Occupational Science/Occupational Therapy Resources: Databases

Resources for the Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Division programs.

Created by Health Science Librarians

Ask HSL

Intro to Using the Library

Intro to Using the Library OS/OT Student Welcome Resources (1 page PDF with links) Welcome & Orientation Videos: A set of 5 short videos to help you use the Health Sciences Library: Intro to HSL, Catalog Searching, Using Library Databases, Article Searching (including how to use Interlibrary Loan - free to you - to get articles we do not own), Advanced Searching Tips

Major Medical & Interdisciplinary Databases

Cochrane Library
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Education Full Text
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Indexing from 1983; Full Text from 1996
Google Scholar
Search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, and technical reports.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
ERIC
Journal & report literature 1966-present in education and related disciplines.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1966-present
ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Database
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
PsycInfo
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1887 - Present
PubMed
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1957-present
Scopus
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Academic Search Premier
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Indexing, 1975-present; Full-text, 1975-present
CINAHL Plus with Full Text
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1982-present

Clinical Medicine Resources for OT
Select Clinical Medicine Resources, including databases to look up drugs and medical conditions.
Embase
Covers international biomedical literature from 1947 to the present day.
Evidence-based Occupational Therapy Resources
Evidence-based Practice: Multidisciplinary Resources
Test Compilations & Search Tools
Link to Test Compilations & Search Tools on Research & Practice tab.

OT-Specific Database

OTseeker
Occupational Therapy Systematic Evaluation of Evidence is a free database of evidence-based practice resources for OT's containing citations, abstracts, critical appraisals and quality ratings for randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews relevant to OT practice.

Select Resources pull-down from top menu bar to access
• Evidence Based Practice Resources for OT
• Qualitative Evidence Syntheses Tracker (QuEST)
Access: No restrictions.

Other Core Databases for OS/OT

AgeLine
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
AnthroSource
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: late 19th century - present
ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1987 - Current
International Rehabilitation Research Collection (formerly CIRRIE) from NARIC
International research, originally collected by the NIDILRR-funded Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange (CIRRIE) at the University of Buffalo over more than 15 years of active collection development. Now integrated into NARIC's REHABDATA search apparatus. Under the current NARIC contract, we will continue to add new records and grow this important collection of disability and rehabilitation research See REHABDATA for United States citations.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

The Use of CIRRIE’s Database of International Rehabilitation Research in Conducting Systematic Reviews (NCDDR)

REHABDATA from NARIC
Access: No restrictions.

PILOTS (now PTSDpubs)
By the US Dept of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD. The database provides citations and abstracts to the worldwide literature on PTSD and other psychological effects of trauma. Coverage: 1871 - current

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1861 to present
PTSDpubs
Formerly PILOTS database, produced by the US Dept of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD. The database provides citations and abstracts to the worldwide literature on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and other mental health consequences of exposure to traumatic events of every variety. Coverage: 1871 - current
Access: No restrictions.

SimplyAnalytics
Create and export high resolution map images. To save your work, create an individual account when signing in to UNC's institutional account at this link. OPENS IN NEW WINDOW.
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A web-based mapping application that enables users to quickly and easily create professional-quality thematic maps and reports using extensive demographic, business and marketing data derived from a variety of sources. Variables include demographics, housing, income, retail sales, consumer expenditures, consumer price index, quality of life, employment and establishments by industry, census data from 1980 to present and more. Export high resolution map images

Social Services Abstracts
Social Services Abstracts indexes and abstracts current journals and other periodicals in the disciplines of social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Coverage: 1980-Present
Social Work Abstracts
The Social Work Abstracts database, produced by the National Association of Social Workers, Inc., contains records, from social work and other related journals on topics such as homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, substance abuse, legislation, community organization, and more.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1977-Present
Sociological Abstracts
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1963-present
SPORTDiscus with Full Text
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1985 to present for full text; other indexing back to 1800

Occupations Search (including Leisure/Recreation Related Topics)

Some databases to try, depending upon the focus of your search. Remember that IF you need scholarly journal articles, you may have to filter or limit your results.

See Link on this page for the OT - Specific Databases, OT Seeker.

