LibGuides: BSN: About Research

What is Peer-Review?

Peer review is a generic term for a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility. In academia the term is often used to denote a prepublication review of academic papers; reviewing an academic paper is often called refereeing.

Merriam-Webster

a process by which something proposed (as for research or publication) is evaluated by a group of experts in the appropriate field.

How do Library Databases deal with peer-review: CINAHL

CINAHL does record whether or not a publication is peer reviewed. View the full record of a citation to see the Journal Subset field which contains this information.

CINAHL defines peer-review to include the following degrees of review:

Blind peer review (when either the reviewer or the author does not know the identity of the other)
Double-blind peer review (when neither the author nor the reviewer knows the identity of the other)
Expert peer review (when journal articles are reviewed by selected experts in that field)
Editorial board peer review (when journal articles are reviewed by the editorial board)/li>

Tip! A useful technique is to speed the process of gathering peer reviewed publications is to select Peer Reviewed in the CINAHL advanced search limit options. This way all of the search results will already be filtered to show only publications that are peer reviewed.

Medline (EBSCO): Advanced search limits include peer-reviewed & scholarly articles (but nothing more specific); review articles(but not research in same way that CINAHL does)

PubMed: Most of the journals indexed in PubMed are peer reviewed. However, unlike CINAHL, there is no way to use PubMed to make this distinction for you.

Here are two options for determining if a journal is peer reviewed.

Option A: Find the journal home page and look for specific wording regarding this. This can be found on various pages of the journal website such as the About page.

Option B: Use a periodicals (another term for journals) directory such as Ulrichs international periodicals directory (in print at Kelowna Reference collection PN 4832 .U45 2010.) Note: Ulrichs uses the term 'refereed' instead of 'peer reviewed.'

What is Research?

The organized quest for new knowledge and better understanding (Stedman's Medical Dictionary, 28th ed)
Investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws (Merriam-Webster, 2011)

Research can be categorized in many different ways:

basic or applied
observational or interventional
qualitative or quantitative
primary or secondary [for details click tab Evaluating Sources]

What do all types of research have in common?

context: prior research on the topic, future directions
structured process: uses a scientific perspective to analyze a specific research question of interest and develop an approach for studying it
methodology: follows recognized procedures appropriate to the research area
objectivity: incorporates multiple perspectives yet remains unbiased

How Can I Identify a Research Article?

Examine the Title of the Article

Sometimes the authors indicate the study type or design in the title of the article.

Example:

Sarris J, Byrne GJ. A systematic review of insomnia and complementary medicine. Sleep Med Rev. 2010 Jun 5.
Hammond FM, Davis CS, Whiteside OY, Philbrick P, Hirsch MA. Marital adjustment and stability following traumatic brain injury: a pilot qualitative analysis of spouse perspectives. J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2011 Jan/Feb;26(1): 69-78.

Examine the Abstract and/or Full Text Article

Abstract: Look for key phrases such as the following.

"This study examines..."
"The purpose of this study was to..."
"The study's findings support..."
"We investigated..."
"The results of this study confirm..."

Examine the article for a structured outline such as the IMRAD format:

Introduction (Background, Objective)
Methodology (Methods)
Results
Analysis (Conclusion)
Discussion

Examine the Indexing of an Article in a Library Database

Library bibliographic databases usually identify the publication type of a given article. Type of publication or subject headings can often include the type of research methodology used in the article. NOTE: there is a delay before an article is indexed in a databases, so this may not work with very recent articles.

Example:

CINAHL Research Study Design
Pfeiffer, J. A., Wickline, M. A., Deetz, J., & Berry, E. S. (2012). Assessing RN-to-RN peer review on clinical units. Journal of Nursing Management, 20(3), 390-400. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2011.01321.x

Important note: Research articles are the primary means of developing new clinical knowledge, but vary in the level of detail given about the study. You may need to do your own evaluation.

Type of Reference	Pros	Cons	Examples	Evidence-based?
Websites	Easy to find Can be very current	Quality variable	MedlinePlus Child Development Vaccine/Autism	May lead to evidence-based sources of information in traditional literature it the references. Expert Opinion
Textbooks	Quick and easy to use Provides summaries	Can be expensive Can be slow to update	The Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice	May summarize evidence and lead to evidence-based sources of information in the references. Expert Opinion

Journal Articles
Reviews (Narrative)	Provide summaries of what is known on specific topics	Methodology used in compiling the summaries may not be scientific or systematic	Headaches in children.	May lead to evidence-based sources of information in the references. Expert Opinion
Systematic Reviews	Provide systematically derived summaries of research studies on specific topics	Addresses a single research question Requires some research to already have been done on the research question	Factors influencing completion of multi-dose vaccine schedules in adolescents: a systematic review.	Evidence-based, secondary research References individual research articles
Meta-analyses	Provide systematically derived summaries of research studies on specific topics and applies statistical methods of analyses	Requires considerable amounts of research to have already been done on the specific research question	Prevalence of, and risk factors for, chronic idiopathic constipation in the community: systematic review and meta-analysis	Evidence-based Leads to individual research articles
Research Reports/Articles	Describes original research studies and reports on results	Can be time-consuming to read, interpret, and translate into clinical practice	Double-blind, placebo-controlled antibiotic treatment study of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in children with chronic abdominal pain	Evidence-based research