Nursing Scholarly Sources Guide

The Nursing Scholarly Sources Guide provides resources and tutorials to support Nursing students when finding, citing, and disseminating scholarly information. The home page contains key definitions to help distinguish between different kinds of sources. Use the tabs on the left side of the page to navigate to the other pages in the guide.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to a librarian. Contact information for SAU Library's Reference Desk and Nursing Librarians is available in the "Have a Question?" section on each page.

What are Scholarly Sources?

Scholarly sources are written by academics and other experts and contribute to knowledge in a particular field by sharing new research findings, theories, analyses, insights, news, or summaries of current knowledge.

Scholarly sources can be either primary or secondary research. They can also come in many different formats. Books, articles, and websites can all be scholarly. Remember, there is sometimes a difference between scholarly and peer-reviewed articles; all peer-reviewed sources are scholarly, but not all scholarly sources are  peer-reviewed. 

What are Peer-Reviewed Sources?

Peer review is a process where one or more experts (usually three) in the same or similar fields (the authors' peers), will read an article or paper by a scholar and examine whether the research methods are valid and whether the conclusions make sense. They might also look at the importance and utility of the research, as well as the quality of the authors’ writing. If the article or paper is not good enough, it will not pass the peer-review process, and it will go unpublished.

Definitions adapted from "What counts as a scholarly source?" by the University of Toronto Libraries and "A guide to career and technical education" by the Northern Arizona University Cline Library. 

What is a primary source?

A primary source in science is a document or record that reports on a study, experiment, trial or research project. Primary sources are usually written by the person(s) who did the research, conducted the study, or ran the experiment, and include hypothesis, methodology, and results.

What is a secondary source?

Secondary sources list, summarize, compare, and evaluate primary information and studies so as to draw conclusions on or present current state of knowledge in a discipline or subject. Sources may include a bibliography which may direct you back to the primary research reported in the article.

Adapted from "Evidence Based Practice" by the Northern Arizona University Cline Library.