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NURS 100: Introduction to Nursing

Nursing Faculty: Cheryl Buchanan, Fall Semester 2024

How do I find the Author's Credentials?

For our Career Interest Paper, when using CINAHL, we can limit our search to works written by authors who are nurses.

An author's educational credentials (e.g. RN, BSN, or MSN, PhD) can also appear in many different places for different journals. Places that credentials can be found includes, but is not limited to

  • after the author's name  on the title page,
  • in the footnotes of the first page,
  • in another block of information that describes the affiliation of the authors usually on the first page, or
  • on the last page before the references.
  • Look for the IMRaD elements in Peer-Reviewed Articles

    Primary research articles (also called research articles) contain firsthand information or original data on a topic that is not interpreted, evaluated, or analyzed.  These articles also include components or a variation of these components: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (known as the IMRaD format). 
    Primary research articles are usually peer-reviewed (
    i.e. article was critically evaluated by experts in the field before accepted for publication).

    Determining if an article is peer-reviewed

    How do I know if it is Peer Reviewed?