LibGuides: Nursing Research: Getting Started: Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary Sources

A primary source in nursing is one that reports the original findings of a study or experiment. Usually written by the person(s) conducting the research.

Types of primary sources include:

Case studies
Clinical trials or randomized clinical trials (RCT)
Cohort studies
Dissertations or theses
Qualitative studies
Survey research

Searching for Primary Sources

CINAHL Ultimate
The new definitive resource for nursing and allied health research, providing full text for more of the most used journals in the CINAHL index than any other database. It covers more than 50 nursing specialties and includes quick lessons, evidence-based care sheets, CEU modules and research instruments.
Nursing & Allied Health Database
Nursing and allied health.
A ProQuest database | Part of ProQuest Central
PubMed (Medline)
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Free government database for all things medical.
Cochrane Library
(Use Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for primary sources)
A John Wiley database.

Secondary Sources

A secondary source is one that summarizes, synthesizes or comments on original research.Author(s) describe research done by others.

Types of secondary sources include:

Books
Clinical practice guidelines
Meta-analysis
Patient education material
Qualitative synthesis
Reviews of literature
Systematic reviews

Searching for Secondary Sources

CINAHL Ultimate
The new definitive resource for nursing and allied health research, providing full text for more of the most used journals in the CINAHL index than any other database. It covers more than 50 nursing specialties and includes quick lessons, evidence-based care sheets, CEU modules and research instruments.
Cochrane Library
(Use Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to find secondary sources)
A John Wiley database.
PubMed (Medline)
- This link opens in a new window
(Search Clinical Queries for secondary sources like systematic reviews)