Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/329694
I t p a y s t o b e A B M P C e r t i f i e d : w w w. a b m p . c o m / g o / c e r t i f i e d c e n t r a l 57 SOMATIC RESE ARCH If you are more interested in reading research overviews, the highly regarded Cochrane Collaboration (www.cochrane.org) produces systematic reviews of health-care research. The Cochrane Library contains more than 4,600 full-text articles accessible by subscription only. However, Cochrane Summaries are available at no cost and contain interesting informational overviews of the results. A free enewsletter that includes the newest research on health is also available. Finally, the US National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus (www.medlineplus.gov) presents research overviews, informational videos, and other tools on many health topics, including prescription medications and supplements. The information is straightforward and has been vetted for accuracy. MedlinePlus does not provide original research articles but rather compiles information in an organized and understandable manner. MedlinePlus includes a free digital magazine with reliable, up-to-date health information. CONCLUSIONS Knowing where to look for information can be challenging, and keeping up with new research may seem next to impossible. However, taking advantage of the free email updates from one or more of the sites mentioned here can make the task a little easier. Staying up to date helps you better understand your clients' health, communicate with other providers about wellness issues, and become better informed about the body. With that in mind, which site would you like to visit first? Note 1. Quora, accessed May 2014, http://www.quora.com/How- many-academic-papers-are-published-each-year. Jerrilyn Cambron, DC, PhD, MPH, LMT, is an educator at the National University of Health Sciences and president of the Massage Therapy Foundation. Contact her at jcambron@nuhs.edu. For massage-specific information, The Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF) has a blog at info.massagetherapyfoundation.org/blog that frequently mentions articles about new research and provides clear descriptions of studies and their outcomes. A recent MTF blog post explored current research on massage therapy and running. These blogs are easy to read and helpful for the practicing therapist. Signing up to receive notifications for new blog posts is easy and free. One of the best sites for finding academic articles on relevant topics is Google Scholar (www.scholar. google.com). Many people are now turning to Google Scholar over PubMed because of the direct links to full- text articles. Searching with Google Scholar is just like searching with Google, but it returns research articles rather than websites. Searching for "massage for breast cancer," for example, leads to more than 29,000 articles, with the newest at the top. You can also limit your search by date and create email alerts for new articles. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization founded to advance science and medicine, has another interesting website (www.plos.org). Register on the PLoS website to receive emails when new research is published in one of their many open-access journals. These journals do not focus specifically on massage, but on many different topics in the fields of biology, medicine, and genetics. PLoS also includes a newsroom for new information and a community section with interesting conversations and activities. PLoS is on the cutting edge of methods for communicating research findings, and is very popular with research scientists. If there's a certain researcher whose work interests you, try ResearchGate (www.researchgate.net), where you can register for free to follow researchers' careers. When an author publishes a new research article, the information is emailed to all individuals who follow that researcher. ResearchGate also lists research jobs and upcoming conferences, and assists researchers in their collaboration with each other. Staying up to date helps you better understand your clients' health, communicate with other providers about wellness issues, and become better informed about the body.