Journals provide an important source of information in addition to books as they publish articles on specific topics and often present and discuss results of research or case-studies.

You may see journal articles on your reading list – below is an example of a reference to a journal article:

Jacobs, K. (2012) ‘PromOTing occupational therapy: words, images, and actions’, American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66 (6), pp.652-671.

The above example shows that the article ‘PromOTing occupational therapy: words, images, and actions’ was published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy.

The Library provides access to online journals such as Australian Journal of Occupational Therapy, British Journal of Occupational Therapy and Journal of Occupational Science.

To find out more about online journals published in the discipline of occupational therapy, you can use an app such as Browzine. Not only does it store all your favourite journals, it enables you to easily find and read the most recent issue from your mobile device (and store them in a bibliographic management tool such as Zotero or Mendeley).

Finding journal articles by topic

Sometimes you may want to look for journal articles on a specific topic, such as relaxation exercises or assistive technology. You don’t have to browse for articles using Browzine, but can use a search engine such as the CCCU search tool Library Search or alternatively Google Scholar. Both are good, but they have different functions and it is important to be aware of that. Google Scholar searches scholarly material, but you may not be able to access all of the material whereas Library Search is linked to the CCCU journal subscriptions. Run a quick search in Library Search to find full-text journal articles using key words or phrases connected with your research topic e.g. “activities of daily living” or “spinal injury”. You can read the Library Search quick guide for more information.

If you need a journal article that the university doesn’t subscribe to, try document delivery.

Library Guide - Occupational Therapy