Some General Databases include these:

Some additional databases to try, depending upon your topic/occupation include these:

Some potential search terms that may help focus your search (check each database's subject headings or thesaurus for more). Depending upon the occupation you are searching and the database, it sometimes helps to narrow your search by pairing one or another of these terms with your occupation term.

amusements
games
hobbies
leisure or leisure time
recreation
recreational activities
relaxation

See, also:

Recreational Therapy Resources
- including the Database and Journals Tabs

More guides from the libraries

To broaden your research, use E-Research by Discipline from University (Davis) Libraries and the additional HSL guides, below.

E-Research by Discipline pages includes subject specialist librarian contacts, databases, e-journals, guides, related resources.

Aging Research guide
See, also, HSL's Geriatric Practice guide, below.
Anthropology
Cultural Studies
Education
Exercise & Sport Science
Folklore
Geriatric Practice Guide (HSL Guide)
Psychology & Neuroscience
Recreational Therapy (HSL Guide for UNC Hospitals) Guide
Social Work
Sociology
Test Instruments and Measures (HSL)
Tests and Measures (Davis)
All Campus Databases by Subject (E-Research by Discipline)

Aids for Organizing Your Search

Use this guide to help visualize and plan your search:

From Purdue Libraries Creating a Search Strategy Guide: Constructing a Search Statement Worksheet (.pdf download).

Use this log to keep your search organized and to document your search strategy for reporting:

Barbara Renner's Database Search Log Sheet

Learn How to Use Library Databases

Database Tips Guide
Learn how to search effectively for citations and links to the full text of articles using library databases such as PubMed.

Find @ UNC

Click on the button in database results to:

Go directly to most online articles
Export article citations to Endnote or to formats for other reference managers
Use Google Scholar or the Google Scholar Button browser add-in to find free full text.
Search the UNC-CH Library Catalog to find the print journal
Send an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request if the journal is not owned by UNC-CH

A to Z Databases

All campus databases

browse by title
browse by subject
search by database name

Implicit Bias Resources Guide

Implicit Bias Resources Guide

"Implicit biases are discriminatory biases based on implicit attitudes or implicit stereotypes. Implicit biases are especially intriguing, and also especially problematic, because they can produce behavior that diverges from a person's avowed or endorsed beliefs or principles."

Greenwald, Anthony G., and Linda Hamilton Krieger. "Implicit Bias: Scientific Foundations." California Law Review 94, no. 4 (2006): 945-67. doi:10.2307/20439056.

Anatomy & Physiology Resources

Anatomy.tv
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
e-Anatomy
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Some Food for Thought on Searching for Disability Research

Nancy Schaefer (2015) Disability Search Tips and Resources, Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 34:1, 60-74, DOI: 10.1080/02763869.2015.986792
Although this resource is several years old and much is evolving in this area, it has information that continues to be useful for searching.

For UNC Chapel Hill Users FIND@UNC link for Full Text.

On Searching for the Unknown with Unspeakable Names: Searching PubMed for Disability Research. By P.F. Anderson and LaTeesa James in Bill of Health, the blog of the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School, September 27, 2023
"Currently, structured vocabulary terms related to disability are scattered throughout PubMed’s medical subject heading (MeSH) trees, often without cross references to facilitate discovery, forcing discovery to largely depend on the unstructured language of whatever words were chosen by the authors to describe their research topics. This lack of consensus and consistency across professional disability terms, categories, and definitions contributes to a lack of comparability, discoverability, and access for disability data as well as research."
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"As research partners with the University of Michigan’s Center for Disability Health and Wellness, we decided to address this gap. It’s been an adventure, and the deeper into the project we go, the more complicated it becomes. This article describes just a few of the challenges we’ve encountered."
Acknowledge Outdated or Offensive Terminology in Searches (UNC Health Sciences Library Systematic Reviews Guide)
Research teams need to discuss current and outdated terminology and decide which terms to include in the search to be as comprehensive as possible.
Addressing antiquated, non-standard, exclusionary, and potentially offensive terms in evidence syntheses and systematic searches. Townsend, W., Anderson, P., Haines, K., Hansen, S., James, L., MacEachern, M., Rana, G., Saylor, K. & Saylor, K. (2022)
This document, from the University of Michigan Library, "provides suggested processes and wording for addressing the inclusion of antiquated, non-standard, exclusionary, and potentially offensive terms in evidence syntheses and systematic searches."