The Importance of Research for Therapists Part 6

The Importance of Research for Therapists Part 6

Reviewing the literature

Reports of research enter the public arena by way of publication.  Such reports are distributed to educational establishments, to university libraries and to professional organisations.  Locating the existence of a publication and then obtaining either a copy or an abstract of it can be done in a number of ways.  Perhaps the most convenient way is through the services of the reference section of the local public library.  Most public libraries are networked to what is known as the inter-library loan scheme and part of this scheme enables local libraries to access more narrowly available material such as research material.

Computerised database technology enables rapid and efficient database searches, thus creating the means by which research literature can be readily located.  All that is required is membership of the local library and information to fulfil search criteria.  For research reports, the required information is as follows:

=>        AUTHOR, Initial, Co-author(s), Initial, e.g. Galentia, L.A.

=>        Title of report, e.g. Anxiety based obsessive-compulsive disorders

=>        Publisher’s name, e.g. John Wiley and Sons, London, UK

or

=>        Journal volume, page numbers, e.g. Journal of abnormal psychology,

Vol., 17 pages 114-129

=>        Year of publication, e.g. 1957  (NB: Galentia and his research are fictitious.)

Of note, library database searches can be completed usually on any of these database fields thus allowing for key word searches.  In the example of Chris from Work Box Three, a library reference section could be asked to undertake an author search or a key word search as follows:

• Authors
• Key words, e.g:

=>        Phobia

=>        Obsessive-compulsive washing

=>        Anxiety

=>        Free floating