Physical Therapist Assistant

The best way to locate articles is through library databases.  Use your myNOVA username/password for off-campus access.

Select the most important 2-3 terms related to your topic.  Put the word AND between each new term; this tells the database to look for resources with ALL your terms.

collagen AND healing

Use quotation marks ( "  " ) around phrases (two or more words); this tells the database to look for the words in that specific order.

"fall prevention" AND "physical therapy"

Use an asterisk ( * ) to find multiple endings of one word.  Using therap* as a search term will include results that refer to therapy, therapies, theraputic.

therap*

Articles are published in periodicals, which is any type of publication published at a regular interval (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Periodical types include magazines, newspapers, trade publications, and scholarly journals which:

• Provide detailed information about a specific aspect of a topic.
• Report on events, issues, or scholarly research.
• Are good sources for current or recent information.

Magazines, journals and newspapers typically do NOT provide a summary or overview of a topic.

More information on finding scholarly, peer-reviewed articles.