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Empirical Research or Not

Sometimes a scholarly article will be:

  • An analysis and/or synthesis of existing information (for example: literature reviews, meta-analyses, etc),
  • The author’s interpretation of information (for example: a textual analysis of a novel), or
  • Based on theoretical data.

However, often scholarly articles outline original research studies that the author has conducted. The resulting data is from a controlled, observed, and measured scientific experiment. We call this type of content empirical research.

Note

Empirical research articles present cutting-edge information and developments in your field, and therefore your instructor may ask that you use a certain number of empirical research articles in your paper.

Because they describe their methodology, these articles can also be useful to you if you ever have to conduct research yourself - you can examine the methodologies of other researchers and draw inspiration (don’t forget to cite!).

I'M RaD

How will you recognize an empirical research article? The “I’M RaD” nemonic describes the standard structure of an empirical research article:

  • Introduction: Why was the study undertaken? What was the research question, the tested hypothesis or the purpose of the research?
  • Methods: When, where, and how was the study done? What materials were used or who was included in the study groups?
  • Results: What answer was found to the research question? What did the study find? Was the tested hypothesis proven?
  • Discussion: What might the answer imply and why does it matter? How does it fit in with what other researchers have found? What are the perspectives for future research

Note that some authors and publications will not name the sections in exactly the same way. For example, sometimes the “Discussion” section will be called “Conclusions,” or the order of the sections will be different.

However, the “I’M RaD” nemonic is an easy-to-remember and useful way to help recognize what is a research article.