Library Guides: EHR213 Research Skills Guide: Use Journal Databases

Why Should You Use Journal Databases?

Journal databases:

Are the best source of academic or scholarly information for your assessments
help you locate peer reviewed articles
Are subject specific, so that you get more relevant results
Have many options for refining results

You can find the Library's databases on the Journal Databases page.

Databases are grouped into subject areas. The Exercise Science Databases will be particularly useful for your study.

Which database should I choose?

CSU Library subscribes to a number of databases which should have journal articles and other resources on exercise science. Here are a few of them:

Australian Sport Database (Ausport) This link opens in a new window
An Australian Informit database of citations and article summaries, with some full-text. Produced by the National Sport Information Centre, Australian Sports Commission. Covers all aspects of Australian sport. The link here will take you to the Informit platform with Ausport selected. See more ... below.
Specific topics include sports administration, sports medicine, sports psychology, coaching, sport for children, economics of sport, and the Olympic Games.

Your searching from this link will be within Ausport only. You can change the database(s) you are searching using the Change Databases button. Unless you have changed databases, you will continue to search in Ausport. When you have run a search, your results list will include, at the top, which database(s) you have searched in.

You can use Simple Search or Advanced Search. Advanced Search offers more options for searching, and more limiters. When you have run a search, there are further options for filtering your results. For searching help, there is a useful set of Search Tips at the bottom of the Advanced Search Screen.

The database began in 1989, but includes some selected earlier items.
MEDLINE (includes MeSH headings) [2014 - Present] This link opens in a new window
This major international health, medicine, and veterinary medicine database is available from Ovid in various packages. The version here includes the most recent MEDLINE material (2014 to current).
MEDLINE is recognised as the premier index of biomedical literature. It covers health and medicine, allied health, and veterinary science, plus the biological and physical sciences, humanities, and information science as they relate to health care. It is produced by the United States National Library of Medicine and covers thousands of international journals from 1950 - .

It is primarily a database of citations, but the Ovid version includes links to some full text journal articles from the database CSU Full Text Journals@Ovid, listed in the Charles Sturt databases lists as Journals@Ovid CSU Full Text Subscribed.

For the full-text of other items, use the Find it - CSU button to search for the full article via Primo Search.

MEDLINE is provided by Ovid in various packages. These can be accessed from the Library's list of M-databases or from the Ovid menu of databases.

MEDLINE is very similar to the free and publicly available PubMed.
PsycINFO [1806 to Present] This link opens in a new window
A database of journal and other citations with some full-text available. Covers the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Produced by the American Psychological Association and available in the Ovid platform.
The database includes material of relevance to psychologists, and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.

Updated weekly, PsycINFO provides access to journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations. Most of the journals in PsycINFO are peer-reviewed.

It is primarily an index, but does include some full-text links to items in the Journals@Ovid database.

For information on things like numbers of records and languages/countries represented, see the APA's PsycINFO Factsheet.

This is one of many databases available in the Ovid platform. Once in the Ovid interface, you can change to another database by clicking on the Change link in the main search panel. All Ovid databases can be searched individually or in any combination.

Ovid provides PsycINFO in a number of date-range packages, and also provides PsycARTICLES Full Text , PsycBOOKS, and PsycTESTS.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
An Elsevier database of scientific content from journals and books, which gives comprehensive coverage of the sciences and social sciences.
Material is organised in the major subject areas ("domains") of:
• physical sciences and engineering
• life sciences
• health sciences
• social sciences and humanities.

Charles Sturt Library does not subscribe to all of the content in ScienceDirect, but the subscription does include the full-text of thousands of journals and hundreds of eBooks. Both the journal and eBook content cover a range of subjects.

To browse the collection, go to Journals & Books at the top of the main page. You can filter your browsing by journal or book title, domain and subdomain (subject areas), resource type (articles and book chapters), and access type.

You can search using basic or advanced search. Search results are available as journal articles and book chapters.

