Our Favorite Journals to Stay Current

There are a lot of scientific and medical journals these days, and it seems like there are more and more each year.

Over the years, we’ve discussed how some journals you want to avoid and others you want to follow.

In this episode, we talk about our current favorites plus some other current thoughts on how to stay current.

To view more episodes, subscribe, and ask your questions, go to mikereinold.com/askmikereinold.

#AskMikeReinold Episode 348: Our Favorite Journals to Stay Current

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Show Notes

Here’s our list of the best journals for physical therapists and strength coaches to follow:

• IJSPT – International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy
• JOSPT (plus JOSPT Open) – Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy
• Sports Health
• AJSM (plus OJSM and VJSM) – American Journal of Sports Medicine (plus Open and Video)
• JSES – Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery
• Arthroscopy
• BJSM – British Journal of Sports Medicine
• JSCR – Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
• IJSCR – International Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

Transcript

Maddie Hill:
Jan from Oklahoma: “As a recent PT grad, I want to stay on top of the research. What are your go-to journals that you read every month?”

Mike Reinold:
Awesome. Thanks, Maddie. I love this question here and there, and I think we get forms of this question all the time, but it’s always good to just kind of talk about our currents, and it keeps evolving and I think my opinion changes probably every couple of years or so. So, I think it’s a good one. Also, welcome Mike Scaduto to the podcast. But yeah, who wants to go first? I actually think this is great too. We got a couple of the strength coach crew from Champion here too, so we can hear their perspective from the strength and conditioning principles too. But yeah, Dave, you want to start?

Dave Tilley:
Well, I don’t read research, so I’m going to pass the question. I’ll make mine quick, that there are journals that have authors I like who are constantly publishing. So, the Journal of Elbow and Shoulder, I think that’s…

Lenny Macrina:
Surgery.

Dave Tilley:
…I forget there’s one more, the third one.

Lenny Macrina:
Surgery.

Dave Tilley:
Yeah. JOSPT, IJSPT, kind of like stuff in our field, that’s pretty normal. The Hip Arthroscopy Journal, because a lot of people tend to publish new stuff in there. So yeah, mostly the high-quality gold standard joint-based ones. So shoulder and elbow, hip, and then I tag authors and I follow them when their work comes out. So, if somebody publishes something new, it’ll give you an alert like, Ellen Casey published, blah, blah, blah on something. And so yeah, that’s what I do. Is like four or five journals I would say. I constantly have the table of contents shipped to me in email, and then I go through it real quick, scan some of the abstracts, take two or three out, download, or save those for later. And then I’ll just have a little folder and then I’ll just follow authors.

Lenny Macrina:
You have thousands of papers that you haven’t read.

Dave Tilley:
Yes. I haven’t read a research paper since I graduated, yeah.

Mike Reinold:
Just put them all in ChatGPT now and then you’re good. Just ask a question here or there.

Dave Tilley:
The article summarizer is pretty good.

Mike Reinold:
You’ll be fine. So, I like that. I think what Dave just did without telling us what he did right there, is he took probably two very sports PT-ish journals, right? And then he combined them with topics that I think he likes and enjoys and sees the most of in the clinic, which is shoulder, elbow, and hip. So, he took two specialized journals for what’s important to him, so I like that. So, I’m writing these down. I’m going to include a list. I’ll put a list in the show notes of everybody’s, which will be helpful. So, I got journal of shoulder, elbow, JSPT, IJSPT, and then Hip Arthroscopy.

Lenny Macrina:
You have to go AJSM. You have to go Sports Health Journal.

Mike Reinold:
It’s not your turn, Len. We didn’t…

Lenny Macrina:
Oh, when did we have turns? It was just like jump in.

Mike Reinold:
Did you want to go next? You could go next.

Lenny Macrina:
We just jump in. We just jump in.

Mike Reinold:
All right, Len. Good. All right, Len. I’m kidding.

Dave Tilley:
Lenny, what do you think?

