Music Therapy Theory & Research

In Omni you can limit your search to "Peer-reviewed journals." "Refereed" and "peer reviewed" are synonyms. Peer reviewed journals contain various types of articles, some of which in not peer-reviewed. 

Original research

Mitchell, E. (2019). Community music therapy and participatory performance: Case study of a coffee house. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v19i1.2701

Review article

Alvarenga, W., Leite, A., Oliveira, M., Nascimento, L., Silva-Rodrigues, F., Nunes, M., & Carvalho, E. (2017). The Effect of Music on the Spirituality of Patients: A Systematic Review. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 36(2), 192–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010117710855

Clinical case study / Clinical trial

Dahms, R., Eicher, C., Haesner, M., & Mueller-Werdan, U. (2021). Influence of Music Therapy and Music-Based Interventions on Dementia: A Pilot Study. The Journal of Music Therapy, 58(3), e12–e36. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/thab005

Perspective, opinion, and commentary

Nicolau, M. G. (2024). When (if) to stop?: Music therapy with persons living with severe dementia - Reflections on years of care and connection. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 33(5), 442–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/08098131.2024.2369053

Book review

Ravaglioli, R. (2023). The Music Therapy Assessment Manual: A Guide to Data-Based Decision Making. Journal of Music Therapy, 60(2), e1–e6. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/thad009

Open access journals

• Open Access is free online availability and usage right of research articles
• Open Access publishing typically involves the author paying an article processing charge (APC)
• APC's can be built into grant applications
• See the Library's Scholarly Communication page for more information

Predatory Journals

Predatory journals are a global threat. They accept articles for publication — along with authors’ fees — without performing promised quality checks for issues such as plagiarism or ethical approval. (Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., & Ardern, C. (2019). Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Nature, 576(7786), 210+)

• Rising number of ‘predatory’ academic journals undermines research and public trust in scholarship (The Conversation, Sept. 19, 2023) For more, Google News search for "predatory journals"
• Scottish Journal of Arts, Social Sciences and Scientific Studies (example)
• Call for papers (example)
• Beall's list

How do I know if a journal is reputable?

• Determine if it is indexed in a topically relevant database, such as APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, or RILM
• Locate the title in Ulrichsweb: Global Serials Directory
  • e.g., Ulrichs results for "music therapy"

It is helpful to know about the prominent music therapy journals (Edwards, 2016, p. 711) if you want to stay on top of current research in this field. While you can browse and search these journals, all of these titles are indexed in RILM where a more efficient search on a topic can be completed.

• Approaches: an Interdisciplinary journal of Music Therapy
• Australian Journal of Music Therapy
• British Journal of Music Therapy
• Canadian Journal of Music Therapy
• Journal of Music Therapy
• Music Therapy Perspectives
• Music Therapy Today
• New Zealand Journal of Music Therapy
• Nordic Journal of Music Therapy
• Qualitative Inquiries in Music Therapy
• Voices: a World Forum for Music Therapy

Related Journals

• Alternative therapies in health and medicine.
• The Arts in Psychotherapy
• Music Perception
• Psychology of Music
• Psychomusicology: Music, Mind & Behaviour

1. Consider word variations and synonyms
   • think about how others might refer to your ideas
   • e.g, child death, perinatal death, neonatal death, stillbirth, sudden infant death, etc.

2. Employ search limiters (available limiters depend on the database)
   • peer reviewed, article type, date
   • e.g, in PsycInfo, can include: age group, population group, methodology
3. Identify key publications and authors
   • note citations, and cited references, repeated author names
4. Document and track everything you do in the steps above

Tutorial: Finding scholarly articles on a topic

• start with Omni
  • limit to "Articles" and "Peer-reviewed journals"
    • while you will likely find what you need for MU453 assignments, article content in Omni is not chosen or curated, but dumped in, i.e., it may not have everything on a particular topic.

Researchers rely on curated collections of content, i.e., subject-specific databases.

Dissertations and theses provide an insight into the research processes and sources used by PhD and Masters students. For example, in the following dissertation, see pages 32ff, 61ff, and 302ff. for the research strategies, and then pages 155ff. for the References.

• Lee, J. (2015). The effects of music on pain: A review of systematic reviews and meta-analysis

Requesting items from another Omni library is pretty straightforward, but remember you can request any item even if it is not in Omni. 

• Request from other libraries