Welcome to the Research Guide for NURT 110! Below is a review of everything you need to know to get started on your research project. If you need help, use the chat box in the lower right-hand corner of the screen or the contact information in the left-hand corner.

Different sources serve different purposes. In your research, you will draw on a variety of sources to ensure you have a quality research project. There are two ways we can classify sources, but type of data/information represented and by audience.

Scholarly Sources

Scholarly sources are written by researchers in a given field for scholars in a given field. Scholarly sources can take the form of journal articles or scholarly books, often called monographs. Scholarly sources are published through a process known as peer-review.

Primary Sources

A primary source is a scholarly source that discusses original research.

Secondary Source

Secondary sources can be scholarly or popular. Secondary sources summarize existing research. Scholarly secondary sources are often called "reviews" or "meta-analysis".

Popular and/or Web Sources

Popular or Web sources are written by journalists, researchers, government officials, members of the general public, and others with the audience of the general public in mind. Sometimes a source, like data from the WHO or FDA falls in a grey area between scholarly and popular sources. This is data that is published online, but the intended audience may be researchers or professionals in a given field. Information like this is not classified as "scholarly" because it is not published in a peer reviewed journal.

Learning Google search commands can help you find helpful sources when search in Google! Below are some particularly useful search commands: 

site

What it does: Searches within a specific site or domain. Useful for locating information from specific government organizations. Also useful for locating materials more generally from .gov or .edu domains. 

Examples: site:who.int or site:.gov

Notes: Be careful if searching for site:.edu. Not all websites that end in .edu are universities or other educational institutions, the domain can be used by anyone. 

Filetype

What it does: Searches for specific file types. Useful for looking for reports, white papers, working papers, or factsheets. 

Examples: filetype:pdf

Notes: There may be information you are missing if you limit to one filetype! 

Additional Examples

Example search: Lyme disease site:who.int filetype:pdf

What it retrieves: This search retrieves pdf files published to the web on the WHO website. 

Example search: bt corn site:usda.gov

What it retrieves: This search retrieves any information on bt corn on the USDA website. 

CARS

CARS is a checklist for evaluating websites

C - Credibility

• Is the creator/author named? What is their job? Are they a researcher, journalist, or something else?

A - Accuracy

• Is the website free of spelling errors, grammatical errors, dead links, or other problems?
• Does the article have a publication date? Does the publication date align with the requirements for your assignment?

R - Reasonableness

• Who created the website?
• Does the website avoid advertising that does not seem appropriate?

S - Support

• Is there a bibliography or sources listed? In journalistic content this can look like naming sources and hyperlinks.