Reading Reports of Empirical Studies

The title is a concise summary of the empirical research report. The title should convey appropriate information about the study or studies presented in the report. Ask yourself the following questions in order to begin to determine the relative merit of the research:

• Who did the research?
• Where was the research published?

People who make a major contribution to the study are listed as authors. You might want to do a background search on the authors in order to determine the expertise the researchers have. Reports of empirical studies are most often published in journals devoted to publishing empirical research. Many journals have an editorial board of experts who evaluate the research based on strict criteria of scientific and theoretical rigour.