nursing resources & research tutorial
TRANSCRIPT
Nursing Resources &
Research Tutorial: Distance
Learners
Instruction, Reference & Distance Education
Librarian
Seth M. Porter
Tutorial Outline
Learning Outcomes
Evaluating Information
The Research Process
Searching Tips
Research Resources
Nursing Specific Resources
Organizational Resources & Tools
Contact Information
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students will be able to explain the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly research resources
Students will be able to demonstrate the use of research resources
Students will be able to list subject specific nursing databases
Students will utilize search strategies and resources discussed to begin article research for their academic needs
Evaluating information• When you pull an article, book or
journal you want to make sure it is
relevant to you and your specific
information needs.
• This could mean a lot of different
things depending on the research
topic.
• Regardless of your research needs an
easy way to make sure your
information quality is appropriate is to
make sure it passes the “CRAAP” Test
• For example if your needs involve a
Peer Reviewed academic article, it
would most likely pass the CRAAP
test without critical investigation. But if
you found a great Health/Nursing
article on the open web or even a
blog, you would want to make sure it
passes as well as doing more due
diligence on the author to check their
creditability
Use this
worksheet
as a way to
test your
information
resources.
Information Gathering: The research
process
1. Identify Information resources to access: E.G, Specific
Databases, Journals and more.
2. Break down research idea or topic into searchable
phrases
3. Identify Keywords to search
4. Use AND to Connect Search Terms for a more specific
retrieval process
5. Use OR with alternative keywords for a larger but less
precise information recall
Search tips Potential
Research idea: How to deal with the
emotionally draining effects of tending for the patients under a nurses care; what are the most effective coping procedures for nurses?
Break down the idea or research topic into keywords, EG:
Emotional effects, coping procedures, nurses, patients
Use synonyms when searching to retrieve better results
Use technical and subject specific professional terms when applicable
Searching Tips
• Have you ever found an article that
was perfect?
• Wish you had more just like it? With a
little research you will.
• Footnote chasing is the act of
finding citations and references in
your current article and using these
articles for your research.
Chase those Footnotes
INFORMATION RESOURCES
Books & Journals:
http://librarycatalog.uah.edu
ILLIAD: http://libguides.uah.edu/ill
Libraryguides:
http://libguides.uah.edu/nursing
OneSearch: http://www.uah.edu/library
Print & General Resources
ONESEARCH WALK THROUGH
When you visit the Library web page one of the first things you will see is the
Big search box called OneSearch
OneSearch is a relatively new feature which searches the majority of our
Databases, journals, and catalog at one time
This is great place to begin your research, but don’t end it here. OneSearch is so
big it will retrieve a lot of information which isn’t pertinent to your research
needs. Begin here with a quick search and see if you can find anything relevant and
then move onto a subject specific database
The next few slides will be a walk through and tutorial of using OneSearch. Most
Databases are designed similarly and if you can access information on Onesearch
you can access it anywhere.
Simply enter your research topic into the search
interface. Use Keywords for a better result.
If the article has a blue “Find it at UAH” we have
access to the article, often in full-text which is
accessible from your computer
On the left
side you can
limit your
search to
full text (which
means it will
only Retrieve
articles
accessible
fully online),
Peer reviewed,
date and more.
This is a great
way to narrow
your search
and make it
more relevant.
The article in its full form is available as a PDF.
The abstract is an overview of
the article. Always read the
abstract first to see if the article
is relevant to your needs.
Full text version
of the article will
be placed here.
This is the tools bar which lets you
create a folder for your articles, print,
email, save, cite and more with your
information. Most databases have this
feature. Keep an eye out because they
are valuable tools.
General Databases
• Academic Search Complete
• Wiley Online Library
• Opposing viewpoints
• JSTOR
• Google Scholar
Remember you can access this information remotely!
General Databases cont.
• Academic Search Complete
• Academic Search Complete is a valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary
full-text database. The best database for general or multi-disciplinary research
• Opposing Viewpoints
• One-stop source for information on social issues. Access viewpoint articles, topic
overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and
newspaper articles
• JSTOR• JSTOR provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly
journals in the humanities and social sciences from the earliest issues
to within a few years of current publication. This is great for general
research
Specific Nursing Databases
• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing &
Allied Health Literature)
• PubMed
• Alt Health Watch Health Reference Center
Academic
• OVID
• PsycARTICLES
Specific Nursing Databases
cont.• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health
Literature)
• Is a comprehensive nursing specific database. This will be your go to
research resource as a nursing researcher. It includes searchable
cited references including an advanced searching tool which makes it
possible to pull articles written specifically by nurses.
• PubMed:
• A rich resource for the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary
medicine, health care systems, and preclinical sciences. This is
accessible through AVL and is available after you graduate as an open
source resource.
• PsycARTICLES or PsycInfo
• Both of these databases are multidiscipline with a focus on mental
health.
INFORMATION ORGANIZATION
When doing academic research it is important to cite your sources and manage your citations properly
There are many reference sources to check your citations
There are great tools to manage your information and citations when doing research
Organizational Tools
• UAH Style Guides:
• If you have any citation questions this is an overview of the popular citation
formats and references.
• OWL Purdue:• This is the go to site when you have questions on citation format. When in
doubt go to OWL Purdue!
• Zotero:
• Endnote:
Organizational Tools
Zotero:
• Zotero collects all your research in a single, searchable
interface. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video
files, snapshots of web pages, and really anything else.
Zotero automatically indexes the full-text content of your
library. This is a free open-source citation manager. It is
user intuitive and easy to use, think of like your research i-
Tunes.
Endnote:• A great reference manager, the basic is free the more
advanced is subscription based. Great for building
bibliographies.
Citation
Management
QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS
Contact: Call us: (256)824-6529
Text us: (256) 286-2368
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Seth Porter: Instructional, Reference & Distance Learning Librarian
256.824.6130