Quantitative Research Methodology

Use your topic term and limit by publication type by selecting PT from the drop down box and typing in <reports> or <reports research> or by using the numeric code, 143.  Examples:  peer tutoring and PT=reports; peer tutoring and PT=reports research; peer tutoring and PT=143.  Research will appear in journal literature and may appear in documents.  Since many of the documents do not reflect research or were never peer reviewed, be careful when using them in your research.  Every so often, the validity and reliability studies of certain surveys and questionnaires will appear in a document because it was a result of a grant or project.  Conference presentations are frequently included as documents and could be peer-reviewed depending on the particular association originating the conference.  Some of these eventually are published in journal literature; others are not.  You must exercise good judgment when using the documents.

The thesaurus entry for quantitative research in ERIC leads you to the term, statistical analysis.  Searching on this phrase opens up broader and related terms that may aid in your research.  It is always a good idea to look at these terms for other possible ways to research your topic.

This is similar to what was described above.  Again, the easiest way to obtain research literature is to type your search topic one the first line beginning with the left box using the keyword setting.  Then, select the desired methodology from the drop down box for Methodology in the limits section.  Of course, a second way to obtain research literature is to use your topic term in the first search box with keyword setting and select the ME (methodology) field in the drop down box on the next line and enter the type of research beginning with the left box.  An example is: peer tutoring and ME=empirical study.  You will benefit greatly by limiting your search to Journal Articles only.  Otherwise, you’ll retrieve too many dissertations.  The thesaurus also recommends empirical methods as a search phrase.

Since this resource does not distinguish between the two methodologies, the approach is the same as described for qualitative research.  Care must be taken to locate and use the phrase that designates quantitative methods.  Some individuals find it more beneficial to start in either ERIC or PsycINFO and let the internal linking of databases through PacificLink lead you to Education Full-Text articles.

The best way to find research studies is to simply search your topic along with a distinct type of research.  An example is:  <language acquisition> and <statistical analysis>.  Expanding statistical analysis in the thesaurus also generates broader and related terms.