Lenny Macrina:
I mean, AJSM is classic. If you want to stay with the doctors and what they’re reading, you go AJSM. You have to. Sports Health Journal is an amazing journal. It kind of covers multiple disciplines, athletic training, primary care, medicine, really, to sports and physical therapy. So you get that. And you know what? It’s all included if you are a Sports Academy member of the APTA.

Mike Reinold:
That’s true.

Lenny Macrina:
So for $60, going up a little amount of money soon.

Mike Reinold:
Touchy subject, touchy subject.

Dave Tilley:
Len, come out. Come out.

Lenny Macrina:
I’m not…

Mike Reinold:
Weren’t you the treasurer? Shouldn’t you know how much the dues are?

Lenny Macrina:
At this point, I have no idea what happened after I left. You never know. But I think you get all that. So anyway… But I think those three, those other journals are valuable as well. Sorry I jumped in.

Mike Reinold:
I like that. I would agree. I mean, AJSM is probably the king still, right? So I like that.

Lenny Macrina:
I would say so. British Journal of Sports Medicine, you got to go over to England, Britain, and that’s another classic as well.

Mike Reinold:
Love it. All right, what else? Anyone? Let’s keep going on the PT side. Dave? Kevin? Sorry, Kevin.

Kevin Coughlin:
Yeah, I was just going to reiterate what Lenny was saying because I wonder if all of our listeners know that if you’re a member of the APTA, and then specifically the sports section, I mean, you have access to JOSPT. You have access to IJSPT. So I mean that’s like a no-brainer, just to kind of…

Mike Reinold:
And Sports Health.

Kevin Coughlin:
And Sports Health.

Lenny Macrina:
And Sports Health. You get the three.

Kevin Coughlin:
Just to look at those monthly and see what’s coming out and what content is being published that relates to what you’re treating in the clinic. And then I would just say the other, aside from those regular monthly things, I’ve done what you’ve recommended in the past and just put some keywords into PubMed and have them notify you when something you’re interested in is published. And then what’s been really helpful is working with Dan on Fitness Pain Free. I think Dan’s approach is pretty cool. I’m sure there are regular journals that he’s looking at, but if he’s reviewing a specific joint for some content that he’s making, we’re doing a lot of research about that joint. So right now, we’re doing some knee stuff and if you have something that you’re constantly trying to learn, that can guide what you’re reading as well.

I think the only thing with that is when you get into that, you just want to make sure you’re looking at journals with a decent impact factor. There’s a lot of predatory journals out there, so sticking with the big names I think is always safe. And then I think what Dave said was great. Through the process, you find authors you really like, and that’s good too to just follow what they’re publishing, and they tend to be in a few of the same journals over and over again. So I think that works well for me.

Mike Reinold:
That’s awesome. I agree. My only negative is there’s a J.R. Andrews that is prolific in COVID research right now, and man, that has messed up my email feed. I’ve been getting a lot out of that. So we used to just have James R. Andrews with all his specific research that he’d be a part of with ASMI, but for some reason that email is getting girthy. So congratulations to the other J.R. Andrews. You’re doing a bunch of great work. Thank you, but it’s messing up my PubMed feed. But anyway, Mike Scaduto, what you got?

Mike Scaduto:
Yeah, I was just going to say, I mean obviously we just listed off a ton of journals. I think as a new grad that can kind of be overwhelming if it’s like, “Hey, go read all of these journals.” They don’t even know where to start, like what articles are relevant. They’re trying to find things that apply in the clinic. I think if you can find a few people like Dan Pope, Fitness Pain Free, that do a deep dive and synthesize that research, point you in the right direction, then if he’s citing a study, go read that study in one of his online courses, you know, the Shoulder course for you, Mike Reinold, and obviously the Knee course for Lenny. You know, Dave, we’re all putting out content. It’s not just us. There’s tons of other people that are doing this in physical therapy. So I think as a new grad, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by just flipping open a journal or going online and trying to scroll through the table of contents, I think finding someone that can synthesize those articles, point you in the right direction, and then go read the research study to further back up your knowledge, I think that’s a good way to go about it.

