Athletic Training

Primary Place to Search

For this assignment, you will be using Pubmed. Pubmed can be found through Google; however, use Pubmed going through the library as you will have more access than you would in Google.

Keyword Tips

Think of your topic in terms of a combination of:

• Sign/symptom (pain, edema) + injury (sprain) + technique/modality (cryotherapy)
  • In the search box, it would look like: edema AND sprain AND cryotherapy
  • Use 1-3 search terms in your search. 
    • To narrow: Use more search words
    • To broaden: Use fewer search words

Finding Benefits or Risks?

• Try keywords such as:

  • Benefits, advantages, or positive

  • Risks, disadvantages, or negative

  • Impact, effect, or influence

Have a topic that is a commercial product or program?

• Don't necessarily use the name of the product or program (e.g., Graston's technique)

• Think about what these products or programs do, and use those keywords instead

  • Does that program, equipment or technique work with a certain injury?

  • Are they using some kind of instrument (e.g., instrument-assisted technique) 

Have a topic that is a particular injury location or sport?

• When searching for sources, don't necessarily use search by sport. There may not be research on that specific sport as it relates to your injury. Meaning, that the essential part of your research question is about sprain management and treatment. So, when searching don't have your sport be a search term.  Save the incorporation and impact of the specific sport for your write-ups, if necessary.

• When searching for a particular injury like an ankle sprain, don't necessarily limit it to body parts. Just like the above, the essential part of your research question is about sprain management and treatment.  So, when searching don't necessarily have your area of the body be a search term.  Save the incorporation and impact of the specific part of the body for your write-ups, if necessary.