*Nursing Resources

Off-campus (anywhere except the Indianapolis campus) access to library resources is provided through a proxy server.  To access them from home or some other off-campus location:

1. Go to the library's web site or a LibGuide.
2. Click on a database or e-journal resource.  A Marian University login page will display.
3. Enter your Marian user name and password (ones used for your Marian e-mail account).  The system will connect to the resource.

If you have problems with off-campus access, make sure your browser software is up-to-date and able to accept cookies. Also, confirm that your network firewall settings allow access to the library’s web site.

LibKey Nomad is a browser add-on that facilitates access to articles available through Library subscriptions. It links our catalog to publisher web sites to show when the Library has a subscription and if not, to point you to other ways to access an article. And because it is a browser tool, you will know if an article is available before you have to log in.

Nomad can be downloaded from their Download page. 

Once LibKey Nomad is installed, you will be prompted to select an institution. Type marian in the box then click on Marian University to complete the process.

Note:

While Google Scholar has a familiar interface, is relatively simple to use and can be an excellent resource, there are certain limits to be aware of:

• Google Scholar does not provide criteria for what constitutes "scholarly" results
• The Advanced Search options are limited. There are not limits for:
  • Peer Reviewed
  • Full-text
  • Discipline (it is like searching all databases at once, there are more efficient ways to search)
• Google Scholar does not provide notice of when materials are updated

The Nursing database CINAHL has options to limit to articles authored by a nurse. This limit was added in the summer of 2010 so can only be used for articles published since then. 

To activate the limiter:

1. Connect to the CINAHL database
2. Enter your search terms and click Search
3. On the left side of the results page, in the Limit To section click the box for Any Author is Nurse 
4. Your Search will automatically be updated

Here is a video tutorial of using CINAHL to search for articles by nurses.

If the "Any Author is a Nurse" limit does not work for you, you have to look at the full-text of articles to determine if the author is a nurse. This is usually on the first page of the article and may be noted by degrees (CRNA, MSN, RN etc...) after the name or in an "about the authors" section. Some journals do not provide this information at all. 

Please Note: There are not necessarily articles published/written by a nurse on your topic! If you follow the directions on this page -- it is possible your search results in zero results. You may have to broaden your search, choose another aspect of your topic, or ultimately change your topic altogether.

PubMed does not have a limiter for articles authored by a nurse. However, you can construct a search for nurse authors.

1. Connect to PUBMED
2. In the search box type (copy and paste) the following exactly:

"RN"[ad] OR "CRNA"[ad] OR "MSN"[ad] OR "APRN"[ad] OR "CNS"[ad] OR "DNP"[ad] OR "NP"[ad] OR "nursing"[ad] AND [your search term]

3. Replace [your search term] with your search term
4. Click Search

So for example, if you wanted to search Pubmed for nurse authored articles on Patient Falls your search would look like this: 

"RN"[ad] OR "CRNA"[ad] OR "MSN"[ad] OR "APRN"[ad] OR "CNS"[ad] OR "DNP"[ad] OR "NP"[ad] OR "nursing"[ad] AND Patient Falls

Here is a video tutorial of using CINAHL/PubMed to search for articles by nurses.

This will search the Author Description field and any author that includes RN in their credentials will show up. It is up to you as the researcher to be sure that the authors are indeed nurses while searching in Pubmed.

Please Note: There are not necessarily articles published/written by a nurse on your topic! If you follow the directions on this page -- it is possible your search results in zero results. You may have to broaden your search, choose another aspect of your topic, or ultimately change your topic altogether.

Standard components of a research article:

A research article can often be identified by its format. Typically, it will have many of the following components, with labeled headings:

Author credentials: Author's degree(s), professional affiliations

Abstract: Brief description of the contents of the article

Literature review: Reviews the existing literature about or related to the subject of the research article

Methodology: Explains the research question and methodology for data collection

Results: Explains the results of the research, often includes charts/graphs

Conclusion: Sums up entire project, indicates areas for future study

Reference bibliography: Bibliographic citations for all resources cited in the research article

There are publishers who are taking advantage of the need and desire of authors to publish and they engage in what is called Predatory Publishing. These publishers will make the promises of legitimate publishers, but they fail to deliver. Their biggest offense is skipping the peer review process (even though they may state otherwise). The problem is that these publishers are degrading the body of scientific literature. Their journals may have articles with no scientific merit or skipped steps in the research process.

Spotting an article from a predatory publisher can be difficult and relies a lot on your being a conscientious researcher. Some tips for avoiding these articles include:

• Use a library database that allows you to limit searches to Peer-Reviewed articles
• Look at the journal's title, does it combine topics that don't normally go together (e.g. International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology)
• Visit the journal's web page
  • Is the contact page just a web form, is it missing information on the publisher's location?
  • Does the site look dated or not well maintained (dead links, spelling and grammatical errors)?
  • Is there excessive advertising and/or the advertising interferes with viewing the content/navigation of the site? If it looks like clickbait, it probably is.
  • Is the publisher's contact email from a free provider (e.g. @gmail.com, @aol.com, @hotmail.com)
  • Is the publisher promising a quick turn-around? (the peer-review/publishing process usually takes months)
• Check the journal titles against lists like Beall's List or Quackwatch