You can filter results to full-text content by ticking the box(es) for Subscribed publications and/or Open Access articles. You can also filter by article type or to book chapters.

For journal article results where the full-text is NOT available, click on the article title to go to the full record, then click on the Find It button to search for the full item via Primo Search.

Most full-text journal content is available from 1995 onward and, for some journals, the content is available from Volume 1. New titles are added regularly.

Elsevier also produces the Scopus database, a huge abstract and citation database, and the eBook collections ClinicalKey Student: Nursing and ClinicalKey Student: Medicine.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
An EBSCOhost database of journal and other citations, with much available in full-text, covering all aspects of sports, sports science, physical education, sports medicine, and sports administration.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text has references from journal and magazine articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, and theses and dissertations. There are more than 750,000 records dating back to 1800.

The database also includes the full-text of more than 350 journals dating back to 1985.
Sports Medicine and Exercise Science in Video This link opens in a new window
An online collection of searchable videos that covers fitness and health assessment, disease management, injury treatment, nutrition, medical fitness, sport science, work-site wellness, and exercise adherence.
This collection features physicians, exercise scientists, certified athletic trainers, physical therapists, registered dieticians, sport psychologists, personal trainers, and health/wellness experts.

Titles in the collection have been approved for educational use by several professional organisations including the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Athletic Trainers Association, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and the Medical Fitness Association.

The collection can be searched and browsed, and has a number of features that assist in its use as an educational resource. Features include:

* video browse and search capabilities;
* multiple points of access: browses, searches, thumbnail images, transcripts;
* synchronised, searchable transcripts;
* video clip-making tools;
* annotated playlists: users can make, annotate, and share playlists and clips, and can include links to materials or resources outside the collection;
* sharing of video by embeddable links.

Sports Medicine and Exercise Science in Video is one of a number of video collections produced by Alexander Street Press. You can get access to broader Alexander Street Press video content from Alexander Street Press Video and from VAST: Academic Video Online. There is other health-related content in VAST: Academic Video Online: Health Sciences.
UpToDate This link opens in a new window
UpToDate is an evidence-based clinical medical resource which includes medical and patient information, drug information, and a number of medical calculators. It is continuously updated and is designed as a point-of-care clinical resource.
The main content consists of 11,000 topics across 25 medical specialities, which are written, edited, and reviewed by authors, experts, and peer-reviewers from around the world. Each topic includes a prominent Summary section or Summary and Recommendations section.

Other features include:
• 1500 patient education topics
• 33,000 graphics
• access to Lexi-comp drug monographs
• more than 175 medical calculators
• What’s New and Practice-Changing Updates
• UpToDate Pathways.

UpToDate has an uncluttered user-friendly interface. You can search across the whole resource, or, from the top tab-bar, you can access the Contents, Calculators, Drug interactions, and UpToDate Pathways. You can navigate between topics using hyperlinks in the text.

For information about UpToDate's peer review process, see the page on Editorial Policy.

See a complete list of Exercise Science Journal Databases on the Library website.

TRY IT NOW

Go to the SPORTDisus with Full Text database, and try typing in – psychological skills training and your chosen sport-specific population (you may need to sign in first with your CSU username and password). Here is an example, for you:

Did you get less results than Primo Search and Google Scholar? Being a Exercise Science database, they should be more relevant to your topic.
Look at the HTML and PDF links to access the full text of the article.
If you cannot find the full text click on the button to check if the article is available elsewhere.

Searching in a database

Full text

Sometimes you will read that a database is 'full text', or that an article can be found in 'full text'. 'Full text' means that the entire document is available online. When a database carries an article in full text there will be a hyperlink to view it as either a PDF or html document. Not all journal databases contain full text.

If an article is not available in full text you may be able to locate it in another database. Clicking on the button will allow you to check if the article is available elsewhere.

Want to learn more about journal databases?

The Library holds a series of Online Library Workshops, some of these focus on journal database searching.
We also have a Databases Help guide that contains a wealth of information on using journal databases.