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Posts tagged ‘Heather Carter-Templeton’

Aug 10

Exploring the Accuracy of Cited References


The current featured ANS article is titled “Exploring the Accuracy of Cited References in a Selected Data Set of Nursing Journal Articles” authored by Leslie H. Nicoll, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN; Marilyn H. Oermann, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN; Heather Carter-Templeton, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN; Jordan Wrigley, MSLS, MA; and Jacqueline K. Owens, PhD, RN, CNE. Head on over to the ANS website and download this article while it is featured and share your comments here. Dr. Nicoll shared this message about this project:

Leslie H. Nicoll

I heard Karin Kirchhoff speak at a conference almost 40 years ago on the topic of accuracy of reference in nursing journals. This topic has been on my mind ever since and I have always used her original research as a benchmark for accuracy. Our study shows that accuracy has improved dramatically over the past four decades. We found low error rates overall and only 1.3% of references (8 out of 666) could not be retrieved at all. I attribute much of this change to electronic resources for searching, retrieval, and reference management, at both the local and global level. This is a very positive finding.

One thing that struck me, as I sorted through and carefully looked at actual citations, is how little the format has changed, even though the type and location of sources has changed dramatically. APA style was first introduced in 1929 and at that time they asked for the author name(s), article title, journal title, year, volume, and page numbers. At that time, those guidelines probably sufficed for the vast majority of citations, except for maybe the occasional dissertation or reference to a legal citation. Now, almost 100 years later we are basically using the same format, with the addition of the DOI. However, how and where we retrieve information is vastly different. Print journals are no longer the norm; in fact, it is probably safe to say that journal articles are no longer the primary source for information. They share the stage with reports, white papers, policy briefs, legislative documents, blogs, dissertations, fugitive literature and more. Does this 100 year old APA format really work to provide accurate and concise information to retrieve a citation anymore? Maybe it is time to rethink what exactly needs to be included in a citation and make it as streamlined and versatile as possible. Scholars, authors, and students need to be able to move beyond styling references as part of their authorial activity. It’s tedious and time consuming and at this point, provides very little added value. Time to call for a reference citation revolution!

May 5

Database Integrity


The first ANS featured article in the newly released Volume 44:2 is titled “Integrity of Databases for Literature Searches in Nursing Avoiding Predatory Journals” authored by Marilyn H. Oermann, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN; Jordan Wrigley, MA, MSLS; Leslie H. Nicoll, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN; Leila S. Ledbetter, MLIS, AHIP; Heather Carter-Templeton, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN; and Alison H. Edie, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC. The article is published open access, which means it is available at no cost from the date of publication going forward. Here is an informative explanation of this article by co-author and librarian Jordan Wrigley – followed by the transcript of her video.

Jordan’s narrative for the ANS Blog

Librarians and information professionals are valuable collaborators in data-based research where intimate understanding of the “behind the scenes” aspects of digital systems and human-information interaction are needed. This may include bibliometrics, metadata, meta-analyses, text mining, and content analysis among others. Librarians are also experts in understanding information-seeking behaviors and often facilitate research literacies including efficient literature searching and evaluation.

This project combined several of these aspects in the context of nursing publication. The goal of this project was to identify to what extent articles originating from potentially predatory and low-quality journals were penetrating databases commonly searched by nursing scholars and students. To achieve this, novel data collection strategies were required to create an original dataset. This included use of unique searching syntax across multiple databases and triangulation with authoritative sources to confirm data validation.

To create the dataset that would be the basis of this manuscript, I created a search algorithm based on journal metadata, such as International Standard Serial Number or ISSN, in one database. Then I translated it to the syntax of other databases. However, because low-quality journals do not consistently participate in processes such as ISSN registration, this dataset also required merging ISSN data with other metadata including journal titles, dates of publication, and publisher. Automated digital processes in databases are also imperfect, sometimes allowing low-quality articles to slip in through non-typical means such as being referenced in valid studies. This also needed to be accounted for in the dataset. The final dataset for this article allowed the team to make informed recommendations for nursing teaching faculty when facilitating research literacies as well as clinicians and researchers when considering where to search for literature.

Data- and digitally-intensive research is often more nuanced and complicated than it first seems. There is an endless amount of data to be used to inform research and teaching practices in nursing as well as other fields. Librarians and information professionals have intimate knowledge of the “behind the scenes” of data and human-information interaction. Please consider engaging a librarian or information professional as a collaborator in a research project to identify the potential unexplored areas of data-based research. Thank you for watching or listening to this video and, to learn more about our team’s findings based on this dataset, have a read of our “Integrity of Databases for Literature Searches in Nursing: Avoiding Predatory Journals” in Advances in Nursing Science.