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Nutrition: Overview

Quick links to databases, and getting help

Quick links to:   PubMed     CINAHL     PsycINFO     SPORTDiscus     Web of Science     Google Scholar

Need help? I'm available: email wiswellj@, Zoom, chat, appointment.  Make appointment (in person Levine or LIbrary, or Zoom).  Email if these times don't work.

Getting Full Text!

Our Find@ASU button in our article databases takes you to electronic full text, if we have it. 

Find@ASU button that tries to take you to full text

Still not getting full text?  Many full text articles are available for free in some form.  If you have a distinct article title or a DOI, try a quick search in Google Scholar (and Google).  We also have ILLiad to get articles from other libraries. 

Additional pages in this guide

Best databases for Nutrition research

More useful databases

Evidence-Based Practice Databases

Contact -- John Wiswell

John Wiswell  
Health Sciences Librarian
wiswellj@appstate.edu       
Click here for an appointment.  Contact me by email if these times do not work.
Levine Hall 542F & Belk Library 225  (828)262-7853
Available for students, faculty, and staff. 

ADA's Nutrition Care Manuals

August 2021 -- I think we still have a limit of 5 simultaneous users for each of these manuals.  Please close them when you're not actively using them.  --JW

Recognizing original research articles

Most of the peer-reviewed articles you'll find using PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, APPsearch, CINAHL, and other search interfaces will be original or primary research.  Not all.  You'll often see reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses (and maybe evidence summaries, guidelines, or position statements).  You might also see editorials, commentary, news.    All these are not considered original or primary.

Look for the standard format: short introduction, methods, results, and conclusions.  If your article is in this format, it's not editorials, commentary, news.  It's probably original research.  But,

Look for terms like these, especially in the title or abstract: review, systematic review, meta-analysis, evidence summary, guideline, or position statement.  If you don't see those, it's almost certainly original research.

Look for the standardized format, especially whether there is a Methods or Methodology section.  Then look for the terms like review.  If you see a methods section and you cannot see the article described as a review (or similar), it's probably original.

This is a very simplified approach, so please fell free to ask me to look at any articles with you.  John Wiswell, wiswellj@appstate.edu .

 

 

More details, if you need them

One additional area of confusion is this.  Some original research articles use data collected systematically by governments and other entities.  Other original research articles are based on original data, data that's not collected or measured or described elsewhere.  But original research does not have to have to start with original data.

Note that in some journals like the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, original research is labelled "Original Research."  (This journal has an unusually high proportion of articles that are not original, but they're pretty well labelled.)

Original research where researchers collect or create their own data

Frymark, E. E., Stickford, J. L., & Farris, A. R. (2020). A Nutritional and Environmental Analysis of Local Food Pantries Accessible to College Students in Rural North Carolina. Journal of Appalachian Health, 2(2), 24–35. http://muse.jhu.edu/article/761234    Link to full text
Original research where researchers use already collected data
Bouldin, E. D., Vandenberg, A., Roy, M., Hege, A., Zwetsloot, J. J., & Howard, J. S. (2020). Prevalence and domains of disability within and outside Appalachian North Carolina: 2013–2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Disability and Health Journal, 13(2), 100879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2019.100879   Link to full text
Not original research -- These researchers find and review original research done by others.
Thompson, K. L., Chung, M., Handu, D., Gutschall, M., Jewell, S. T., Byham-Gray, L., & Parrott, J. S. (2019). The Effectiveness of Nutrition Specialists on Pediatric Weight Management Outcomes in Multicomponent Pediatric Weight Management Interventions: A Systematic Review and Exploratory Meta-Analysis. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 119(5), 799-817.e43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2018.12.008   Link to full text