Introduction
Accessing physiotherapy educational resources can be a hustle, depending on where you live. In low middle-income and low-income countries being able to access even a few physiotherapy books is a kind of luxury. Thankfully the internet exists and with it comes the easiness’ of accessing resources that you may need.
In this article I will share the resources that I use to access physiotherapy books and research papers for free. I understand that a moral dilemma exists. The writers of these books and research papers have them on sale for particular reasons and using the internet to get them for free has its negative impacts.
These resources will be divided into two groups:
- Resources to access books
- One resource to access published research articles that might be locked or that require some kind of payment.
All these resources can be accessed freely as long as you have a working internet connection.
Resources to access books
- Telegram
- Z- Library
- PDF drive
Telegram
What you will need?
- Telegram app
- An account.
Telegram is a smartphone app that allows its users to share information. It’s similar to WhatsApp but can allow its users to share large files such as books, movies etc. To use telegram in download books;
- Download the telegram app from play store/app store.
- Create an account if you don’t have one
- Search for the groups, TLS PHYSIOTHERAPY BOOK BANK or Physical Therapy and Rehabilitaion, Join the groups.
- Use the search function on each group to search for the book you want.
Z-Library
Z-library describes itself as the largest ebook library in the world. To use Z-Library;
- Enter z-lib.org in your browser, either in your pc or smartphone.
- Choose whether you want a book or an article
- Search for the book or the article you would like.
- Follow the steps to download.
PDF drive
To use PDF drive;
- enter pdfdrive.com on your browser alternatively, search pdf drive in google.
- Use the search button to search for the book or article you want.
- Follow the steps to download.
Resources to access published Research articles
Sci-Hub
Using sci-hub to download for research papers is a bit more complex than downloading books. In order to download a research paper in sci-hub you will need to have its DOI number/link. This number uniquely identifies each research paper ensuring that you download just the paper you want.
So how do you obtain a papers DOI number?
Assuming you are using PubMed to do your research, click on any paper you are interested in, check around the page to see if you see ‘DOI’ written somewhere. If not, check if the details of the paper are hidden. If you see the DOI number/link copy it. If you are using google scholar or if you are in a page detailing the contents of the paper all you need is to look for the DOI number/link. It is mostly in details section of a paper.
Use your browser to navigate to sci-hub.tw then enter the DOI number and click the open button. The research paper will begin downloading or you might be prompted to save it. Basically, all you need is the DOI link or number then you can use it to download the research paper.
