Reading

Schmidt & Brown (2021). Evidence-Based Practice for Nurses:

• Chapter 2.1: Research: What is It?

• Chapter 5.1: Understanding and Defining Evidence

Garrard (2021). Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy:

• Chapter 2: Basic Concepts

  • The Anatomy of a Scientific Paper (p. 42 - 46)

Objective

• Contrast scholarly and nonscholarly literature

• Describe the sections found in research articles

• Describe the scientific publishing cycle and the processes and time frames within it

• Differentiate between primary and secondary sources

• Explain the peer-review process

What Makes up a Research Article?

• Abstract

  • = The first section of a research article that provides an overview of the study

• Introduction

  • = Part of a research article that states the problem and purpose

  • Problem statement

    • Identifies the problem in a broad and general way

  • Purpose statement

    • Describes what was examined in the study

  • Review of Literature

    • = An unbiased, comprehensive, synthesized description of relevant previously published studies

  • Theoretical framework

    • = The structure of a study that links the theory concepts to the study variables; a section of a research article that describes the theory used

• Methods

  • = Major portion of a research article that describes the study design, sample, and data collection

• Results

  • = Component of a research article that reports the methods used to analyze data and characteristics of the sample

• Discussion

  • = Portion of a research article where interpretation of the results and how the findings extend the body of knowledge are discussed

• List of References

  • = Publication information for each article cited in a research report

• Acknowledgments and/or Funding Source

  • Description of how the research study was funded

    • The names of granting agencies or foundations and the names of individuals who assisted in the research or review

  • If the research was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), then the paper should be available in PubMed Central, a publicly available bibliographic database developed and managed by the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the NIH

The Scientific Publication Cycle

• = A model describing how research becomes disseminated in publications

• Manuscript

  • = A scholarly paper prior to its publication

• Journal

  • = A collection of scholarly articles published together in an issue

• Peer Review

  • When experts and editors rigorously evaluate a manuscript submitted for publication

• Database

  • = A collection of records for scholarly and nonscholarly sources organized in a searchable interface

• Bibliographic record

  • A record organizing and presenting citation information, abstracts, and descriptive terms such as keywords and subject headings for a published source

• Subject headings

  • = Formal descriptive terms used by databases, including CINAHL, to describe the content of a source

1. How are Research Papers Organized? (19:46)

2. How Do I Read Research Papers Efficiently? (11:44)

3. How are Research Papers Published? (31:32)