Evidence Based Nursing

Look for these elements when you're evaluating an article to confirm that it's peer reviewed: 

• Article Title: Usually rather lengthy, includes technical terms and methodologies. 
• Author(s) & their credentials: In addition to their names, you may also see author's credentials. This includes information about where they work/teach, their degrees, and contact information. It is include to help establish their authority. 
• Abstract: A brief summary of the article-Often divided into the same sections as the article text. Readers use abstracts to quickly determine if the article will help meet their information needs. 
• Article Text: The actual text of the article is usually divided sections with headings: Introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. There are frequently also charts and other visual representations of data. 
• References: You'll find in-text or footnotes throughout an academic article and a lengthy list of corresponding citations at the end of a scholarly article. These references are there to connect a scholarly article to the larger field of research and demonstrate the evidence and other research that the work is based on. References can be a great place to look for additional resources.