing education research and supporting evidence-based practices in
all areas of education. The link above is for their A to Z site index
of articles indexed by subject.
Check to see if your local
library provides access to any medical databases such as the ProQuest
Nursing Journals, which includes text from 400+ journals. ProQuest
Nursing
Journals has the Occupational
Therapy Journal of Research (Issues from summer of 1999 to
present). Kansas residents can get a free Kansas Library Card
to access the
ProQuest Nursing Journals from home via the internet.
"Development and testing of
protocols to critically review quantitative and qualitative research
articles. Guidelines were written to accompany the review forms.
Testing of the final forms and guidelines achieved agreement of 75 and
86% between two researchers." Copies of these forms and guidelines for
evaluating research publications are available for free from this
website.
"A critically appraised topic (or
CAT) is a short summary of evidence on a topic of interest, usually
focused around a clinical question. A CAT is like a shorter and less
rigorous version of a systematic review, summarizing the best available
research evidence on a topic. Usually more than one study is included
in a CAT. When professionals summarize a single study, the outcome is a
critically appraised paper (or CAP). CATs and CAPs are one way for busy
clinicians to collate and share their appraisals."
Subscription service by AOTA to a
bibliographic database covering the literature of occupational therapy.
AOTA members receive a reduced rate. Subscriptions available on a
monthly or yearly basis.
"OT seeker is a database that
contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomized controlled
trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically
appraised and rated to assist you to evaluate their validity and
interpretability. These ratings will help you to judge the quality and
usefulness of trials for informing clinical interventions. In one
database, OT seeker provides you with fast and easy access to trials
from a wide range of sources."
A "free database of over 19,000
randomized trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines
in physiotherapy. For each trial, review or guideline, PEDro provides
the citation details, the abstract and a link to the full text, where
possible. All trials on PEDro are independently assessed for quality."
"PubMed, a service of the
National Library of Medicine, includes over 14 million citations for
biomedical articles back to the 1950's. These citations are from
MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to
many sites providing full text articles and other related resources."
Copies of articles from
selected periodicals related to occupational therapy are available from
the Wilma L. West Library for a reasonable fee.
"Established in 2002 by the U.S.
Department of Education Services to provide educators, policymakers,
researchers and the public with a central and trusted source of
scientific evidence of what works in education." Additional information
will be released on a monthly basis, so be sure to check back.
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