Mike Reinold:
I love it. That’s great. Dan, did you weigh in on anything? Did we miss anything from your perspective? Anything else that, any other journals you like to read?

Dan Pope:
Yeah, I think you guys really hammered all the ones that I kind of regularly read. But the other part is that, and Kevin talked about this, is that I’ve even moved away from just looking at specific journals every month. I still do that, just not as much as I used to. And I have a very different business model than most physical therapists coming out. So I’m just reviewing basically the pathologies I see most in-depth, just because I want to do a great job with that. The one thing I will add, and Mike already noted this, is that I try to do a lot of research about the patients that are in front of me. So I have a patient with hip dysplasia or something that I’m not really smart about, really know the research. I’ll go read a few articles really quickly, and it’s interesting because there’s more research coming out with things like shockwave.

We have a shockwave machine, PRP. If I have a patient that has a question, sometimes I just bring out my phone and just Google it on the spot. Just because we have, I think as physical therapists, we have a bit of a superpower, meaning that we know how to read research. The average person doesn’t. They just look at these research studies and are like, “What the heck are these words? I don’t understand this.” But when we look at that, we can say, “Okay, it does look like this is something that’s helpful. Maybe we should try that.” And the rate at which research comes out, it’s just so hard to stay on top of everything. So if you have a specific question, patient is in front of you, you can look it up and come up with a really quick answer. So I tend to find myself doing that more and more.

Mike Reinold:
Now, do you run to the bathroom or your car to do that, or do you do that in front of the patient?

Dan Pope:
No, I just ignore them. I say, “Please stop speaking while I assess my phone.”

Mike Reinold:
Do you pretend you’re doing notes?

Dan Pope:
But I will say, “Hey, let’s look real fast.” Because sometimes it takes 30 seconds. I’m like, “There’s your answer right there. This is a good option for you.”

Mike Reinold:
And again, a lot of people would be like, I don’t know. I think a lot of early career professionals, I think they’re so… they’re just so caught up in wanting to feel like the expert and want them to feel like the, I don’t know… It’s not like a lack of being humble because that’s not the right word, but it’s more just afraid of looking dumb, maybe. But I think if you Google something with a patient together and you make it collaborative and you’re their concierge, they love that and you’re helping them digest that, and that’s an invaluable resource that people don’t understand, and it shouldn’t be something you should avoid, right? Dave, did you have something to add?

Dave Tilley:
Yeah, just one more thing. I think Kylie and I were talking about this yesterday… It is really overwhelming to try to learn so much and be up-to-date in the literature on every joint and every condition. When you are in the clinic in a real-world job, your schedule is all over the place. You have back, knee, shoulder, hip… It’s really overwhelming to try to learn everything. So I think it’s just important to say that as seasoned clinicians, we’re constantly looking up stuff that I haven’t treated in a while. The perfect example is I had a patient last week or a month ago that started with a pretty severe scoliosis curve, like 30 degrees. And so I’ve treated a bunch of scoliosis that were non-op and were fine under 10 degrees, and you really don’t do a ton for the actual curve.

But this is the first case I’ve treated in probably three to four years that was a significant curve. And so I had to look up a ton of stuff on Schroth exercises and things I hadn’t done in a long time. I watched a bunch of videos and old textbooks that I had, that I’ve had from a while. I had to go back and kind of brush myself up, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing to not think you have to learn every single joint all the time. I think that’s really frustrating for new grads. So don’t be afraid to treat the stuff in the clinic, keep up as you go. And then maybe, all right, this month is hip labral tear month. I’m just going to like, one article on hip labral tears every week or two, and then I’m going to try to keep up with my clinic caseload as it is. But yeah, I spent three hours on one Sunday trying to just get myself up to date on Schroth exercises because the person’s father was a pretty well-researched person. I wanted to make sure I had the stats on my mind.

