LibGuides: Doctor of Nursing Practice: Types of Sources

What's Peer-Reviewed?

Peer-reviewed articles go through a rigorous validation process prior to publication. An article is submitted to a journal, it is reviewed by a panel of experts in that subject area to evaluate the research methods, results, and conclusions. This is why researchers (and your instructors) prefer peer-reviewed articles for research. Your instructors want you to find and use the best.

It also introduces you to the conversations in your field of study. Scholarly articles allow researchers to discuss their findings and anticipate and seek out new discoveries.

Scholarly vs. Non-scholarly Articles

Below is a quick slideshow on:

scholarly vs. non-scholarly articles
primary vs. secondary sources
identifying original research studies

You can expand to full-screen, move back-and-forth through the slides, or print out the PDF. (insert link later)

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
Interactive example of a scholarly article by NCSU

Periodicals can include newspapers, magazines, trade journals, and scholarly journals. Each type of publication serves a purpose and audience. Generally, you will want to use scholarly journals/peer-reviewed articles for your research papers, but magazines (trade or popular) may provide inspiration or examples to illustrate a point. For instance, you might use an article from Women's Health to demonstrate the information patients are reading regarding nutrition and weight loss and how it may be misinterpreted.

	Popular	Trade	Scholarly
Appearance	Glossy pages, lots of ads, illustrations	Glossy pages, illustrations, ads targeted to specific industry interests	Plain cover and paper, black and white graphics (rarely color), few to no ads
Audience	General public	Professionals, members of a particular industry	Researchers, professionals, educators
Content	News, general interest, personalities, entertainment	Industry trends and news, advice and techniques	Research studies, methodologies, theories, literature reviews
Authority	Articles written by staff writers, rarely in-depth, few to no references	Articles written by staff and freelance authors; few to no references	Articles written by researchers and field experts. Bibliographies contain extensive, scholarly references
Accountability	Editorial review	Editorial review	Peer-reviewed/refereed by other experts in the field
Example Covers & Titles	Cosmopolitan Newsweek Entertainment Weekly	Psychology Today PC World American Libraries	Journal of the American Medical Association Applied Radiology
Example Articles	"Ditch dieting, get healthy" - Shape	"Obesity Therapy: Reason for dieting affects dieting behavior" - Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week	"Environmental and genetic pathways between early pubertal timing and dieting in adolescence: distinguishing between objective and subjective timing" - Psychological Medicine

Levels of Research Evidence

Levels of Evidence

Nursing research often uses a system for ranking research studies based on the strength of the evidence: quality of design, validity, and applicability to patient care. The below diagram is based on the levels of evidence described by Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt (2011).