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Keeping up with relevant research

I average a little over three hours weekly scanning medical and psychological journals on the internet. Typically I zoom through the article titles looking for anything relevant to stress, health & wellbeing. If something seems interesting, I read the article's abstract.  I may well then download it to my bibliographic database - I use EndNote. Currently I have well over 19,000 references stored and the number grows steadily.  Sometimes I'll get hold of the text of the full article - by subscribing to the journal, buying the article, searching for the author's academic website, or emailing the corresponding author directly.  I use this information I glean to improve my treatment of clients who come to me for help, and as a basis for talks and articles.

I also send monthly lists of relevant articles to four groups I'm involved with - the charity Action on Depression Scotland, accredited members of the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP), the journal editor of the British Holistic Medical Association (BHMA), and members of the BABCP special interest group on Compassion.  I post copies of these four mailings onto this blog each month too under the heading "Recent research: articles from ... journals".

I routinely scan over 50 journals (see below for the current mix) and I also scatter-gun out from there following up leads to other interesting research. It may all seem a lot, and it is ... but I'm very lucky to be fascinated by this emerging research. I quite often get the same kind of excited pleasure from opening up these journals as I used to as a kid when I got my hands on a new comic.

Weekly journals: British Medical Journal; Journal of the American Medical Association.

Fortnightly journals: Psychiatric News

Monthly journals: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; American Journal of PsychiatryBehavior Research and Therapy; BMC PsychiatryBritish Journal of Psychiatry; British Journal of Sports Medicine; British Psychological Society Research DigestCochrane Library; Greater Good DigestsJAMA PsychiatryJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; Journal of Clinical PsychiatryJournal of Personality and Social Psychology; Journal of Psychosomatic ResearchJournal of Sexual Medicine; Mindfulness Research Guide; Psychological Medicine; Psychological Science; Psychiatric ServicesPsychosomatic Medicine; Social Indicators Research 

Every two months: Academic Psychiatry; Attachment & Human DevelopmentBehavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy; Behavior Modification; Biopsychosocial MedicineBipolar Disorders; BMC Psychology; Cognitive Therapy and ResearchEmotion; International Journal of WellbeingJournal of Consulting and Clinical PsychologyJournal of Happiness StudiesJournal of Positive Psychology; Journal of Research in Personality; Journal of Traumatic StressPsychotherapy Research; Social Psychological & Personality Science

Every three months: Applied Psychology: Health and Well-BeingBehavior Therapy; Cognitive and Behavioral PracticeCognitive Behaviour TherapistClinical Psychology: Science and PracticeFOCUS; Group Dynamics; Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy; Journal of Marital and Family Therapy; MindfulnessMotivation and Emotion; Personal RelationshipsPsychology of Well-Being

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