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Evidence-Based Practice: Sources and Evidence

Types of Scholarly Sources and Citation

There are several types of scholarly articles: qualitative vs. quantitative methodology, reports of a single research study, randomized control trials, reviews of the literature, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, etc. This page gives examples of three types of scholarly articles (qualitative, quantitative, and systematic review) and the Levels of Evidence pyramid.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Levels of Evidence and Systematic Reviews

Pyramid: Levels of Evidence as defined Gallagher-Ford (2018)

Systematic reviews are the highest level of evidence. They can be found in most scholarly Nursing databases such as CINAHL Ultimate and Ovid Nursing, and make up a significant component of the Joanna Briggs Evidence-Based Practice Database. See the Databases tab on the Nursing Resources guide for more on these databases.