Research Guides: Writing for Exercise Science: Finding Resources

Good Places to Get Started

PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed is the National Library of Medicine's gateway to MEDLINE, a National Library of Medicine bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine and pre-clinical sciences. MEDLINE contains bibliographic citations and author abstracts from more than 5,200 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 other countries.
CINAHL with Full Text This link opens in a new window
CINAHL Complete is a major research tool for all areas of nursing and allied health literature, with more than 600,000 full-text articles dating back to 1982. The database provides full text for more than 1,300 nursing & allied health journals indexed in CINAHL.
Sport Discus Full Text This link opens in a new window
SPORTDiscus offers bibliographic and some full-text coverage of sport, fitness and related disciplines. This database contains over 600,000 records with journal and monograph coverage going back to 1800. The content also consists of multi-disciplinary, international references from journal and magazine articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and more. SPORTDiscus is provided by the Sport Information Resource Centre. International database with abstracts on sports, physical education, outdoor recreation, physical activity, and leisure literature. Related databases included in the subscription and covering the same subject area include Heracles (1975-1997) a French language database, Atlantes (1980-1996), a Spanish language database, and Catalogue du Musee Olympique, a catalog of the Olympic Museum in Switzerland.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing for current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from high impact research journals from around the world.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Offers a good starting point for research on nearly any topic, covering most areas of academic study and containing full text for 5,500 periodicals, including 4,600 peer-reviewed publications. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,500 journals.
Alt Health Watch This link opens in a new window
Alt HealthWatch focuses on complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health care and wellness. This database provides full text for articles from more than 140 international and often peer-reviewed reports and proceedings, as well as association and consumer newsletters. In addition, Alt HealthWatch includes hundreds of pamphlets, booklets, special reports, original research and book excerpts.
Health Source: Consumer Edition This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to nearly 80 full-text, consumer health periodicals covering topics such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, drugs & alcohol, aging, fitness, nutrition & dietetics, children's health, and women's health. The database also includes searchable full text for more than 1,000 health-related pamphlets and more than 130 health reference books, including Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition This link opens in a new window
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for nearly 850 journals. Coverage of nursing and allied health is particularly strong
APA PsycArticles This link opens in a new window
Full text articles covering general psychology and specialized, basic, applied, clinical and theoretical research. The database contains more than 34,000 searchable full text articles from 43 journals published by the American Psychological Association and 8 from allied organizations. It contains all journal articles, letters to the editor and errata from each of the 51 journals. Examples of titles offered in PsycARTICLES include: American Psychologist, Behavioral Neuroscience, Canadian Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychoanalytic Psychology, Psychotherapy: Theory/Research/Practice/Training, etc. Coverage spans from 1987 to the present.
APA PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Contains two million references and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books and dissertations, all in the field of psychology. Journal coverage, which spans from 1872 to the present, includes international material selected from nearly 2,000 periodicals in over 35 languages. More than 60,000 records are added each year. It also includes information about the psychological aspects of related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law. Examples of titles offered in PsycINFO include: Academic Medicine, Academic Psychiatry, Behavior Genetics, Behavioral Disorders, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, Journal of Psychology, Psychoanalytic Psychology, Psychological Assessment, Psychological Medicine, etc.

ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Collection of authoritative, full-text scientific, technical and health publications in both journals and books. Includes access to multimedia features, such as video, audio and supplementary spreadsheet files.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is the world's largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, including scientific journals, books and conference proceedings, covering research topics across all scientific and technical disciplines, ranging from medicine and social sciences to arts and humanities.
Clinical Key This link opens in a new window
ClinicalKey is a clinical search engine that supports clinical decisions by making it easier to find and apply relevant knowledge. The database contains over 1,100 medical reference books and over 600 e-journals, in addition to drug monographs, guidelines, and patient education materials.
Consumer Health Complete This link opens in a new window
Consumer Health Complete is a portal for consumer health care information. The database provides convenient access to easily understandable health and medical information. Consumers can search and browse within medical encyclopedias, popular reference books, and magazine articles. (Courtesy of WVInfoDepot)
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research, with full text accessible via WVU Library subscriptions. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Links to library electronic resources are available to WVU students and faculty.
SafetyLit This link opens in a new window
SafetyLit is a free service of the Center for Injury Prevention Policy and Practice at San Diego State University, in collaboration with the World Health Organization. It is an injury prevention literature update and archive.

This database provides abstracts of reports from researchers who work in the more than 30 professional disciplines relevant to preventing unintentional injuries, violence, and self-harm. Among these are anthropology, economics, education, engineering specialties, ergonomics and human factors, health and medicine, law and law enforcement, psychology, sociology, and other fields.
The SafetyLit database contains current and backfile article abstracts from 6,285 active scholarly journals, and abstracts from the backfiles of 2,671 additional "inactive" journals.
The database contains article abstracts from 3,763 journals that are not included in PubMed/MEDLINE.

ExamMaster This link opens in a new window
Users must register through the gateway URL using a WVU email account to access the site. Exam Master is an online test prep resource for the Health Sciences. Coverage includes Dentistry (NBDE), Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Family Nurse Practitioner, Internal Medicine, Nursing (NCLEX- PN & -RN), OB/GYN, Pediatrics, Pharmacy (NAPLEX), Physician Assistant (PANCE), Surgery, SPEX, and USMLE (Steps 1-3). Extensive question banks for each discipline allow the user to take realistic practice exams.
Anatomy TV This link opens in a new window
Anatomy TV is a virtual cadaver and anatomy product that contains interactive 3D computer-generated models of human anatomy online. This resource contains an interactive library of common muscle movement and gross motor movement animations and anatomy videos. The animated 3D models can be rotated and moved to show the function of agonist and antagonist muscles during common movements. Layers can be added and subtracted by users. Modules on sports injuries, exercise, yoga, and resistance training are also included.

The US government collects statistics on a variety of topics that can be useful for your research. Here are some places to start:

West Virginia Health Statistics Center
National Center for Health Statistics
A good place to find information about the health of Americans. Features include information on trends in aging, Fastats A to Z, growth charts, and Healthy People 2010.
MedlinePlus Health Statistics
Developed by National Library of Medicine includes Peer Reviewed Web Sites and other resources on this topic
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Resources here include: CDCWonder, CDC Data and Statistics, MMWR, Hazardous Substance/Health Effects Database and Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response.
Food and Drug Administration
The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, of drugs, medical devices, foods and cosmetics. This site contains information for consumers, patients, health professionals, health educators, state and local officials, kids, teens, women, and many more.
US Census Bureau
A useful site for obtaining demographic, economic, and social statistics on a national, state, or county level. Many of these statistics will be useful in grant writing.