This assessment help page assumes you have read the course outline, assessment description and marking rubric provided in Moodle. Assessment instructions, marking guidelines and lecturer advice override any advice on this page.
Assessment 1: A critical review
The article must be:
Assessment 2a: Project report
Findings:
Assessment 2b: Project presentation
Publishing without peer review - articles are submitted, selected and possibly modified by the editor, and published.
Publishing with peer review - submitted articles are reviewed by other experts in the field before being accepted for publication.
In this assessment, you may need to conduct multiple searches in order to address the patient's symptoms, health issues and goals, as well as relevant characteristics, such as their age or gender.
Start planning your search by:
| Key concepts | Alternative terms |
| pregnant (Who - Population) | pregnancy, prenatal, antenatal, expectant, gravid, trimester |
| ginger (What - Concept) | zingiber (Note: genus name, Zingiber officinale) |
| "morning sickness" (Outcome - Context) | nausea, vomiting, emesis, "hyperemesis gravidarum" |
Now use Boolean operators to connect your search terms.
Use OR to combine all the terms for the same concept: mental health OR wellbeing
Use AND to combine terms from different concepts: mental health AND support
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase: "mental health"
Use brackets to group all terms from the same concept together
Watch the following video to learn more about Boolean operators
When you put it together:
(pregnan* OR prenatal OR antenatal OR expect* OR gravid OR trimester) AND (ginger OR zingiber) AND ("morning sickness" OR nause* OR vomit* OR "hyperemesis gravidarum")
You will probably need to alter your search terms as you go.
Suggested databases for this assignment are:
Break down your question into concepts (mostly the nouns).
e.g. Discuss how climate change might affect coffee production
This might be broken down into three concepts:
Add each one to a separate concept box. Add new concept boxes as needed
Concept 1:
Concept 2:
Library QuickSearch - items on the shelves or in the Library's electronic collections and subscriptions
Use AND and OR (in upper case) and parentheses to define your search.
Use this to remember and automatically re-apply filters (e.g. date range) when you change your search.
Restricts results to content from peer-reviewed journals (mostly articles, but possibly book reviews and other content).
Set the year range for your results and click Refine.
Icon indicates this item is from a peer reviewed journal.
When was this source published?
How old are the references and data used?
Has this source, or its data, been updated?
Does this type of information get updated?
Is there likely to be more recent information available elsewhere?
Is this information relevant to your assignment? Is there likely to be better information?
Is this aimed at the correct audience?
Who wrote it? What are their qualifications?
Where do they work? Who do they work for?
Are they likely to have a good understanding of this field?
Is the information reliable?
Can you find the original source?
What is the quality of the presentation? Are there significant errors?
Do the conclusions match the data?
Have all sides been considered?
Why has the article been written?
Is there any obvious bias? Is the author or their employer likely to get a benefit out of the recommendations?
Is it recommending a particular course of action or therapy? Does the data support this? Are any alternatives considered?
When answering clinical questions, you need to use the highest level of evidence possible. In the diagram below, evidence that is higher up the pyramid is of higher quality i.e., systematic reviews (secondary research).
Hover over each level of the evidence pyramid for more detail
To learn more about levels of evidence, click on the links below:
Joanna Briggs Institute. (2013). JBI levels of evidence. JBI. https://jbi.global/sites/default/files/2019-05/JBI-Levels-of-evidence_2014_0.pdf
More explanation:
Joanna Briggs Institute Levels of Evidence and Grades of Recommendation Working Party. (2014). Supporting document for the Joanna Briggs Institute levels of evidence and grades of recommendation. JBI. https://jbi.global/sites/default/files/2019-05/JBI%20Levels%20of%20Evidence%20Supporting%20Documents-v2.pdf
Nice tabular summary of the JBI levels of evidence:
JBI, & University of Adelaide. (2021). JBI EBP database guide. Wolters Kluwer. https://ospguides.ovid.com/OSPguides/jbidb.htm
Secondary research appraises the quality of original research studies, summarises the findings, and often makes recommendations for practice. However, secondary research is not always available, and searching for primary research such as randomised control trials may be required.
| Secondary research | Primary research |
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| Secondary study-type examples | Primary study-type examples |
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Checklists Use the following checklists to help decide if an article is primary or secondary research. |
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In secondary research, you will probably see:
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In primary research, you will probably see:
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If you are interested in finding out more, the following article is old, but has some great questions to ask yourself when reading primary research, and is easy to read.
