Welcome to the Oviatt Library's subject guide for researching topics in Nursing. "Nursing: An Oviatt Library Research Guide" will introduce you to finding books, journals, videos, government documents in the library as well as our growing collections of electronic books, journals, and videos you can access online from off campus locations.
You will learn about subject headings and controlled vocabularies (thesaurus) to help you plan your search strategy. You will also learn how to avoid plagarism and how to cite using APA style.
Here are some important tips for starting your research
Scholarly Journals (Peer-reviewed/Referreed)
- Authors are authorities in their fields.
- Authors cite their sources in endnotes, footnotes, or bibliographies.
- Individual issues have little or no advertising.
- Articles must go through a peer-review or refereed process.
- Articles are usually reports on scholarly research.
- Illustrations usually take the form of charts and graphs.
- Articles use jargon of the discipline.
Finding Articles in Magazines, Journals, and Newspapers
Pick a database recommended for your subject from Find Articles by Subject and then search using keywords.
To locate the full text of an article:
- If full-text is available in the database, click on the link to full text (HTML or PDF).
-
If full-text isn't available in the database, click the
button to see if we have access to the article in another database or in print in the library
- If no Find Text button is available or you didn't find the article through our databases, search for the magazine or journal title using the Journals tab in the library catalog.
- If the full text isn't available through the Library, you can request an Interlibrary Loan for the article(s) that you need. However, you must allow about two weeks for this!
Choose the Right Resource
When choosing resources for your assignment, consider:
- Assignment requirements—what does the professor want you to cite?
- Learn about your topic -- You may want to use a reference book like an encyclopedia (print or online) to start out with if you don't have a clear understanding of your topic yet.
- Time—the more current the topic, the less will be found in scholarly journals or books, which take longer to get published. Recent events will be covered on the Internet, in newspapers and magazines, as well as in the media.
- Depth of coverage and/or the topic—scholarly journals and books cover topics in more depth than magazines and newspapers. Some topics are not covered by the popular press, e.g., research that would not be of interest to the average consumer.
- Quality of the resource - see Step 3: Evaluating Sources
| Type of Information You Need | Try These Resources |
| Does your topic cover current events? | Newspapers, magazines, Internet |
| Do you need general information on a specific topic, written in a non-specialist style? |
Newspapers, magazines, Internet
|
| Do you need in-depth information on a specific topic, written for the college student and above by authorities in the field? | Scholarly journals |
| Do you need more detail and/or has the topic been written about for awhile? | Books |
| Do you need an overview, quick facts, statistics on a topic? | Reference books, Internet |