Accessing Materials Glossary

Abstract: Short synthesis of formally published literature or conference presentations. 

Academia.edu: Social network for academics and compilations of publicly available academic publications. 

Academic Conference: Formal gathering of academics to review developments in current literature and to build partnerships for future research. 

Academic Journal: Formal publishing venue of peer-reviewed literature on a focused topic of interest. 

APA Citation: American Psyological Association formal citation format currently used by the American Occupational Therapy Association to track development of Occupational Thearpy and Occupational Science Literature, currently in it’s 7th edition. 

Background Information/Question: Basic information about a topic of interest. 

Boolean Search Terms: Approach used to help find search results faster and with more precision. Using words like AND, OR, and NOT. These are logic-based words that help search engines narrow down or broaden search results.

Case Reports: “A case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence and as such, remain one of the cornerstones of medical progress and provide many new ideas in medicine.”

• Guidelines To Writing A Clinical Case Report. (2017). Heart views : the official journal of the Gulf Heart Association, 18(3), 104–105. https://doi.org/10.4103/1995-705X.217857

Case Control Studies:  “A study that compares two groups of people: those with the disease or condition under study (cases) and a very similar group of people who do not have the disease or condition (controls).” 

• NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms. (n.d.). National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/case-control-study

Case Series: “A case series includes a description of the characteristics and outcomes among a group of individuals with either a disease or an exposure (which can be an intervention) over a period of time and without a control group. Data are collected retrospectively or prospectively, and there is no randomization.”

• Torres-Duque, C. A., Patino, C. M., & Ferreira, J. C. (2020). Case series: an essential study design to build knowledge and pose hypotheses for rare and new diseases. Jornal brasileiro de pneumologia : publicacao oficial da Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e Tisilogia, 46(4), e20200389. https://doi.org/10.36416/1806-3756/e20200389

Citation: Consistent way of tracking essential data on a published work to allow to be sourced in libraries and databases. 

Cohort Studies: “Cohort studies are a type of longitudinal study—an approach that follows research participants over a period of time (often many years). Specifically, cohort studies recruit and follow participants who share a common characteristic, such as a particular occupation or demographic similarity.”

• NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms. (n.d.). National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/longitudinal-cohort-study 

Database: Central compilation of journals, articles, and other formally published materials that are tracked and searchable for retrieval through search strategies. 

DOI Number: A DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, is a string of numbers, letters and symbols used to uniquely identify an article or document, and to provide it with a permanent web address (URL). A DOI will help your reader easily locate a document from your citation.

EBSCOhost: Interface used as a composite of different databases that allow for centralized search. 

Ethnography: “Ethnography is a commonly used qualitative research method. In this method, the researcher analyzes a focus group. He focuses on people and their behaviors in the natural environment. The researcher involves, observes, engages, and embeds themself into the subject’s daily life and routine.”

• 6 Types of Qualitative Research Methods - A Complete Guide. (n.d.). https://www.collegeessay.org/blog/types-of-qualitative-research

Foreground Questions: Questions asked when there are multiple competing options regarding a clinical decision. 

Google Scholar: Composite search engine that is a composite of formally published scholarly literature that is freely available online and will direct users to freely available PDFs when listed. 

Grounded Theory: The grounded theory method usually starts with a question or a collection of data. It is used to develop a theory by conducting interviews and reading documents. It provides an explanation or theory behind the events. 

• 6 Types of Qualitative Research Methods - A Complete Guide. (n.d.). https://www.collegeessay.org/blog/types-of-qualitative-research

Historical Inquiry: Method of qualitative research describes past events to present patterns. This method answers hypothetical based questions and then uses resources to test them. 

• 6 Types of Qualitative Research Methods - A Complete Guide. (n.d.). https://www.collegeessay.org/blog/types-of-qualitative-research

Interdisciplinary: Collaboration between distinct disciplines with shared goals in inquiry and practice. 

ISBN Number: ISBN, which stands for International Standard Book Number, is a 13-digit number that's used as a unique identifier for books, including a specific book, a book edition, or any other book-like products. An ISBN number can be used to identify the book's code digits, language, publisher, book title, edition, and format.

JSOTR: Stands for “Journal Storage” a prominent compilation of formally published literature from diverse disciplines. 

Key Words: Significant words that aid in filtering database search results.

Knowledge Translation/Dissemination: Intentional efforts designed to make research more accessible and understandable to the general public. 

