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SWK 506: Intermediate Research: Articles

This subject guide will assist you in finding books, journal articles, and websites, as well as assist you in developing your research skills using the recommended resources.

Recommended Databases

Empirical Research Articles

Identifying an Empirical Research Article

An empirical research article is an article that reports research based on actual observations or experiments. 

The research may use quantitative or qualitative research methods

The article should be published in an academic, scholarly, or professional journal

The abstract of the article will mention a study, an observation, an analysis, or a number of participants or subjects

The article will normally contain these sections

Sections may be combined, have different headings, or no headings at all

  • Introduction-The introduction provides a very brief summary of the research.
  • Methodology-The method section describes how the research was conducted, including who the participants were, the design of the study, what the participants did, and what measures were used.
  • Results-The results section describes the outcomes of the measures of the study.
  • Discussion-The discussion section contains the interpretations and implications of the study.
  • Conclusion-
  • References-A reference section contains information about the articles and books cited in the report and should be substantial.

The article will be long.

It is normally seven or more pages long.

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