There are a number of tools and checklists researchers use to appraise studies that you can look at for a more detailed way of evaluation..
ebook:
Appraising qualitative research articles:
Côté, L. (2005). Appraising qualitative research articles in medicine and medical education.
Critical appraisal of Indigenous research:
Harfield, S., Pearson, O., Morey, K., Kite, E., Canuto, K., Glover, K., Gomersall, J. S., Carter, D., Davy, C., Aromataris, E., & Braunack-Mayer, A. (2020). Assessing the quality of health research from an Indigenous perspective: the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander quality appraisal tool. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 20(1), 1-9. https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-020-00959-3
Lock, M. J., Walker, T., & Browne, J. (2021). Promoting cultural rigour through critical appraisal tools in First Nations peoples’ research. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 45(3), 210–211. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.13097
The following resources (from the Learning Skills Advisers)) might be helpful for creating your assignment.
The following video has been created by the Library to step you through the referencing process if you are new to FedCite.
Please refer to the common midwifery sources page of this LibGuide to aid in referencing some of the more frequently used nursing literature such as the NMBA Standards.
Use the Journal article section of FedCite to reference the peer reviewed articles you use. Remember the Using APA7 section has information about what to do if the article doesn't quite fit into the template, such as if there is no DOI, or if you have two articles by the same author.
Lots of examples, instructions, and tips on citing and referencing. To get started, click on your style. Expand any line with a
These "Quick Guides" have been created by the Learning Skills Advisors.
See also the Study Skills Referencing page.
For quick help during Semester, contact the Peer Support team.
Alternatively, book an appointment for more in-depth individual help from a Learning Skills Advisor.
Drag the pieces in order into the box below. After each drag, click to de-select the dragged text (inside or outside the target box).
Template: Author. (Year). Article title. Journal, volume(issue), pages. DOI
Example:
Doe, J. (2024). Referencing journal articles: A librarian's view. Journal of Librarian Pettifoggery, 273(5), 345-372. https://doi.org/10.54321.lib.pet.273.5.
Click the Test button to check how it turned out.
Note: no italics or hanging indent will be used in this test, so the result is not fully compliant with APA 7th edition.
Does not work in Internet Explorer (does work in Edge), time to update your web browser.
Click on any part of the reference for a description and/or brief tips.
Smith, A. B., & Jones, C. (2022). Correlation of chocolate intake with librarian effectiveness: A scoping review. Journal of Library Stuff, 23(3), 245-253. https://doi.org/10.1298uwu.woiej/23.3.245
If you are using a Mac, you will usually have to use the Command or Apple key instead of Ctrl.
Ctrl+T - adds a hanging indent to the selected paragraphs (or references)
(Remember, for a Mac using
If you accidentally indent too far, use Shift+Ctrl+T to unindent (Shift+Cmd+T on a Mac)
Sorting by A-Z - Word has a feature to sort selected lines or paragraphs (or references) alphabetically. Select your references, and click the A-Z button on the Home tab.
Note: if you don't select your references first, all the paragraphs in your essay will be sorted alphabetically - this is a bad thing, select your references first.
Changing case - Word has a feature (look for the Aa button) to change case, so you can quickly change a title to correct sentence case.
(Hint: Ctrl+click will select a whole sentence, which often is enough to select a book or journal article title)
You may also need to manually edit it afterwards to start a sub-title with a capital letter.
Ctrl+A - select All
Ctrl+C - Copy
Ctrl+V - paste (think of V = or put it here)
For easier selecting : If you have a laptop touchpad and selecting text is awkward, just put your cursor where you want to start selecting, then (instead of using the touchpad) hold down Shift and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to "drag out" the area of selection.
