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NUR 202: Research and Ethics in the Health Sciences: Types of Sources

Types of Sources

There are many kinds of articles published in Nursing and other health fields. The information on this page provides a list of the main types of publications and a brief description of primary and secondary sources in Nursing.

Universal Influenza Vaccine Trial

Universal Influenza Vaccine Clinical Trial from NIH Image Gallery is licensed under Public Domain Mark 1.0

Primary Sources in Nursing

Primary sources in Nursing report directly on the results of a study, clinical trial, or experiment. These sources tend to be written by the researcher who conducted the study.

Examples include:

  • pilot/prospective studies
  • dissertations or theses
  • cohort studies
  • survey research
  • lab notebooks
  • patient interviews
  • case studies
  • qualitative studies
  • clinical trials and  randomized clinical trials/RCTs
  • double blind method

Finding primary sources:

Secondary Sources in Nursing

Secondary sources in Nursing summarize, evaluate or comment on primary source studies. Secondary source authors discuss work done by others. Remember: you can use secondary sources to discover primary sources (for instance, you can mine the references list of a literature review for primary source articles.)

Examples include:

  • reviews of literature, systematic reviews, meta-analysis
  • newsletters and professional news sources
  • clinical practice guidelines & standards
  • clinical care notes
  • qualitative synthesis
  • patient education material
  • government & legal material 
  • entries in nursing or medical encyclopedias or other books

Finding secondary sources:

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