LibGuides: Osteopathic Medicine: Osteopathic Research

Osteopathic manipulative research can be challenging to find. There is a dearth of research, and the published research is often not well-indexed. You will have to search across multiple sources. Consider using the databases and strategies below to find osteopathic research.

Where can I find osteopathic research?

AMED: Allied and Complementary Health
Allied and Complementary MEDicine is a database of complementary medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, palliative care, speech and language therapy, and other allied fields.
Cochrane Collection
An essential source in evidence-based studies, including systematic reviews and clinical trials.
Do-Touch.Net
Explore research topics in osteopathic manipulative treatment from this practice-based research network.
Osteoevidence
It is a database containing scientific literature on osteopathic medicine and treatment, including reviews, guidelines and trials regarding osteopathy and osteopathic medicine. The database includes osteopathic literature from the main research databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, Ostmed, Osteolib, JOM (JAOA), IJOM, Google Scholar), and all studies that, directly or indirectly, are related to osteopathic treatment.
OstLib
It is an independent database for osteopathic studies and professional articles, developed by the osteopath Helge Franke and maintained and further developed by the Institute for Osteopathic Studies (INIOST).
Ostmed.DR
OSTMED.DR is an osteopathic medicine digital library created by a partnership between Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) and VTLS, Inc. OSTMED.DR builds upon OSTMED, a bibliographic index to the literature of osteopathic medicine.
PEDro
PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It gives rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews in physiotherapy.
PubMed
The National Library of Medicine's abstract and citation database of biomedical and health literature, searching MEDLINE and other sources.
Scopus
Multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature from Elsevier. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields.

How to search for osteopathic research?

When searching a database, it is advised to use controlled vocabulary, standardized terms utilized to index articles, alongside keywords. In the PubMed database, these take the form of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). YOU MAY MISS SOMETHING IF YOU JUST USE MESH TERMS.

MeSH terms are arranged in a hierarchical structure. For example "Manipulation, Osteopathic" is a sub-term under "Musculoskeletal Manipulations." In PubMed, searching for a higher term searches for articles indexed with all lower terms; this is called explosion.

You can incorporate MeSH terms into your search using the [MeSH] OR [mh] field tag. Some possible terms include:

"Osteopathic Physicians"[mh]	"Manipulation, Osteopathic"[mh]
"Osteopathic Medicine"[mh]	"Hospitals, Osteopathic"[mh]
"Spinal Manipulation"[mh]	"Musculoskeletal Manipulations"[mh:noexp]

Consult a librarian for a more detailed discussion of how to search the literature.

Osteopathic Medicine

Research Services

Funding

Where can I find osteopathic research?

How to search for osteopathic research?