Variety is the spice of life: isn't it?

摘要

My, how nursing research has changed! When I published my first 'academic' paper some 20 odd years ago (Nolan, 1987) it would have been hard to imagine an issue of a nursing journal from anywhere in the world that was as varied conceptually, methodologically or culturally as is this issue of the International Journal of Nursing Studies (IJNS). Back then studies were often relatively small scale, frequently somewhat parochial in their focus, both in terms of the countries that were publishing and their subject matter, and randomised controlled trials and studies employing advanced, multivariate statistical techniques were the exception rather than the rule.