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Library Resource Guides: Finding journal articles

Finding reliable sources & assignment help guides

Many university and TAFE library's have dedicated Nursing and Midwifery LibGuides (Library Resource Guides) to assist with assignment writing

Searching Grey Literature

                             Copyright © Dunk 2005 

Grey literature* is generally considered material not published commercially or indexed by major databases (black literature).

It is not usually peer-reviewed, but can be good, reliable information.  It can appear in many forms, including government or technical reports, discussion papers, statistics, conference proceedings and policy documents.

*The term 'grey' refers to the uncertainty of the status of this information.

Public Health and Social Care resources

Policy Commons

Policy Commons: hard-to-find public health collection

The ANMF (Vic Branch) librarian has secured limited access for members to the Public Health and Social Care resources in the Policy Commons database. This collection includes grey literature (not commercially published) not usually indexed in traditional health databases – for instance, research studies, case reports, policy statements, guidelines and manuals from healthcare organisations and official bodies including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and more. Members can access the collection until April 2025 by logging into the ANMF Education Portal (education.anmfvic.asn.au).

Why can't I just Google it?

Information is everywhere! It's just so easy to Google and use something that looks relevant... so why cant you just Google?

From RMIT University Library (2019), this animation provides key points about why you need to be critical when finding information on the internet.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar can be a good place to start if you are unfamiliar with a subject area.

Use Google Scholar search tips to refine results.

Google Scholar Search

Set up your Library Links in Google Scholar.

  • Click on settings and select library links.
  • In the text box, e.g., type in, for example, clinicians and select 'Clinicians Health Channel (CHC) - Full-Text @ CHC'.
  • Click save.

Results will mostly be citations with no full text.

Do not pay for any articles, always check with the Library.

Article FAQs

What are scholarly & peer reviewed journals?

Scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles are written by someone with expert knowledge or academic qualifications, are evidence-based, include references and are aimed at a scholarly audience. 

The articles go through an extensive editorial process before publication, and are therefore of a very high quality. Not all scholarly journals are peer-reviewed.

Highly-ranked journals in CINAHL

SCImago Journal Rank attempts to provide objective rankings of journal titles according to their influence in the scholarly community. SCImago ranks journals based on the impact of papers they publish, accounting for the number of citations received and the ranking of journals where these citations came from. While ranking systems based on citation data rather than judgment are inevitably flawed ( Hicks & Wolters, 2015), SCImago still provides a good overview of the most highly regarded journal titles according to discipline, sub-discipline and country. Provided are links to the highest ranked nursing journals  nationally and internationally.

CINAHL Ultimate offers full-text of these following highly-ranked nursing & midwifery journals:

  • Australasian Journal on Ageing
  • Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing
  • Australian Journal of Cancer Nursing
  • Breastfeeding Review
  • British Journal of Midwifery
  • British Journal of Nursing
  • British Journal of Community Nursing
  • Contemporary Nurse
  • Health Expectation
  • International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
  • Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand
  • Maternal & Child Health Journal (with 12-month delay)
  • Nursing Praxis in Aotearoa New Zealand
  • Nursing Standard
  • Nursing Times
  • Oncology Nursing Forum (with 12-month delay)
  • and many more...

Looking for quality open access sources?

What is Open Access?

Open access (OA) means unrestricted online access to peer-reviewed scholarly research. Open Access is primarily intended for scholarly journal articles, but is also provided for a growing number of theses, book chapters and scholarly monographs

Try the following tools or resources to assist in locating quality versions of peer-reviewed journal articles.

Peer reviewed open access journal titles:

NSQHS Standards - Live Literature Searches

Looking for evidence to support best practice in line with the Australian National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards?

A PubMed live search will find articles from the last 5 years with a focus on the hospital setting. Click on 'more search options' in any box for specific subsets including: broader coverage of the topic, Australian focus, or Reviews

Evaluating information using the CRAAP test

University of South Australia explains how to evaluate websites using the CRAAP test (Study Help: Evaluating Information, 2017)

Trust it or trash it?

Free online tool to encourage critical thinking about the quality of health information

Predatory journals

Predatory journals and publishers offer open-access publication in exchange for fees with a lack of robust peer review process. 

Health information literacy

The scale of COVID-19 and the presence of misleading information requires nurses and midwives to exercise their professional responsibility to identify and spread accurate information. (Bin Naeem, Bhatti & Khan, 2020)

For more assistance finding quality articles see the Finding journal articles online library resource guide

A game of misinformation and proganda

Think you have what it takes to be a master of misinformation? Try your hand with our interactive game! It's designed to get you thinking about misinformation and propaganda, what they mean and the impact they can have. Designed by Luke Watsford at Deakin University