Research Help
Watch these short videos about how to find library materials.
We are happy to help you with your search strategy, including where to search and what keywords might work best. It is up to you to evaluate materials to determine if they fit your needs for research or a class assignment. We do not evaluate materials for quality, relevance, type of study (qualitative/quantitative), etc. If you are looking specifically for a qualitative or quantitative article, try using sample keywords below for each type of study:
- » Qualitative
Qualitative research usually contains descriptive judgment words based on observable
experiments, behavior, or studies. Words to add to keyword searches that may help identify the study as qualitative:- phenomenology (or phenomenological)
- “lived experience”
- “grounded theory”
- “life experience”
- experience
- “focus group”
- interview
- “case study”
- ethnography (or ethnographic)
- narrative
- observation/observing/observe
- ethic/ethical
- credible/credibility/trustworthy/trustworthiness
- “content analysis”
- participant
- discourse analysis
- » Quantitative
Quantitative research usually consists of gathering and statistically analyzing information
measured by instruments, not people, and is quantifiable numerically. Words to add to keyword searches that may help identify the study as quantitative:- correlation
- empirical research
- experiment
- hypothesis
- reliability
- sample
- validity
- variable/variance/variation
- Chi-Square test
- analysis of variance
- confidence intervals
- statistic/statistically
- distribution
- validation
- mathematical
- ANOVA/ANCOVA
- trial/clinical trial
- randomized
- controlled
- survey
Please contact Holly Mills for research help with EagleSearch, Google Scholar, or databases.