Public Health 208 B (Yen)

Empirical articles are based on an experiment or study.  The authors will report the purpose of the study, the research methodology, and results. This is a familiar structure for empirical articles (IMRAD):

• introduction
• methods
• results
• discussion

In describing the purpose of their study, authors will present a mini literature review to discuss how previous research has led up to their original research project.

Also called:

• primary research article/source
• primary literature article
• original research article

Example: The prevalence of sleep disorders in college students: Impact on academic performance

Both empirical articles & literature reviews are:

• published in journals
• often peer-reviewed
• written by experts in the field

They are different in one important way:

Empirical articles report the findings of a research study, while review articles assess the findings of a variety of studies on a topic.

Review articles summarize or synthesize content from earlier published research and are useful for surveying the literature on a specific research area. Review articles can lead you to empirical articles.

There are several types.

• narrative: a literature review that describes and discusses the state of the science of a specific topic or theme.
• systematic: a comprehensive review of all relevant studies on a particular topic/question. The systematic review is created by following an explicit methodology for identifying/selecting the studies to include and evaluating their results.
• meta-analysis: the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies. This is usually, but not always, presented with a systematic review.

Examples:

Irwin, M. R. (2015). Why sleep is important for health: a psychoneuroimmunology perspective. Psychology, 66(1), 143.