An empirical article is an article that reports research based on actual observation or experiment; it may use either quantitative or qualitative research methods.
Need help determining if an article is empirical or not?
- In what kind of journal is this article published?
- Empirical articles are published in academic or professional journals, such as Journal of American College Health, American Journal of Health Education, or JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association.
- Does the article's abstract mention an observation, analysis or study?
- Empirical research measures something, meaning empirical articles will typically contain data collection, survey results, interviews, or an assessment of some sort.
- Does the article contain the following sections:
- Introduction
- Methodology
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- References
- How many pages is the article?
- Empirical articles are typically of substantial length- think at least 5+ pages.