Library Guides: Kinesiology at Berks: Find Articles

Find Articles

PubMed (Medline) This link opens in a new window
For medical, health, or biomechanical aspects of kinesiology, e.g. blood pressure, blood sugar, exercise therapy, muscle function, etc.
PubMed is a web interface that allows you to search MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine's premier database of citations and abstracts for biomedical research articles. The core subject is medicine, but subject coverage also includes bioethics, biology, chemistry, dentistry, environmental health, genetics, gerontology, health care planning and administration, history of medicine, hospital administration, microbiology, nutrition, nursing (International Nursing Index), physiology, pre-clinical sciences, public health, sports medicine, veterinary medicine and zoology. MEDLINE covers over 4,800 journals published in the United States and 70 other countries. The database contains over 15 million citations dating back to 1950. Coverage is worldwide and updated weekly. Learn more about PubMed at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/about/. or Try the Tutorial at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_tutorial/m1001.html
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Best source for literature on sport, physical fitness, and physical education topics.
SPORTDiscus is the premier source of literature for sports and sports medicine journals, providing full-text content from many well-known and respected sources. Topics covered include coaching, exercise science, fitness, health education, kinesiology, nutrition, physical education, physical therapy, and sports sciences, as well as clinical specialties such as orthopedics. The database includes research, trade, and popular materials, from scholarly journals such as the American Journal of Health Promotion to magazines like Basketball Digest and Sports Illustrated. Most date from 2000 or later. More than 600 of the periodicals covered in SPORTDiscus are available as embedded full-text within SPORTDiscus; others may be found through GETIT or requested via ILLiad.
Biological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Covers all aspects of biology, with emphasis on molecular biology, genetics, and microbiology.
Biological Abstracts is the premier database for the biological sciences. BA monitors more than 5,000 international journals to ensure that virtually every life science topic is covered, including agriculture, biochemistry, biology, botany, molecular biology, biotechnology, physiology, microbiology, neurology, pharmacology, public health, toxicology, zoology, and ecology and the environment. Coverage is from 1926 to date.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in the sciences, social sciences, arts, & humanities - excellent for interdisciplinary research.
Web of Science provides access to: the Science Citation Index Expanded 1900-present; the Social Sciences Citation Index 1956-present; and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index 1975-present. Web of Science indexes articles from thousands of journals and also indexes the citations used in those articles, thus allowing the user to see which papers have cited a core paper, and how many times a paper was cited in a given time period. Covers published content is almost every discipline.
PsycINFO (via ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
For psychological aspects of kinesiology, e.g. attitudes, feelings, emotions, etc.
PsycINFO provides access to international literature in psychology and related disciplines. Unrivaled in its depth of psychological coverage and respected worldwide for its high quality, the database is enriched with literature from an array of disciplines related to psychology such as psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work. Nearly all records contain nonevaluative summaries, and all records from 1967 to the present are indexed using the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles and books in all fields.
To link Google Scholar to your PSU account from off campus:
1) Click Settings (top)
2) Click Library Links (left)
3) Type Pennsylvania State University [Enter]
4) Select desired result
5) Click Save (bottom)
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. 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. Once you set your institutional preferences, links to full-text, if available at Penn State, should appear.

Additional Sources of Articles

The above databases may be sufficient for your needs, but if not, you may also wish to try the following:

