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What are empirical articles? How do I locate them in the Library?

Defined

An empirical article contains research based on observation and experience as opposed to belief or theory.

  • "Any approach to research relying heavily on observation and experiment" 1
  • "Empiricism is an epistemological position that acknowledges only sensory knowledge as legitimate ... The modern conception of empiricism, which dominates social science research, holds that experiments and observation are superior to reasoning and reflection." 2
  • "In empiricism knowledge is only validated through sense experience, or in more recent versions through the surrogates of scientific instrumentation (which in the social sciences would include survey questionnaires and interview data). Its importance to scientific method in the natural and social sciences lies in the centrality of emphasis placed on empirical hypothesis testing. Thus if we formulate a hypothesis such as ‘industrialization leads to worker alienation’, this is only meaningful if it can be verified empirically; anything less is metaphysical speculation." 3
  • "Empirical research, following the tenets of empiricism, is grounded in the belief that direct observation of phenomena is an appropriate way to measure reality and generate truth about the world." 4

 

Is this an empirical article? 

To identify whether you have an empirical article, look for any mention of a study or an observation, if a survey or questionnaire was administered, data collected, measurement or assessment used, or an interview conducted.

Empirical articles will often contain the following sections:

  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • Methodology
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References

 

Finding

To locate empirical articles through the Library, you may use the APA PsycInfo or APA PsycArticles databases. Both databases allow you to limit to “empirical study” within the Methodology search limiter under Search Options.

PsycARTICLES screenshot with Empirical Study selected under Methodology.

Other Library databases like SAGE Journals Online, Wiley Online Library, and ScienceDirect contain scholarly journals which publish primarily empirical articles.

 

You may also try a NavigatorSearch (formerly Roadrunner) and add the following search string to your search:

study OR methodology OR subjects OR data OR results OR findings OR discussion

Evaluate any resources you find within NavigatorSearch (formerly Roadrunner) and these databases using the criteria provided in this FAQ to determine whether it is an empirical article.

 


1 Vogt, W. P. (2005). Empiricism. In Dictionary of Statistics & Methodology ( 3 ed., Vol. 0, pp. 105-105). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983907

2 Mathison, S. (2005). Empiricism. In Encyclopedia of Evaluation (Vol. 0, pp. 125-125). Sage Publications, Inc., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412950558

3 Williams, M. (2006). Empiricism. In The SAGE Dictionary of Social Research Methods (Vol. 0, pp. 91-92). SAGE Publications, Ltd, https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020116

4 Given, L. M. (2008). Empirical research. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (Vol. 0, pp. 254-255). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909




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