Primary literature
Empirical articles are examples of primary literature.
- An empirical article reports the findings of original research done by the authors of the article.
- Empirical articles are usually published in peer-reviewed journals.
- An empirical article poses a research question or states a hypothesis.
- To determine whether or not you've found an empirical article, scan the article (or even just the abstract). Look for an introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections
Review literature
- Review articles in the sciences summarize previously reported findings rather than present new findings, often pulling together the findings of multiple empirical articles. In doing so, review literature often gives a broader view of the current state of understanding in a given topic area.
