Module 7 Tip: Nursing Research and Scholarly Sources
As you finish up your project, here are a few more tips and reminders for finding resources specific to nursing, and especially scholarly sources in the field of nursing.
If you didn’t see it earlier, we have a LibGuide on Nursing Research. You can always go there for reminders and guidance.
Some of you may have gone to the library website and used the OneSearch box in the middle of the screen. Another option is to search one database at a time. We have a list of nursing databases, the most popular of which are:
Contains research and scholarly information in the fields of nursing and allied health. Additional resources include evidence-based care sheets, quick lessons, and continuing education modules.
Contains more than 37 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. Full-text articles are often available as links to other sources, such as the publisher's website or PubMed Central (PMC).
A wide range of full-text journals, e-books, and other scholarly research materials such as conference proceedings and news briefs in the physical and biological sciences, business and economics, education, medicine, psychology, and more.
Most databases make it easy for you to find scholarly (also called peer-reviewed) resources:
CINAHL – when you search, check the “Peer Reviewed” box
PubMed – unfortunately, PubMed doesn’t separate out scholarly vs. non-scholarly sources. Most of the articles in PubMed will be from scholarly journals, but not all.
Medline – when you get to your list of results, choose “Academic Journals” under “Source Types”
ScienceDirect – almost all the items are already scholarly articles, so no need to worry about it here
If you’re using a database that’s not on this list, look around to see if there are scholarly/peer-reviewed/academic options somewhere.We also have a couple of databases with nursing information that is not scholarly, but can still be helpful for background information. Check out:
A point-of-care resource intended for nurses. Contains information on clinical topics, including evidence-based practice, diseases, skills and procedures, drug information, continuing education, and patient education.
Includes full-text scholarly journals focusing on many medical disciplines, geared toward researchers, allied health professionals, nurses, and medical educators. Health topics covered include food science, childcare, sports medicine, and more.
Up-to-date and easy-to-use medical reference source geared toward the general public. Suitable for student research as well as use by patients and caregivers.
If you use one of these resources, you would cite it (of course) but it wouldn’t usually count toward the number of sources for your paper; i.e, if your professor says you need to cite three sources and you cite an ebook from R2 Digital Library, you would still need to cite three peer-reviewed or research articles.
You may notice that on the Nursing Research guide, there is a section on recommended websites. There are many great websites out there, but it may not always be appropriate to cite them for research because:
Your professor told you to use scholarly resources. Websites aren’t scholarly, so in this case it’s an easy decision.
You’re supposed to look for research articles or primary sources. You’ve probably noticed the differences between journal articles and websites. Journal articles are usually about research that has been done (in nursing, that might mean a study, a trial, etc.) and are written for a specialized audience in the field (that’s you). Websites and newspaper articles summarize and break down the information so that the general public can understand it. You might find a website that summarizes a specific article or study, but if you want to use that as a source, you should look for the original article.
They contain organizational material, but not research. Your professor mentioned the American Nurses Association, which is one of many professional groups for nurses. All of these groups have websites and the information should be accurate and up-to-date, but it may not be research information. If one of these websites mentions a study or an article that sounds interesting, again, try looking for the article in one of our databases.
