Nursing Research Guide

Types of Articles

There are several different types of articles related to nursing:

• Original Research: Professionals conducted their own research study and collected original data.

• Review: Gives an overview of existing literature and identifies themes and gaps. These can be literature reviews, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses.

• Case Studies: Describe real patient cases.

• Clinical Trials: Research studies that explore whether a medical strategy, treatment, or device is safe and effective for humans. These studies also may show which medical approaches work best for certain illnesses or groups of people.

• Opinion & Commentary: Professional opinions about studies or practices in the field. Usually offer constructive criticism.

Parts of a Research Article

• Abstract - A short summary of the study and the conclusions made.

• Introduction - Discusses the problem(s) addressed in the article and gives background information.

• Literature Review - Summarizes previous studies/articles written about the same topic.

• Methodology - Describes the research design in enough detail that the experiment could be replicated.

• Results - Explanation of the data collected during the study.

• Discussion/Conclusions - Analysis of the results and thoughts on whether or not further study is needed.

• References - Sources used by the author to conduct the study or the literature review.