America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Articles on historical and cultural issues
- Sample search: college football AND (race OR ethnicity)
Search for articles on all aspects of the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Articles from national, state and local historical journals are covered, as well as historical articles in major humanities and social science journals. Also includes citations to reviews, books, and dissertations. Keywords: African-American, Afro-American, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Colonial, Pennsylvania, Native Americans, women, gender, revolution, revolutionary war, civil war, Vietnam War, Cold War, World War I, World War II, Immigration, Immigrants, labor, agriculture, culture, society, politics, religion, economic, military, historiography.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
For literature on cultural issues related to sports.
CSA Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,700 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Records added after 1974 contain in-depth and nonevaluative abstracts of journal articles.
Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
For information on sports management; contains scholarly journals and business magazines.
An essential article database for business research providing the full text for more than 2,000 periodicals, including about 1,000 scholarly journals. Covers virtually all disciplines in business and economics, including: accounting, economics, econometrics, finance, marketing, management, MIS, QMM and supply chain management.
CINAHL (Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health) This link opens in a new window
Primary database for nursing and allied health professionals.
- Sample search: Osteoporosis AND Exercise
One of two major databases for nursing, providing references to over 1,800 nursing and allied health journal articles in addition to citations for book chapters, nursing dissertations, association publications, educational software, conference proceedings and selected full-text for state nursing journal articles, legal cases, patient education material, research instruments, standards of practice, critical paths, nurse practice acts, drugs, clinical innovations and government publications. References for alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and health sciences librarianship are also included. Coverage: 1982 - Present. Updates: Monthly.
BIOSIS Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Life sciences research.
Get a comprehensive view of life sciences research, including the most important discoveries, significant influences and relevant connections. The new BIOSIS Citation Index combines the unique BIOSIS content that is critical to life sciences research with powerful citation indexing only the Web of Science™ can provide. You can rely on comprehensive and relevant life sciences coverage that eliminates excess and delivers data that is accurate, meaningful and timely.
ScienceDirect (Elsevier full text journal articles and electronic books) This link opens in a new window
Coverage in all fields of science.
This system provides access to the electronic versions of the Elsevier journals and books that we subscribe to. Current issues and back files are included. Currently, it includes more than 1,200 journals. The full text collection contains over 1.5 million articles and book chapters from 1995 to present across all fields of science.

Search Tips

Finding the best articles on your topic requires these steps:

Select an appropriate database.
Enter and combine terms appropriate to your topic
Scan the best items on the results list and look for new subject terms or keywords. Then revise your search using these new terms.
Save the journal title, volume, date, and page numbers. This is all part of the "citation".
Explore other databases and subject terms (which vary between databases) for more information.
Look for "Cited by" and "Similar Articles" options within the databases to easily & quickly discover additional related sources!

How to Read & Use Scholarly Scientific Articles

Primary scientific articles can be difficult to read and understand. As burgeoning scholars it is vital that you develop reading strategies early on to help you use scientific literature. Click on the links below to learn the common structure of scientific articles and how to navigate them for efficiency and comprehension.

Primary research versus review articles - how to tell the difference?

Differentiating between original primary research articles and review articles can be a bit tricky. Both types of articles are considered "scholarly" and appear in peer reviewed journals. However, it is an essential skill in the sciences to be able to differentiate between the two types of articles. Below is information to assist you in determining what type of article you are viewing.

Characteristics

Examples

Research Article

Author(s) present new set of findings from original research after conducting an original experiment.

Typically contains the following distinct sections:

Methods (possibly the variation Methods & Materials)
Results (including charts, graphs, and statistical tables)
Discussion

Ozasa, N., Morimoto, T., Bao, B., Shioi, T., & Kimura, T. (2012). Effects of machine-assisted cycling on exercise capacity and endothelial function in elderly patients with heart failure. Circulation Journal, 76(8), 1889-1894.

Review Article

Author(s) analyze and summarize existing research.

Often focus on a general topic and brings together all relevant, useful articles on that topic in one article.

Do not contain sections such as Methods or Results because they did not conduct original research.

References within a review article can help you locate primary research articles on a topic!

Sharma, S., Merghani, A., & Mont, L. (2015). Exercise and the heart: The good, the bad, and the ugly. European Heart Journal, 36(23), 1445-1453.

Get the Full Text

Once you find the citation, try the button to see if Penn State has the electronic version of the article you need. If the electronic version is available, you should get right to it. If the article is not available electronically, use the Request via InterLibrary Loan (ILL) button to request it from another library. ILL will get a copy of the article for you, typically at no cost; articles usually arrive within a week, often in as few as 2-3 days. Watch your PSU email for notification and further instructions. You can also click on the Search the library catalog for this item (by title) link to automatically search our catalog and see if Penn State has a print copy.

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Kinesiology at Berks

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