NURS403 - Nursing Research

Evaluate Your Sources

How do you judge whether to trust the article you are reading? One way is to assess the quality of the journal in which the article was published, not just the article. But how do you do that?

Evaluate the journal in which the article was published.

• Look at a journal’s website to learn about its practices
• Double check a journal’s name against a list at the International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE)’s website https://nursingeditors.com/ If it's on this list then it is recognized as a legitimate journal.
• Look at SciMago Journal ranking https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=2901 

Evaluate Your Author

• Check their credentials via Google Scholar profile, university website or LinkedIn

Check for Retractions.

• “Sometimes faulty research comes from good publications but then is caught and struck down.”
• Retractions may occur because of:
  • errors in the research
  • issues with reproducibility of the research
  • plagiarism
  • falsification of data or results
  • fabrication of data or results
  • copyright infringement
  • failure to disclose conflict of interest
  • no institutional review board approval for research on human subjects or animals
• How do I look for Retractions?
  • Click on the “Check for updates” on a PDF and the Crossmark software looks for updates.
  • Check on PubMed or CINAHL where the articles may be marked as Retracted.
  • Check out Retraction Watch, which tracks scientific paper retractions.

Mining your Sources for More Sources

If you find one great article turn it into more!

1) Backwards Citation Mining - Look at the references in your articles and consider reading some of those sources.

2) Forwards Citation Mining - Look your article up on Google Scholar or PubMed and see who has cited it. This is a great way to see what impact the study has had in the scientific community.

3) Related Citation Mining - Look for articles that appear on the Related Articles link in Google Scholar or on the adjacent links in PubMed for suggested other reading. 

Citation Mining Tips

How to locate retracted articles

Sometimes faulty research comes from good publications but then is caught and struck down. The following steps can help.

1. Review the following websites for retractions

2. Pull up journal article in CINAHL or PubMed databases to see notices

Databases may note within themselves a retraction notice, or a "expression of concern" from other researchers. However, sometimes they won't and may need to be checked on the publisher's website.