Core Journals of Physiotherapy

Abstract

This retrospective document analysis was carried out to generate a current list of core journals of physiotherapy, to compare the list with previously published lists, and to determine how well the journals of the current list were covered by three major biomedical bibliographic databases. Through citation analysis 47 core journals of physiotherapy were identified. With notable exceptions, most of the journals on the current core list were on three previously published lists of core journals. The majority of core journals on the current list were included in every database; Embase was most comprehensive in its coverage (95.7%). The list of core journals provided in this study is a good starting point for obtaining information for evidence-based practice. Physiotherapists who use databases to find information in the core journals will need to use either Embase or both Medline and CINAHL if they are to identify most of the relevant literature. This retrospective document analysis was carried out to generate a current list of core journals of physiotherapy, to compare the list with previously published lists, and to determine how well the journals of the current list were covered by three major biomedical bibliographic databases. Through citation analysis 47 core journals of physiotherapy were identified. With notable exceptions, most of the journals on the current core list were on three previously published lists of core journals. The majority of core journals on the current list were included in every database; Embase was most comprehensive in its coverage (95.7%). The list of core journals provided in this study is a good starting point for obtaining information for evidence-based practice. Physiotherapists who use databases to find information in the core journals will need to use either Embase or both Medline and CINAHL if they are to identify most of the relevant literature.