Kinesiology 337:Psychology of Sport Injury and Recovery : Research Help

Librarians help with the following research-related activities:

• Narrowing down a topic
• Suggesting resources for finding credible background information on a topic
• Coming up with effective search terms
• Finding books and articles
• Figuring out which research tools are the best fit for your topic (there are over 350 choices!)
• Getting more (and better) search results
• Saving, emailing and printing articles
• Getting books and articles from other libraries
• Creating bibliographies with RefWorks

The following techniques can improve your success with online searching, whether you're searching a catalog for books or a database for articles:

• Enter phrases in quotes:  "body image" "aerobic exercise"
• Use truncation symbols to search for alternate word endings: In most databases, entering athlet* searches for athletic, athletics, athlete, and atheletes.
• If one term doesn't work, try a few others. Experiment with different vocabulary related to your topic. Brainstorm ideas for relevant keywords and use background sources such as encyclopedias for suggestions.

How do I know if my article comes from a peer-reviewed journal?

• You can use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory to check to see if a particular journal is peer-reviewed. If it is, the record will include the referree jacket icon depicted above, meaning that the journal is "refereed"/peer-reviewed
• Peer-reviewed journals contain articles that have been carefully reviewed by experts in a particular field of study to ensure that the research they present meets high standards of quality
• Peer-reviewed journals are also referred to as scholarly, academic, or refereed
• Common characteristics of peer-reviewed journal articles:
  • they have an abstract, which is a paragraph at the beginning of the article summarizing the content and findings of the article
  • the authors are affiliated with academic institutions (most often colleges and universities)
  • the articles are long (usually anywhere from 10-35 pages) and primarily text-based (pictures included are usually charts and graphs, as opposed to glossy photos as in popular magazines)
  • they contain a lengthy bibliography (also called "references," or "works cited" list). You can use this list to find additional sources on your topic.

Connect to Ulrich's Using the Link below:

The reference desk is in the IDEA Commons on the 1st floor of the Daley Library. Reference Librarians are on duty the following times:

Monday-Thursday: 8am-7pm

Friday: 8am-5pm

The desk is staffed by trained graduate students other times the library is open.

Try the following searches initially: 

(athlet* psychology recovery)

(athlet* psychology injury)

Then add in your sport/activity, or replace athlet* with your sport, to see if there's a more specific study on your population:

(athlet* psychology injury soccer) or (soccer psychology injury) or (soccer psychology recovery)

If this doesn't give you results, you may have to eliminate one term:

(psychology injury soccer) or (psychology soccer) or (injury soccer)

If you get too specific (too many search terms), "zoom out". If you get too many results with a few terms, add in another or use limits (age limits- article types- etc.)