Skip to Main Content

Nursing Undergraduate

A guide to nursing research

Why Articles?

Why should I use articles in researching nursing topics?

  1. A large proportion of information in the field of nursing is communicated via journal articles
  2. On average, journal articles are published rather quickly (9-20 months) as opposed to books which often take years
  3. Information is frequenlty reviewed by other experts (scholarly/peer-reviewed)

List of Nursing Databases

The following link takes you to a list of all the Nursing subject databases Washburn University has access to.

Interlibrary Loan

If the Mabee Library does not own or have access to a journal article. You may request a copy of the article through Interlibrary Loan; this is a free service.

But don't wait until the last moment! It takes 2-3 days to receive articles and 2-7 days for books.

DOI Assistance

If you are citing an article and can't find the DOI from the database you downloaded it from, try the link below. Cross Ref is a free service that has a number of ways for you to locate a DOI.

SCHOLARLY OR NOT?

Journals provide more current information than books. They are indexed in databases which make it easy to search thousands of titles at once and find scholarly, peer-reviewed sources.|

What is a scholarly journal?

Answer: A journal that has been created by academic authors and includes original quantitative and/or qualitative research and theoretical content.

      Examples

  • Journal of Athletic Training
  • Harvard Educational Review
  • Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 

Beware! There are document types which may exist in scholarly journals that ARE NOT peer-reviewed articles. These may include:

  • letters to the editor
  • commentaries
  • book reviews
  • case studies
  • book chapters
  • conference proceedings
  • interviews
  • cover stories
  • speeches

Is your scholarly article a research article?

Research articles have clearly identified sections titled methodology, results, conclusion, design, evaluation, discussion or limitations. They are prefaced with a literature review on the topic and followed by a reference list of literature cited in the article. They have graphs images, tables, data sets and other documentation of how information from the research was conducted or collected.