NURS/HSCI 3061 (SJ/SJ) Guide Ask Us

Finding credible, scholarly sources

For this assignment your information need is finding out more about a specific challenge with the Canadian health care system. Your assignment details tell you to find credible sources, including a mix of peer reviewed research articles and credible web or text-based sources. 

 Reminders:

• Keep in mind Canadian healthcare information will be found at different levels (federal, provincial, municipal or organizational/hospital), so you may need to look in multiple places depending on your topic.
• Not all the information you need will be publicly available - think about hospital statistics/reports and the need to ensure patient privacy and confidentiality. 
• Not everything will have recent stats/data about it - try to find the most recent data available, but know some may be from 5-10 years ago, and that's okay.

Data, statistics, and reports - credible web sources

• Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) - data and reports
• Statistics Canada - health statistics | by subject | analysis (reports from survey data)
• Health Canada - Health inequities data tool
• National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health - knowledge resources & publications 
• Health (Government Information) Guide with more links to specific federal and provincial health sources

Creative googling

• Try searching on your topic in Google adding words like - statistics, data, report, CIHI, Statcan - to your topic, sometimes one word brings back totally different results
• Weed out the results that are news articles, or otherwise don't meet your "credible & scholarly" criteria - likely need to click into it to identify what it is. 
  •  News articles can be a useful place to start with your research though, and can often point to recent surveys or reports, which you can then look up as the source to use.

Databases for credible, peer reviewed research articles & statistics

Here are a few database search tips to find relevant information on your topics:

• Look in more than one database -many of your topics are researched by different disciplines, like psychology, social work, gerontology, and even business. Consider searching in the health databases but also one of the other subject specific databases listed for another perspective.
• Finding Canada-specific information can be challenging - try adding Canad* as a keyword, and limiting your keywords to only search in the title or abstract of the records

• Watch this video by Richelle Witherspoon (nursing librarian in Fredericton) for more tips on searching for Canadian-specific articles

How can I tell if I found a peer-reviewed research article?

• Most articles you find in a database are published in a peer-reviewed journal, but not all articles have been peer-reviewed
• You want to look for articles that have headings like, Methods, Results, Discussion, and are more than 1-2 pages in length. These are describing research, and have gone through the peer review process.
• One tool you can use is Ulrichsweb. Use this to search for the journal title and if the title is there, look for this icon  which indicates the journal is refereed (aka peer reviewed). You can also visit the journal's homepage and look for their About, Editorial, Author, Publication pages for wording that indicates the journal has a peer review process.

 Note: Not everything published in a peer review journal has gone through the peer review process. Journals regularly publish editorials, book reviews, commentaries, etc. (usually only a few pages in length which can be a good indication that your "article" hasn't been peer reviewed and isn't the type of article you should use). Consult your instructor or librarian if you're still unsure after checking whether your article has been peer reviewed.

Here's a video that explains what the peer-review process is, and how to find these types of articles:

USC Libraries. (2020, July 29). Identify a peer review article. 2:45mins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnI9pyW89dY 

Finding health systems information for various countries:

• Start with some "creative googling" - Wikipedia can be a great source for a general overview of a country's health system to help decide which one to compare to Canada
  • Looking at the references can also point you to credible sources to consult for more information. Wikipedia is useful for background reading, but not something you cite in your academic papers.

 These are credible websites you can use to search for information about countries you're considering:

• WHO Country Profiles (2020)
• Commonwealth Fund: International health care system profiles (2020)
• Health of Canadians Statistics Canada report (2023)
• OECD Health publications
  • OECD Country Health Profiles 2021 
  • OECD Health at a Glance 2021
  • OECD Health at a Glance: Europe 2022
  • OECD Health Statistics 2023
  • EU Country Cancer Profiles 2023
• OECD Data
• WHO Health System Review by country (various dates, check other sources for more current info as needed)
• Also consider finding the government or official healthcare website for your country
  • Example: Canadian health statistics can be found through StatCan, government websites, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Each province will have specific data too, as will professional associations or societies, like the Canadian Medical Society's Physician Data Centre
  • This may require more "creative googling" depending on what info you're trying to find and evaluating the website to determine whether it's credible (ask for help if you're not sure!)

Statista is another credible resource UNB Libraries subscribes to help you find statistics/data on health and health systems from different countries:

Within Statista you can try the following:

• Keyword search in the general search box (example: Canada health)
• Look under Reports > Countries > Filter by Country then check out the dossier for that country
• Search under Statistics > All industries > Health, Pharm, Medtech > State of Health > Global health for other types of information

Here's a video with a quick demo of using Statista to find health systems info:

Tips on finding comparison information:

You'll likely need to be creative searching for info that compares Canada with your chosen country. There may not be the perfect article comparing them both but there may be other comparative articles that include both Canada and your country, or one or the other.

• Canadian Institute for Health Information International Comparisons is one credible website you can consult

Try searching in Google Scholar or specific health databases listed below:

 Finding scholar articles is going to be a challenge for this topic, as many won't include both countries, or will be dated, or won't cover the specific aspect you're looking for. You'll need to playing around with keywords such as "comparing health systems", Canada AND (your country) compared. Even then you may have to stop searching for comparative info and search on your individual country and the aspects you're hoping to compare with Canada and do your own synthesis of this information.

This video provides some tips on how to approach searching for articles for this assignment:

Finding Canadian journal articles:

• Canadian Content Searching: A brief introduction to how to find Canadian information from reliable sources
• Searching in databases to locate Canadian-specific research is tricky and often challenging. Try using keywords like Canada, Canadian, or Canad* - this will find Canada, Canadians, Canadian, etc. But note, not everything that comes up will be Canadian info - many Canadian researchers work on non-Canadian projects but their info comes up in a database search.

Citing Different Types of Sources

The APA Publication Manual provides guidance for citing different kinds of information, including reports, government documents, statistics, and other types of sources you'll find on websites. You'll find examples of these in Chapter 10: Reference Examples, particularly these sections:

• 10.4 Reports and Gray Literature pg. 329
• 10.9 Data sets pg. 337
• 10.16 Webpages and Websites pg. 350

If you're unsure of whether the source should be cited as a website or as a report or something else, take a look at the examples within this chapter to see what looks most appropriate for your source. If you're still stuck feel free to reach out to me or your instructor. 

Other guides for citing government documents and statistics:

• APA Style (from Purdue Online Writing Lab)
• Brief Guide to Citing Canadian Government Documents and Statistics (from Queen's University)
• How to Cite Statistics Canada Products (from Statistics Canada)
  • Example: Statistics Canada. (2021). Table 21-10-0011-01 Commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing, sales by type of client [Data table]. https://doi.org/10.25318/2110001101-eng
• Citing Statista: Statista is a statistics portal that brings together data/information from 18,000 different sources. If Statista notes a source, then the source should be used as the author.
  • Example: Marketplace Pulse. (2020, June). Most popular categories among handmade Etsy sellers worldwide as of June 2020, by share of sellers [Graph]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1019956/global-leading-categories-handmade-etsy-sellers/