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KINE 202 Course Guide

Scholarly Sources

 

How do we know a source we've found is a scholarly journal article? Look for these clues:

  • written by scholars (with affiliations to universities or research institutions)
  • written for other scholars and students (and therefore difficult to read)
  • published in an academic journal with a peer-review process
    • Here are some examples:
      • Clinical Medicine & Research
      • Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal
      • American Journal of Health Promotion
      • British Medical Journal (BMJ)
      • Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
      • Journal of Nurtrition Education & Behaviors
  • structured format (abstract, introduction, etc...)
  • often presents new research
  • extensive references at the end

The databases below will have the best information for health-related topics:

Database Disciplinary Coverage
SportDiscus Kinesiology literature
Academic Search Premier Multi-disciplinary literature
Google Scholar @ CSUSM Multi-disciplinary literature
CINAHL Allied Health/Nursing literature

 

 

Tips Examples
Use keywords, not long search phrases

Instead of searching for "How effective is mirror therapy in improving motor function after a stroke?" break down your search into the main keywords:

mirror therapy, motor function, stroke,

To get more focused results:

Use quotation marks (" ") to keep phrases together

Use AND to combine different keywords

"mirror therapy" AND stroke

To get broader results:

Use OR to combine similar/associated keywords

Truncate words that have a variety of endings with a *

(motor function OR mobility) AND "mirror therapy" AND rehabilitat*

 

rehabilitat* includes rehabilitation, rehabilitate, rehabilitated, rehabilitating

Look for ways to limit your search in the database You can often limit by type of article (scholarly and peer-reviewed) & year of publication
 

Venn Diagram of Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)

Venn diagram of boolean operators