Skip to Main Content

NURS 481

Resources covered in the Library session

Resource Tutorials

Primary or Secondary Resource?

What does it mean to refer to a resource by the terms PRIMARY and SECONDARY?

~ PRIMARY resource:  the author(s) collected or created the data / research presented

Examples: original research published in a peer reviewed journal, dissertation

Where?  PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Scholar, Government data (e.g. CDC web site and publications e.g. MMWR)

~ SECONDARY resource: the author(s) summarized, analyzed or synthesized the research of others

Examples: literature review, systematic review, organization web sites (see link below), clinical point of care tools

Where?  Databases listed above, Google, Wikipedia, Up to Date, Dynamed

~ How do I know an article is from a peer reviewed journal?

Ulrichsweb is an easy to search source of detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals of all types: academic and scholarly journals, e-journals, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more.

About The Health Sciences Library

Contact us for additional help with using Library resources (databases, e-journals, e-books or interlibrary loan) and services (reference, library instruction, study rooms, etc.).