Empirical Research: Defining, Identifying, & Finding

Because empirical research refers to the method of investigation rather than a method of publication, it can be published in a number of places. In many disciplines empirical research is most commonly published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. Putting empirical research through the peer review process helps ensure that the research is high quality. 

Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

You can find peer-reviewed articles in a general web search along with a lot of other types of sources. However, these specialized tools are more likely to find peer-reviewed articles:

• Library databases
• Academic search engines such as Google Scholar

Common Types of Articles That Are Not Empirical

However, just finding an article in a peer-reviewed journal is not enough to say it is empirical, since not all the articles in a peer-reviewed journal will be empirical research or even peer reviewed. Knowing how to quickly identify some types non-empirical research articles in peer-reviewed journals can help speed up your search. 

• Theoretical articles
  • Peer-reviewed articles that systematically discuss and propose abstract concepts and methods for a field without primary data collection.
  • Example: Grosser, K. & Moon, J. (2019). CSR and feminist organization studies: Towards an integrated theorization for the analysis of gender issues.
• Literature review and meta-analysis articles
  • Peer-reviewed articles that systematically describe, summarize, and often categorize and evaluate previous research on a topic without collecting new data.
  • Example: Heuer, S. & Willer, R. (2020). How is quality of life assessed in people with dementia? A systematic literature review and a primer for speech-language pathologists.
  • Note: empirical research articles will have a literature review section as part of the Introduction, but in an empirical research article the literature review exists to give context to the empirical research, which is the primary focus of the article. In a literature review article, the literature review is the focus. 
  • While these articles are not empirical, they are often a great source of information on previous empirical research on a topic with citations to find that research.
• Editorials, opinion & commentary, and letters
  • Non-peer-reviewed articles where the authors discuss their thoughts on a particular topic without data collection and a systematic method. There are a few differences between these types of articles.
  • Editorials 
    • Written by the editors or guest editors of the journal. 
    • Example: Naples, N. A., Mauldin, L., & Dillaway, H. (2018). From the guest editors: Gender, disability, and intersectionality.
  • Opinion & commentary
    • Written by guest authors. The journal may have a non-peer-reviewed process for authors to submit these articles, and the editors of the journal may invite authors to write opinion articles.
    • Example: García, J. J.-L., & Sharif, M. Z. (2015). Black lives matter: A commentary on racism and public health. 
  • Letters
    • Written by the readers of a journal, often in response to an article previously-published in the journal.
    • Example: Nathan, M. (2013). Letters: Perceived discrimination and racial/ethnic disparities in youth problem behaviors. 
• Reviews
  • Non-peer-reviewed articles that describe and evaluate books, products, services, and other things the audience of the journal would be interested in. 
  • Example: Robinson, R. & Green, J. M. (2020). Book review: Microaggressions and traumatic stress: Theory, research, and clinical treatment.

Even once you know how to recognize empirical research and where it is published, it would be nice to improve your search results so that more empirical research shows up for your topic.

There are two major ways to find the empirical research in a database search:

• Use built-in database tools to limit results to empirical research.
• Include search terms that help identify empirical research.