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Music Therapy Theory & Research

Course Number: MU453

Subject: Music, Music Therapy

Peer reviewed journals

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 Peer reviewed journals contain various types of articles, some of which in not peer-reviewed.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
Generative AI

While using Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT for academic research can be helpful in getting a general overview, explaining complex concepts in simpler terms, or generating keywords or search terms for databases, there are several important reasons why you should avoid relying on it as a primary or sole source for academic research.

  1. Limited language model
    • GenAI queries a large language model made up of public, freely available data (web pages, Wikipedia, etc.), and does not include much academic or peer-reviewed content.
  2. Lack of source transparency
    • GenAI doesn’t cite sources unless explicitly asked, and even then, it can generate fake or inaccurate citations. This makes it unsuitable for producing verifiable, citable academic content.
  3. Potential for inaccuracy
    • While GenAI is generally reliable, it can produce confident-sounding but incorrect or misleading information, especially in niche or rapidly evolving fields.
  4. Lack of critical analysis
    • GenAI summarizes well but does not engage in deep, critical thinking or original analysis, which is essential for high-quality academic work.
Evaluating sources

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+)

How do I know if a journal is reputable?

Music Therapy Journals

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.

Database searching tips
  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.
Search Tactics

What is the tactic?

What does the tactic do?

Examples

Boolean AND

Use AND to ensure that all terms appear in every search result.

depression AND home care

Boolean OR

Use OR to ensure that at least one term appears in every search result.

auditory OR acoustic OR sound

Phrase searching

Use “quotation marks” to find more than one term in a row.

“vibroacoustic therapy”

Truncation

Use an asterisk* at the end of a term to include multiple endings. (sometimes $)

trauma*

trauma, traumatic, traumatically, traumatize, traumatized, traumatizing

Proximity (not available in Omni)

Use NEAR/n to search for terms within n words of each other (sometimes Nn)

"music therapy" NEAR/5 child* OR adolescent*

Tutorial: Better searching using AND, OR, NOT 

  1. 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
  2. Identify key publications and authors
    • note citations, and cited references, repeated author names
  3. Document and track everything you do in the steps above
Finding articles

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.
Follow citation trail in Omni
  • Up arrows find sources citing this item
  • Down arrows find sources cited in this item

Omni citation trail options

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

APA PsycInfo®

A comprehensive database for the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines.

More Info

Dissertations and Theses

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.

Request an item from another library

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

Reading strategies
APA

While the Library owns print copies of the entire APA Style guide, you should get enough information from the following two APA pages:

Page Owner: Greg Sennema

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