Research Guides: Nurses of USC: Research Instruments

About Research Instruments

Research instruments are measurement tools, such as questionnaires, scales, and surveys, that researchers use to measure variables in research studies.
In most cases, it is better use a previously validated instrument rather than create one from scratch.
Always evaluate instruments for relevancy, validity, and reliability.
Many older yet relevant, valid and reliable instruments are still popular today. It is time consuming and costly to validate instruments, so re-using instruments is common and helpful for connecting your study with an existing body of research.
Although you can conduct an internet search to find research instruments on publisher and organization websites, library databases are usually the best resources for identifying relevant, validated and reliable research instruments.
Locating instruments takes time and requires you to follow multiple references until you reach the source.
Databases provide information about instruments, but they do not provide access to the instruments themselves.
In most cases, to access and use the actual instruments, you must contact the author or purchase the instrument from the publisher.
In many cases, you will have to pay a fee to use the instrument.
Even if the full instrument is freely available, you should contact the owner for permission to use and for any instructions and training necessary to use the instrument properly.

CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
Try using the search dropdown menu, Select a Field, and choose IN Instrumentation to search for a research instrument.
Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) This link opens in a new window
Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) This link opens in a new window
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Search by keywords or by test name. In Advanced Search select Tests and Measures from the dropdown menu. Find links to the tool in the result record, or add "appended" to the search to find the actual tool.
PsycTESTS This link opens in a new window
PubMed@USC This link opens in a new window
When you search, try using the Limits on the left-hand side of your results and choose Article Type, Validation Study. You can also try adding the Medical Subject Heading or use as keywords "reproducibility of results"[MeSH]