Nursing

Due to the breadth of health sources available, it's important to be able to efficiently appraise the credibility of information sources. While there are many models that can be used to appraise websites and online information, generally they ask similar questions related to authority, purpose, references, and currency. This is the Four Ws Model:

1. Who created this information?
   • Is it created by an Institution, Professional Association or Organization, For-Profit Company, Government?
   • What are the qualifications of the content creators?
   • Check for an "about us" or "bio" section.
2. What is the purpose of this information?
   • Who is the intended audience?
   • For websites, what is the site set up for?
   • How is the content paid for?
3. Where does the information in this source come from?
   • Are there citations for information and research presented as fact?
   • Are methods provided for data or research materials presented?
4. When was the information last updated?
   • Does the content or website itself show when it was last updated?
   • How current is the information or research cited?

Using GenAI?

Do not accept the information obtained from AI as fact. Always check the sources to ensure the information is correct.

Sometimes it is hard to tell whether you are looking at a journal/scholarly or a magazine/popular full-text article. Below are clues that can help you determine what kind of source you are looking at.

Content

• Scholarly: Detailed report of original research or experiment; often structured with background, methods, and results.
• Popular: Secondary report or discussion which may include a personal narrative, opinion, or anecdotes.

Author

• Scholarly: Author's credentials are given, usually a scholar with subject expertise.
• Popular: Author may or may not be named; may or may not have subject expertise.

Audience

• Scholarly: Scholars, researchers, students; subject-experts
• Popular: General public; the interested non-specialist.

Language

• Scholarly: Specialized terminology or jargon of the field; requires prior knowledge.
• Popular: Vocabulary in general usage; understandable to most readers.

References/Bibliography

• Scholarly: Required. All quotes and facts can be verified.
• Popular: Rare. Scanty, if any, information about sources.

Examples

• Scholarly: Journal of Clinical Nursing; many have Journal in the title. Often only available in libraries.
• Popular: Popular Science, Discover, National Geographic, Wired, news magazines. Almost anything available in a store.

• Commentary: Work consisting of a critical or explanatory note written to discuss, support, or dispute an article or other presentation previously published.
  • PubMed search: Comment [Publication Type]
• Data set: Organized collection of data which has been stored permanently in a formalized manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing.
  • PubMed search: Dataset [Publication Type]
• Dissertation: Work made to fulfill requirements for an academic degree.
  • FirstSearch: WorldCat Dissertations Search
  • ProQuest: Publicly Available Content Database, Open Dissertation and Theses Search
• Editorial: Work consisting of a statement of the opinions, beliefs, and policy of the editor or publisher of a journal, usually on current matters of medical or scientific significance to the medical community or society at large.
  • PubMed search: Editorial [Publication Type]
• Grey literature: Unpublished, non-commercial, hard-to-find information that organizations such as professional associations, research institutes, think tanks, and government departments produce. (Grey Literature research guide)
• Peer-reviewed article: A published manuscript that has undergone evaluation by experts in the field.
• Practice guideline: Work consisting of a set of directions or principles to assist the health care practitioner with patient care decisions about appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic, or other clinical procedures for specific clinical circumstances.
  • PubMed search: Practice Guideline [Publication Type] 
• Preprint: Scientific manuscript made available prior to peer review.
  • PubMed search: Preprint [Publication Type]
• Protocol: Detailed description of a study. It contains the study's objectives, design, and methods including subject target and/or enrollment criteria. It may also present relevant scientific background and statistical information.
  • PubMed search: Clinical Trial Protocol [Publication Type]
• Systematic Review: A review of primary literature in health and health policy that attempts to identify, appraise, and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets specified eligibility criteria to answer a given research question. 
  • PubMed search: Systematic Review [Publication Type]

Definitions from MeSH Publication Characteristics unless otherwise noted.

Understanding the format and key components of a research article can help you to read and analyze its findings and meaning. You help you with this, review this great tutorial on Analyzing Articles by University of Missouri, Kansas City libraries.

• Systematic Review:  Brings together and distills the best evidence from the primary literature to answer a clinical question. Generally, this will pool the results of several RCTs or meta-analyses on the same clinical problem. 
• Meta-analysis:  A quantitative statistical analysis of several separate but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance.
• Randomized Controlled Study:  A carefully planned experiment that studies the effect of therapy on real patients. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) include methodologies (randomization and blinding) that reduce bias and that allow for comparison between an intervention group and a control group (no intervention). RCTs can provide sound evidence for cause and effect.
• Cohort Study:  Follows patients who have a particular condition or receive a particular treatment over time, and compares them with another group who have not been affected by the condition or treatment being studied. Not as reliable as an RCT since the two groups might differ in ways other than the variable being studied. 
• Case-Control Study:  A study in which people who already have a condition are compared with those who do not. The researcher looks back over time to identify factors that might be associated with the condition. Often relies on medical data or patient recall and is less reliable than an RCT or cohort study because cause and effect is not necessarily established.
• Case Report:  A report on the treatment of an individual patient. Because there is no control group for comparison, there is no statistical validity. A number of case reports is a Case Series.

Information from the "Levels of Evidence" page of this guide.