Scholarly Resources are generally written for an academic audience by experts in a specific subject discipline.
IMPORTANT: **Usually when an instructor says you need scholarly sources, they mean peer-reviewed articles.**
Examples of Scholarly Resources include: Academic/peer-reviewed journal articles (most common), books written by experts in a field, and formally published encyclopedias and dictionaries.
Peer Reviewed Journals & Articles are evaluated by multiple experts in a journal’s subject discipline prior to publication. The peer-review process ensures that the articles published within peer-reviewed journals are academically rigorous and meet the required expectations of an article in that subject discipline.
Authors: Scholars, Researchers, or Experts in the Field
Audience: Researchers, Scholars, Students
Purpose: Inform, report and share original research and experimentation with the rest of the scholarly world
Content: Research results, methodology, and theory
Language: Terminology and language of the discipline, the reader is assumed to have a similar background
Articles: Lengthy, providing in-depth analysis
Review Process: Reviewed by a board of experts in the field or by the author’s peers (peer-reviewed)
Bibliography: References/ Bibliographies are always included. Bibliographies or endnotes are in a formal style.
Adapted with permission from Grand Canyon University Library.
You can find evidence for clinical decision making in quantitative and qualitative research studies. Mixed methods research studies use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and data.
Quantitative research refers to any research based on something that can be accurately and precisely measured and will include studies that have numerical data. Quantitative data are expressed numerically and analyzed statistically. The data are collected from experiments and tests, metrics, databases, and surveys. In healthcare research they often include studies of intervention effectiveness, satisfaction with care, the incidence, prevalence, and etiology of diseases, and the properties of measurement tools.
Findings in qualitative studies are not based on measurable statistics. Qualitative data are descriptive rather than numerical. Qualitative research derives data from observation, interviews, verbal interactions, or textual analyses and focuses on the meanings and interpretations of the participants. Qualitative research studies in healthcare investigate the impact of illnesses and interventions. The research explores experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives of patients, caregivers, and clinicians. The analysis of qualitative research is interpretative, subjective, and impressionistic.
Reference: Kolaski, K., Logan, L. R., & Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2023). Guidance to best tools and practices for systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews, 12(1), 96. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02255-9
Adapted from: Evidence-Based Practice Research in Nursing, Adelphi University Library.
A primary source is a description of a research study written by the original investigator(s).
Primary Research or "original research" means that the authors of an article or report are the same people who conducted the research and gathered the data discussed in that article/report. In other words, to be Primary Research, authors must be writing about their own original research.
Examples of Primary Sources / Primary Research include: randomized control trials, cohort studies, and case control studies.
A secondary source is a summary or description of a research study written by someone other than the study investigator(s).
Secondary Sources / Secondary Research occurs when authors are collecting, analyzing, and discussing existing research and data (research studies conducted by others). NOTE: Most journal articles include a Background section or brief review of previous research done on the topic- this does not mean that article cannot be primary research. You will need to identify the type of study it is and/or look at the Methods/Methodology and Results sections to determine if an article is primary or secondary.
Examples of Secondary Sources / Secondary Research include: systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and clinical practice guidelines.
Content adapted with permission from Grand Canyon University Library.
A review of the abstract and text of an article will provide important information of assistance in identifying it as a research study.
Look for headings like the following:
Authors: Practitioners, Educators, or Specialists within the profession or trade
Audience: Professional in the fields, researchers, and students
Purpose: Provide information and news to practitioners in a profession
Content: New trends, techniques and organizational news
Language: Technical terminology of the profession
Articles: Length varies
Review Process: Includes some peer-review periodicals, most are reviewed by editors (often professionals in the field)
Bibliography: Occasionally cite sources
Authors: Reporters, Magazine staff, or Freelance Writers
Audience: General Public
Purpose: Inform, entertain, and cover special interests
Content: Personalities, news and general interest articles
Language: Non-technical
Articles: Brief, providing broad overviews
Review Process: No Formal peer review process, reviewed by editors on staff
Bibliography: Articles rarely include references
