Background Nurse researchers are increasingly using a wide variety of inferential statistical tests. However, novice researchers might find choosing tests for their studies difficult, as a result of this variety.

Aim To present structured decision-tables to help choose which statistical tests to use in comparative and correlation studies.

Discussion The wide spectrum of statistical techniques the authors identified in nursing research helped them to construct overview tables that researchers could use as a simple tool to help choose appropriate statistical tests for their studies.

Conclusion The decision-tables provided in this paper are unique in that they are composed of commonly applied statistical techniques identified in nursing studies and structured to simplify the pathway to statistical test decision-making for a broad spectrum of study designs.

Implications for practice Novice nurse researchers can use the decision-tables presented in this paper as a starting point to explore with research colleagues or supervisors the appropriate choice of statistical techniques