Guides: RN-to-MS Nursing Research Guide: Research Instruments

Find Definitions & Scope

Finding Information About Psychological Tests (American Psychological Association)
Advice on finding and using test instruments from the American Psychological Association.

Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print This link opens in a new window
Information about all English-language standardized tests covering educational, personality, aptitude, neuropsychological, achievement and intelligence. Includes bibliography to current commercially available tests with information on test purpose, publisher, acronym, publication date, price and author.
Access note: Limited to 4 simultaneous users.

Health Services and Sciences Research Resources (HSRR)
Guide to research data sets and instruments/indices used in: Health Services Research; Behavioral and Social Sciences; and Public Health (includes links to PubMed records).

Find Articles

CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
In addition to the 'HAPI' & PsycInfo databases, use CINAHL to find articles and other document types that either contain or else report on the use, development or evaluation of research instruments (e.g. questionnaires, interview schedules, coding schemes, rating scales, checklists, indexes and other tests) used in nursing, health care or psychosocial settings. Consider searching broadly for your main research concept then selecting Advanced Search narrowing options "Publication Type: Questionnaire/Scale, Research Instrument."
Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI) This link opens in a new window
In addition to the CINAHL & PsycInfo databases, use the HAPI database to find articles and other document types that either contain or else report on the use, development or evaluation of research instruments (e.g. questionnaires, interview schedules, coding schemes, rating scales, checklists, indexes and other tests) used in nursing, health care or psychosocial settings.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
In addition to the CINAHL & HAPI databases, use PsycInfo to find articles and other document types that either contain or else report on the use, development or evaluation of research instruments (e.g. questionnaires, interview schedules, coding schemes, rating scales, checklists, indexes and other tests) used in nursing, health care or psychosocial settings. Consider use of the search field option: "TM Tests & Measures."
Dissertations & Theses Full Text (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This database can be useful for finding the original or an early version of an instrument when developed by a Masters or Doctoral level research student.

Rand Health Surveys (Rand Corporation)
Open source/freely-available surveys, questionnaires and other instruments/measurement tools from the Rand Corporation.
TestLink - Educational Testing Service
Use this database to identify sources of measurements, tests, instruments (ETS is a nonprofit educational research organization whose activities include test development, administration & evaluation)