Databases have ways for you to search and filter for different characteristics of articles, such as scholarly/peer-reviewed, publication date, author, and more. Unfortunately, there is no button for finding empirical articles so trial-n-error needed.
Try the strategies below to find empirical articles in the field of criminal justice. There is no 'one way' or perfect strategy so you will need to do multiple searches to find articles. Combine your search terms with one of the strategies below!
Selected highlights of crime and delinquency literature; Information review on crime and delinquency; Crime and deliquency literature; Criminal justice abstracts.
Authors of empirical articles often use the sections of their article to write the abstract. Because of this, These words can often appear in the abstract of an empirical article.
To search for these in database, go to Advanced Search and select Abstract in the dropdown next to one search bar. Then type in
[ result* OR method* OR outcomes OR participants OR "n?=" ].
Your resulting articles will have one of more of those words in the abstract.
Similarly to the abstract, empirical articles can sometimes have certain words in the title. Many empirical articles will not have any of these words in the title so don't use these words as a 'test'.
To search for these in database, go to Advanced Search and select Title in the dropdown next to one search bar. Then type in
[ "randomized controlled trial" OR impact* OR effect* OR compar* OR examin* ].
Your resulting articles will have one of more of those words in the title.
Subject terms are words used to tag articles. You can use these to find articles on different niche topics in a discipline. Sometimes - not every time - empirical articles will be tagged indicating their research methodology.
To search for these in database, go to Advanced Search and select Subject Terms in the dropdown next to one search bar. Then type in
[ "comparative stud*" OR quantitative* OR qualitative* OR "research methodology" ].
Your resulting articles will have one of more of those words in the subject terms.
