Library Research Guides: EDUC 577: Introduction to Education Research: Identifying Research Studies

Identifying Research Studies

Researchers publish the results of research studies in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.

To identify a research study, look for articles with the following distinct sections:

Abstract: Brief summary of the article and its contents. Will often contain the word effect or study.
Introduction: Provides background and possibly discusses earlier research. Gives the justification for the research study and the hypothesis.
Literature Review: A comprehensive description of past research studies that are relevant to the present research study. Is sometimes included in the Introduction.
Methods: Lays out in detail the procedure that was followed to conduct the research and analyze the resulting data.
Findings or Results: Reports the results of the research. Usually includes tables, charts and other graphic displays of the data collected.
Conclusions or Discussion: Discusses the implications of the results and recommends avenues for further research.
References: Always has a bibliography of the sources cited in the article.

If the article you are looking at has most of these sections, it is probably a research study.

Published research articles are considered "Primary Literature". Whereas "Popular Literature" is written for the general public, but may contain articles about a research study.

Example of a research study:

McCarthy, J., Light, J. (2001). Instructional effectiveness of an integrated theatre arts program for autistic and non-autistic children. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 17 (2), 88-89.

Example of an article about a research study in a magazine:

Davies A. (2004). Teaching Asperger’s students social skills through acting: all their world’s a stage? Newsweek, 84 (1), 13.

Helpful Websites

These websites provide tips, tutorials and information on all steps of the research process:

Scholarly vs Popular Articles
From UC-Berkeley, a chart that compares the characteristics of scholarly, popular and other kinds of sources.
The Information Cycle
From Penn State University Libraries: "This tutorial will help to introduce you to the way information is created, distributed, and eventually digested in the days, weeks, months and years following the occurrence of a newsworthy event."
The OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue
A great comprehensive site with information on the writing process, creating thesis statements, avoiding plagiarism, and help with citations.
Literature Review: an Overview for Graduate Students
This 10 minute video tutorial from North Carolina State University provides a great overview on how to do a literature review.

Writing an Academic Paper
From Dartmouth College (via University of Washington), a good introduction to writing academic papers.

Research Tips

To get the most of your research, create a search strategy using these steps:

1. Formulate a research question from your broader topic and make it as specific as possible. Good research questions are focused, have a non-obvious answer, and are able to be researched.

Bad Question: How should you teach ESL students?

Good Question: What are the most effective instructional methods for elementary age ESL students.

2. Pull out the most important concepts or ideas voiced in your research question. If it s a good question you should be able to list 3-5 ideas or concept.

Example: ESL, elementary age, instructional methods

3. Now think of several synonyms or keywords related to each concept or idea and arrange them in groups

Example:

Concept 1: ESL, English as a Second Language, ESOL

Concept 2: elementary age, K-5, children

Concept 3: instructional methods, teaching methods, teaching strategies

4. Choose an appropriate database which may have information on your topic. When searching the database use Boolean connectors to combine the search terms you came up with in Step 3:

AND is used to combine different concepts [elementary age AND ESL]. It will return only results that include ALL of the words you combine. Use it to narrow and focus your search.

OR is used to combine keywords/synonyms describing the same concept [instructional methods OR teaching methods]. It will return results that have ANY of the terms that you combine. Use it to broaden your search results

5. Don't give up. Keep trying combinations of keywords until you start to get results that seem relevant. Make sure you look at results to give you more ideas for keywords.

Advanced Search Tips

Finding Research Studies: Use the word "effect" as one of you main concepts. Often research studies have the word effect in the title or abstract.

Field Limiters: Quickly broaden or narrow your search by limiting the field you are searching.

Keyword searches retrieve more results because everything in the database is searched.

Title word searches just search article titles.

Subject searches will just search the subject field.

Database Thesaurus or Subject Index: Many databases tag their articles with specific subjects heading. Search the databases thesaurus (sometimes called a subject index) to quickly identify relevant articles.

Search Help Page: Most databases have a search help page with numerous search tips. Use these pages to find out how to truncate keywords, use proximity searching, and more.