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Nursing EOF: Evaluate Sources

Library guide to support the Nursing EOF program.

What are scholarly articles? How will I know?

Scholarly vs. Popular Writng - What is the Difference?
Rutgers libraries take the mystery out of this subject!
 
Information Cycle (Ray W. Howard Library at Shoreline Community College) (video 3.27 minutes)
How to use your knowledge of the information cycle to choose appropriate sources for your writing assignments.  This excellent short video is very much worth your time!

Research Minutes: How to Identify Scholarly Journal Articles (Cornell University Libraries) 
Learn the characteristics of scholarly journal articles and how to find them--in less than 2 minutes.

Evaluating Medical Information on the Web

MedlinePlus Guide to Health Web Surfing (National Library of Medicine)
Concise list of evaluation points with health related examples.

MedlinePlus Portal to Health Information Evaluation Sources
Includes a tutorial from the National Library of Medicine, guides from the National Institutes of Health agencies, as well as guides to accurate health information on specific diseases.

Find Good Health Information (Medical Library Association)
Authoritative advice from librarians who search for reliable web based information every day. Guide includes effective use of search engines, evaluation points for web sites and four annotated lists of important sites for consumer health, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

Scholarly vs. Popular vs. Trade

Definitions:

Popular:  Inform and entertain the general public. Magazines like Time or Rolling Stone; or newspapers like the L.A. Times.  Written for a wide variety of readers.

Scholarly:  Disseminate research and academic discussion among professionals in a discipline.  Articles are written by researchers who are experts in their fields using the specialized terminology of the field.  Almost always include the institutional affiliation of the author and a list of references at the end of the article.  Usually peer reviewed.

Trade:  Allow practitioners in specific industries to share market and production information that improves their businesses.

 

Acknowledgement

Content on Scholarly Articles and Scholarly v. Popular courtesy of Naomi Gold.

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