Mike Reinold:
Yeah, I love it. I mean, it’s a great use of it. I mean, there’s probably like three journals, four journals that I read the table of contents every month. You get those table of contents emails now, but they’re just publishing them continuously now. So I still use a newsfeed reader that can see all these things, but there’s only three or four that I look at and it just takes 10 seconds to scan the table of contents for the month and just see if there’s anything interesting. But I think it’s important to stay on top of those. But let’s hit strength and conditioning real quick. Who wants to go first? Jonah, what do you like to read as a strength and conditioning coach?

Jonah Mondloch:
I think the two kind of main journals that I end up reading articles from would be the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and then the International Journal of Strength and Conditioning. But kind of the second, what Scaduto was saying, I think there are a lot of people who do a very good job of synthesizing some of the research these days and kind of pointing you in the direction of high-quality research articles that might be worth your time reading. One example. There’s a coach, I believe his name’s Ramsey Nijem, but Applied Performance is his website and he sends out twice a week. He summarizes a research article, which, as a new grad I think can teach you how to effectively read research, but then also make it easy to digest a couple articles a week in a very time-efficient manner, which when you are a new grad, you probably do have a lot of different things you’re trying to learn.

So if you’re spending 20 minutes reading a bunch of different journal articles, it might not end up being that effective of a use of your time. Then the other thing I would say is, I found on LinkedIn that a lot of people, if you follow smart people, they tend to share articles that they’ve found very useful, which I think could be a great way to learn: “Who are these seasoned clinicians? What are they learning about right now? Okay, I’m going to go read that article.”

Mike Reinold:
Yeah, that’s great advice. I think that’s important. All right, so Journal of Strength and Conditioning, International Journal of Strength Conditioning. Diwe, anything else from you?

Diwesh Poudyal
Yeah. I would say mine’s a little bit more strategy, kind of similar to what Dave was talking about. I’m big and I kind of learned this from you, Mike, is chunking out my learning so that if I’m attacking a topic that I’m trying to learn, that’s when I’m focusing a lot of my research based on that. So when I was in my speed course that I was enrolled in, I was looking at a lot more research that was speed-based, so I kind of chunked that. If I’m learning a little bit more physiology, I might get into a little bit of Andy Galpin’s work, and dive into stuff like that. So I definitely chunk things out a little bit more. As far as the places that I’m getting the emails monthly from, it’s the International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, like Jonah said, and the NSCA’s Strength and Conditioning Journal. But I’m definitely a lot more of a fan of chunking out, attack it, learn a ton, zoom back out, apply it.

Mike Reinold:
And that’s an overall great strategy. And I think Dan Pope’s approach, with Kevin right now is like, let’s tackle one topic, and tackle it though, like that thing’s not getting up. They’re going to keep it down on the mat. So that’s their thought process behind what they’re doing right now. Remember this though, if you’re only looking for certain research and that’s it, you’re going to miss some potential light bulb moments and I’ll leave it with that. So meaning, if you’re only looking for elbow injuries because that’s what you’re interested in, there might be a great article in AJSM on current concepts and something that you didn’t even know you were interested in, or something like that. So I would say you got to try to stay a little current and follow a few journals, and not just topical things just to keep interested.

If you read one journal article a month, that’s not something specific to what you do, you’re just trying to get that 1% better every day, get 1% better. And I think that’s a huge step, and it’s a good habit to have. I do want to add two other ones or maybe technically three other ones. JOSPT now has more than just JOSPT. They have JOSPT Open, which is open access, which means it’s free and you can access it. So you can access some of those articles now. That’s going to probably grow in the next few years. And then very similarly, AJSM has OJSM. So open access again for them and those are valuable resources for people that don’t have subscriptions. And then lastly, AJSM also has VJSM now, which is a video version. So how cool is that? You get to watch surgical videos every month on some cool new topics.

So I’ll put this list together in the show notes and put them together because I think it’s valuable, and I think that’s a good one here. Notice here, that’s a fair amount of journals, right? You don’t have to read them all. This is at least our hit list of the best journals that we think are reputable for you to follow. So anyway, great stuff, guys. Thanks so much. If you have questions like that, head to mikereinold.com. Ask us some more questions and please rate and subscribe to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And we’ll see you on the next episode.