SIMPLE GUIDE TO SPORTS MEDICINE INFORMATION

Greg Blood points the way through the complex task of finding information on sports medicine on the Internet and explains the services provided by the National Sport Information Centre

Accessing sports medicine today can be very easy but also very complex. The growth of internet services has decreased the need for sports medicine practitioners to visit libraries to locate relevant books, journals or conference papers. In turn, libraries are increasingly moving away from collecting information to providing gateways to electronic information. This paper will outline the availability of sports medicine information on the internet and the services provided by the National Sport Information Centre (NSIC).

Internet

A range of quality sports medicine information services can now be located on the Internet:

Databases
Databases remain the primary method of locating quality sports medicine information. Listed below are several databases available through the internet that can assist you.

• PubMed (also known as Medline and Index Medicus) at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
Provides access to more than 11 million journal citations in 4,500 journals. In particular, PubMed covers all core sports medicine journals as well as allied journals in fields of orthopaedics, physical therapy and biomechanics. There is no charge for accessing this database on the Internet and it is extremely up to date. Useful features of the database include links to full text articles, journal browsing, marking references and saving search strategies for future use (cubby feature).

• Sport Discus Database
This is the most comprehensive database covering sports medicine. Besides covering core sports medicine and sports science journals, it provides access to research in conference proceedings, theses, chapters in books and non-core sports medicine journals that are not covered by PubMed. Access to this database can be through the NSIC, State sport information centres at www.ausport.gov.au/nsic/auspin/ , university libraries and more recently the Sport Detective Internet service at www.sircdetective.com.

• Pedro – Physiotherapy Evidence Base Database at www.cchs.usyd.edu.au/pedro/
This database has been developed by the Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy at the University of Sydney to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews in physiotherapy.
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• Ingenta at www.ingenta.com
This commercial database provides a search engine to many electronic journals including Sports Medicine, British Journal of Sports Medicine. Articles can be downloaded online for a fee. This is an example of how publishers are providing an alternative service to the provision of access to information.

• Sports Journal Update at www.ausport.gov.au/nsic/sju/
This database created by the NSIC provides access to topical journal articles held in its collection. It allows you to search for articles on specific sports injuries or sports medicine issues. All articles listed can be obtained from the NSIC through its Document Delivery Service.

Full text articles
Many sports medicine journals now provide full text access as part of a subscription or pay for view, eg, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. As I’ve previously mentioned, PubMed and Ingenta databases now provide direct links to many full text articles. Several journals provide free access to their contents. A listing of these journals can be found at www.freemedicaljournals.com.

Contents Page Services
You can now receive the contents pages of journals directly from the publisher or through services such as Knowledge Finder (www.kfinder.com). The Knowledge Finder service allows you to receive the contents pages of any journal indexed on PubMed, eg, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, British Journal of Sports Medicine, Spine, Physical Therapy etc.

Conference Papers and Abstracts
In recent years there has been a decline in the publishing of printed conference proceedings and a move to publishing these proceedings on the Internet. For instance, the NSIC has assisted Sports Medicine Australia in making available abstracts of its annual National Conference on the Internet, eg, the 2000 Pre-Olympic Sports Medicine Conference at www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2000/preoly/.

Library catalogues
Most major university library catalogues can now be searched through the Internet.

Internet Search Engines
Search engines such as Google (www.google.com), Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), etc should be utilised to locate sports medicine information published on websites, eg, research and conference papers, contents pages, reference lists, etc. It should be noted that these search engines do not search inside databases such as PubMed.

National Sport Information Centre Services

The NSIC, located at the AIS, has developed one of the leading sports medicine collections in the world. This collection was developed to service the information needs of sports medicine and physical therapy staff at the AIS and State Institutes of Sport. However, sports medicine practitioners working in Australia and overseas can access this world-class collection.

Features of the collection include:
• core sports medicine and sports science books;
• comprehensive collection of sports medicine and science journals. Full listing of NSIC Journal Collection can be located at www.ausport.gov.au/nsic/serials/ . This site indicates NSIC holdings and the availability of full text articles and contents pages;
• conference proceedings including Sports Medicine Australia, International Society of Biomechanics, International Society of Sports Biomechanics

Accessing this collection can be through these NSIC services:
• Inter-library loans: all books and conference proceedings held by the NSIC are listed on the Kinetica Library System which can be accessed through most libraries in Australia
• The Document Delivery Service provides access to journal articles and conference papers. Details of this service including order and payment forms can be found at www.ausport.gov.au/nsic/docdel.html.
• The Sports Medicine / Physiotherapy Monthly Update Service provides a listing of recent journal articles and conferences papers. This is an easy way of keeping up to date with a range of sports medicine information. If you would like to subscribe to or receive a sample issue of this monthly email service please contact the NSIC, details below.
• Literature Searches of Sport Discus and PubMed can be undertaken. The cost of this service is based on the complexity of the search and time spent doing the search.

Greg Blood is the Client Services Librarian at the NSIC. If you need more help finding sports medicine information or if you want to know more about NSIC, he suggests you contact the Centre at:

Australian Sports Commission
PO Box 176
Belconnen ACT 2616
nsic@ausport.gov.au
Tel 02 6214 1369 Fax 02 6214 1681
www.ausport.gov.au/nsic/