Search strategies
This page primarily describes how to find empirical articles using the EBSCO databases that the library subscribes to. However, there are many databases at Cornell that are not presented in the EBSCO format. Find them listed by subject at this link. You can use similar strateg to find empirical articles.
You may also add specific statistical terms to your search, such as chi, t-test, p-value, or standard deviation. Try searching with terms used in the scientific method: method, results, discussion, or conclusion.
Empirical Articles in EBSCO
Cornell subscribes to scores of databases that provide full text journal articles. Many of the databases are purchased from EBSCO and can be searched using its interface.
Here is a sample search in the Business Source Complete database. Other EBSCO databases with empirical articles and a similar search interface are listed in the box called "EBSCO Databases.
Note that "Economics - Statistical Methods" is a subject term. It is combined with the keyword "labor economics." Instead of typing 'DE "ECONOMICS -- Statistical Methods'' in the search box, you can just type ECONOMICS -- Statistical Methods and select "Subject Term" from the drop down menu.
EBSCO Databases
- Academic Search PremierThis multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 8,500 journals, including full text for more than 4,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
- Business Source CompleteBusiness Source Complete provides full text for scholarly business journals and other sources, including full text for more than 1,800 peer-reviewed business publications. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business. This database provides full text (PDF) for top scholarly journals, including the Harvard Business Review. It also includes industry and country reports from Euromonitor and company and industry reports from Datamonitor.
- EconLit with Full TextAbstracts, indexing, and full-text articles in all fields of economics, including capital markets, country studies, econometrics, economic forecasting, environmental economics, government regulations, labor economics, monetary theory, and urban economics.
- PsycINFOContains citations and summaries of the international literature in psychology and related behavioral and social sciences, including psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, education, pharmacology, and linguistics. Includes applied psychology, communication systems, developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental human and animal psychology, personality, physical and psychological disorders, physiological psychology and intervention, professional personnel and issues, psychometrics, social processes and issues, sports psychology and leisure, and treatment and prevention.
- Sociology Source UltimateAn expanded version of SocINDEX, including greater coverage of peer-reviewed journals, international resources and open access titles. Provides citations and direct links to the texts of journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings, some as far back as 1880. Comprehensive coverage encompassing sub-disciplines and related areas of the social sciences, including labor, crime, demography, economic sociology, immigration, ethnic, racial and gender studies, family, political sociology, religion, development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, social history, theory, methodology, and more.”
- MEDLINECompiled by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), MEDLINE is the world's most comprehensive source of life sciences and biomedical bibliographic information. It contains nearly eleven million records from over 7,300 different publications from 1965 to present.
Search Terms
Some keywords for research studies:
- Empirical
- Empirical Studies
- Studies
- Experiment
- Observations
- Methods
- Methodology
- Results
- Correlation
- P-value
- Chi
- T-test
- Standard Deviation