Library Guides: Evidence-Based Practice in Rehabilitation: Finding the Evidence

Plan the Search

Before you start:

Clarify and state your question
List the keywords/terms for:
1. Population or patient/client group
2. Intervention (or assessment)
3. Comparison intervention (or assessment)
4. Desired outcome(s)
List the years and languages you wish to include
Identify the databases most appropriate for your search

To find scientific data based on your topic, select a database from the list to the right (or others). Additionally, talking about your ideas with a librarian will help you make good choices, such as selecting and combining subject terms.The tools for finding MeSH (in the left sidebar) will help you select search terms. Find resources about searching clinical data here.

Document the Search

For each database you use, complete a table such as this:

Databases & date Searched	Search Terms or Phrases	Yield	Obtained	Reviewed
List at least three biomedical databases used for your search.	List the specific search terms or phrases that you used to identify articles in each database. Include Boolean operators and wildcards as appropriate.	List the number of articles identified by the database.	List the number of articles deemed relevant based on the title or abstract.	List the number of articles deemed relevant based on your review of the full article.
Database 2	Terms/phrases for database 2	# of articles identified in search of database 2	# of articles obtained from database 2	# of articles reviewed from database 2
Database 3	Terms/phrases for database 3	# of articles identified in search of database 3	# of articles obtained from database 3	# of articles reviewed from database 3
Summary			List total number of unique articles deemed relevant based on the title or abstract.	List total number of unique articles deemed relevant based on your review of the full article.

Alternatively, consider using the Concept Table developed by the Whitney/Cushing Library at Yale University

Getting Your Article

In most databases, if the full text of the article is not readily available, you will see a Check for Full Text button.

Clicking on the button will do one of the following:

a) take you to the article - look for PDF full text,
b) take you to the catalog - click on the link next to Content Available
c) link you to Interlibrary Loan so you can request a copy of the article.

Content above from EdD- Education Leadership: Articles.

There are several ways go about finding an article via the UW Libraries website. However, the process is easiest when you have the article's citation handy -- which identifies the article's full title, journal, and author name.

Start by searching the article title in quotes in UW Libraries Search.