APA Formatting and Using Scholarly Literature for Nursing and Allied Health

Carry out the searches next to each database listed below. What differences and similarities do you see in the kinds of results you get and in the limit options offered between the multi-disciplinary OneSearch and the discipline-specific CINAHL (CINAHL stands for Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)?

1. OneSearch (this is the same as the search box on the library home page) - try this search: nursing and burnout and "patient safety". On the results page (left side) look for a 'scholarly/peer-reviewed' limit option.
2. CINAHL Plus with Full-Text - try this search: burnout and "patient safety" [because CNAHL only searches the nursing literature, we do not need to include that word in the search - all results will be related to nursing!]. Note also that because almost all content indexed in CINAHL is from scholarly journals, there isn't a 'peer-reviewed' limit option unless you go into the 'Advanced Search.'
3. On the CINAHL results page, scroll down the page a little and look for the "Geography" limit option in the left column. Click on it to see sub-options. How do you think this option might be useful?

1. What are scholarly sources? Those journal articles (also called academic or peer-reviewed articles: example) and books (called 'scholarly monographs': example) written by experts whose target audience is other experts in that field.  They usually contain lots of discipline-specific jargon, in-text citations, and labeled sections like Introduction, Methodology, Conclusion, etc.
2. Why can't I find scholarly sources on my topic? Most articles in the library are scholarly. In order for them to get published they need to contain original research, which means they are usually very narrow in scope, covering just a small aspect of typical student assignment topics. This means you will not likely find scholarly articles that neatly summarize your broad topic and may instead need to access multiple narrower articles to get a fuller picture of your topic. Most scholarly articles can also be hard to read and understand; this is something all students experience (but it gets easier the more you do it and the better your note-taking habits are).
3. What is a peer-reviewed article? Most scholarly articles are peer-reviewed, though not all. Before it is published, submitted articles are sent out to other experts in the field (the authors' peers) to read and make comments and suggestions for revision. The process often takes many months to complete but ensures a higher level of quality and reliability. This is why your instructors assign such readings and often want you to use them as sources in your own academic writing.
4. What are professional/trade organization sources? While these are not usually scholarly/peer-reviewed, they are written by and aimed at an audience of people working in a specific profession or trade. They can be a journal, magazine, e-newsletter (sometimes these show up in library search results), or website published by government or professional association. These types of sources can be reliable and important sources of information for a variety of topics, so don't discount them! But, always critically evaluate any information sources you use from the open web!
5. How do I find scholarly/peer-reviewed journal articles? The Online Library's OneSearch (the search box in the upper left of the library home page) has a limit option, on the left side of the results page after you do a search, for "in Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed journal only." Many of the library's discipline-specific databases contain a similar limit option. In addition, the OneSearch includes a "Peer-Reviewed" tag under relevant results to help you identify such articles.
6. How can I effectively read and understand scholarly sources?
   1. Scan key sections of the article first: the abstract, introduction, and conclusion. These sections will contain summaries of key points of the article. You can then read the full article armed with this overview.
   2. A good notetaking habit is the key to understanding any scholarly source. Good notetaking includes more than just highlighting text. Instead, or in addition, write down notes in your own words summarizing key passages or ideas that could be useful to you for writing a paper or understanding how the content fits into your understanding of the topic. This can be done in the margins of a printout or on a separate piece of paper or Word document (make sure you include the citation info of the article it goes with!).

Given the following research question, craft at least 2 different searches using different search words: What impact does nurse cultural competence training have on diabetes patient compliance and outcomes?

Hints: 1. Check this Wikipedia article (and this one) for definitions and possible alternate terminology. 2. Try some searches on OneSearch and/or the CINAHL Plus database to see what might work best.

Submit your searches here and to see some examples of possible searches.

If still open, go back to your CINAHL results page (if not, carry out a new search in the CINAHL library database). Now try the following steps with that set of results:

1. Try using the publication date limit option in the left column (it's down the page a little) and limit the results to only the last 5 years. You can use the slider or the text fields displaying the dates.
2. Look at the results themselves. Click on one that has the "Full-text Finder" link under it. In many cases, this should still take you to the full-text of the article, just in a different database. However, not every article is available immediately in our collections. If this is the case, you'll instead see a record display for the item in OneSearch, with a section labeled 'How to Get It." This means that article is not available in the library. However, by clicking the Sign In link and then, after login, clicking the "Request from another library via Inter-library loan" link, you can submit the displayed ILL request form and, if available, get the article scanned in and a link sent to you to access the article, usually within 48 hours. This can also be done when using the OneSearch search tool directly. This is how you request access to articles that aren't available in the library (ILL cannot be used to request books or multimedia items).