ILPD 740: Evidence-based Decision Making for Curriculum & Instruction

The term "article" may be used to describe a variety of sources: journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, book reviews, trade publications, and more. What makes one kind of article different from another is who wrote it, who reads it, and what kind of source published it.

Even academic journals publish different types of articles! In this course, your focus is on original research studies also known as empirical papers. Within the natural and social sciences, research studies detail how the authors collected original data via a particular methodology, then share outcomes and implications. Other academic journal article types include theoretical articles, review articles, and opinion or commentary articles. Keep in mind: Although all original research studies are academic journal articles, not all academic journal articles are research studies. Because academic journal databases don't have a built-in button to click that limits results to only empirical papers, you should:

• modify your search query to tell the database to search only for research studies, or
• manually determine whether an academic journal article is a research study by checking for a Methods section.

How can you tell the database to search only for research studies? Conduct your search as usual (for more help on creating a database search query, visit Search for Sources), then, using a blank search bar:

• search for the desired type of research, such as quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods, and/or
• search by desired instrument used to collect data, such as survey or interview.

Some of these databases provide access to the full text of articles, but some only provide access to the citation and abstract. Read the descriptions to pick the type you need.