LinkedIn: Social network focused on connecting professionals  

Meta-Analysis: “Meta-analysis is a research process used to systematically synthesise or merge the findings of single, independent studies, using statistical methods to calculate an overall or ‘absolute’ effect. Meta-analysis does not simply pool data from smaller studies to achieve a larger sample size.” 

• Shorten A, Shorten B, What is meta-analysis? Evidence-Based Nursing 2013;16:3-4.Controlled Clincal Trial: “A clinical study that includes a comparison (control)group. The comparison group receives a placebo, another treatment, or no treatment at all.”https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/controlled-clinical-trial

Mixed-Methods Research: ways in which qualitative and quantitative research activities are brought together to achieve greater insight.

Multidisciplinary: Collaboration between multiple disciplines on a specific phenomenon and or collaborative effort. 

Narrative Method/Inquiry: The narrative method of qualitative research is similar to narrating a story. The researcher collects data or facts through interviews, observation, and documents, etc.

• 6 Types of Qualitative Research Methods - A Complete Guide. (n.d.). https://www.collegeessay.org/blog/types-of-qualitative-research

Open Access: Articles in formal academic journals made publicly available without a payment restriction to access

Open Science: A social movement for greater accessibility and transparency in academic publishing. 

ORCID: Open Researcher and Contributor ID used a reference to track and connect the publications of scholars in a central database. 

Participatory Action Research: is an approach to action research emphasizing participation and action by members of communities affected by that research. It seeks to understand the world by trying to change it, collaboratively and following reflection. PAR emphasizes collective inquiry and experimentation grounded in experience and social history. Within a PAR process, "communities of inquiry and action evolve and address questions and issues that are significant for those who participate as co-researchers". PAR contrasts with mainstream research methods, which emphasize controlled experimentation, statistical analysis, and reproducibility of findings.

• Wikipedia contributors. (2022b, October 8). Participatory action research. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_action_research

Phenomenology: Qualitative “method is used to study an event or activity from various angles. The researcher uses different methods, such as conducting interviews, surveys, reading documents, watching videos, and visiting places for data collection. The researcher conducts many interviews to check the validity of the gathered data.” 

• 6 Types of Qualitative Research Methods - A Complete Guide. (n.d.). https://www.collegeessay.org/blog/types-of-qualitative-research

Pre-print/Post-print Server: Online servers where versions of scientific manuscripts can be posted for public view before or after peer-review is conducted. 

ProQuest: Leading complication database of multiple disciplines (free for NBCOT members). 

PubMed: Composite Database of publicly available federally funded research. 

Refworks: Reference complication software offered to NBCOT users for free.

Qualitative Research: Process of collecting and analyzing non-numerical data to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. 

Quantitative Research: Process of collecting and analyzing numerical data. Typically used to find patterns and averages, make predictions, test causal relationships.

Randomized Control Trials: “Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are prospective studies that measure the effectiveness of a new intervention or treatment. Although no study is likely on its own to prove causality, randomization reduces bias and provides a rigorous tool to examine cause-effect relationships between an intervention and outcome. This is because the act of randomization balances participant characteristics (both observed and unobserved) between the groups allowing attribution of any differences in outcome to the study intervention. This is not possible with any other study design.”

• Hariton, E., & Locascio, J. J. (2018). Randomised controlled trials - the gold standard for effectiveness research: Study design: randomised controlled trials. BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology, 125(13), 1716. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.15199

ResearchGate: Social network for academics and compilations of publicly available academic publications.

Science Direct: World's leading source for scientific, technical, and medical research.

ScienceOpen: Social network for academics and compilations of publicly available academic publications.

Single-Subject Study: “Single-subject research is a type of quantitative research that involves studying in detail the behaviour of each of a small number of participants. Note that the term single-subject does not mean that only one participant is studied; it is more typical for there to be somewhere between two and 10 participants.”

• Chiang, I. A. (2015, October 13). Overview of Single-Subject Research – Research Methods in Psychology – 2nd Canadian Edition. Pressbooks. https://opentextbc.ca/researchmethods/chapter/overview-of-single-subject-research/

Systemic Review: “A systematic review is a summary of the medical literature that uses explicit and reproducible methods to systematically search, critically appraise, and synthesize on a specific issue. It synthesizes the results of multiple primary studies related to each other by using strategies that reduce biases and random errors”

• Gopalakrishnan, S., & Ganeshkumar, P. (2013). Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis: Understanding the Best Evidence in Primary Healthcare. Journal of family medicine and primary care, 2(1), 9–14. https://doi.org/10.4103/2249-4863.109934

Zotero: Free reference compilation software that will automatically organize and download PDF copies when available.