Evidence-Based Practice for Nurses

headings can be identified, and limiters can be altered to increase or decrease
the search results. When a reasonable number of results has been achieved,
you are ready to begin skimming abstracts of the articles. If the results are not
relevant, try using a different database.

Match the following:

1. Boolean operator a.?


2. Wildcard b. Near, same, and adj


3. Stopwords c. Or, and, and not


4. Qualification d. au, ti, or su


5. Positional operator e. for, this, and to

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE 4-4

How did you do? 1. c; 2. a; 3. e; 4. d; 5. b

4.5 Keeping It Ethical

At the end of this section, you will be able to:

‹ Consider the ethical presentation and application of evidence

The phrase “give credit where credit is due” is familiar to most individuals. Few
places more stringently apply the concept of attribution than the university
setting does. For those new to academic writing, the reference list and citing of
sources within papers are confusing and are often considered purposeless tasks
imposed by the professor. Often, the citation of references is the last thing done
when deadlines are approaching. Consequently, not much thought is given to
the importance of attributing information to appropriate sources.

Citations of sources provide acknowledgments of others’ ideas and contribu-
tions to the subject. Ideas are owned by those individuals who first wrote about
them. For example, when you submit a paper to a professor, you have created
a piece of original work. No one else has written about the topic in quite the
same way, used the same sources in the same way, or drawn conclusions in
the same way.

It is considered plagiarism to use another’s work without giving proper
credit. Plagiarism occurs when ideas from others are used without proper

KEY TERM

plagiarism: The

use of another’s

work without giving

proper credit

4.5 Keeping It Ethical 123