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Social Sciences Research Methods

Guide to WVU Library resources for students enrolled in the Social Sciences Research Methods Graduate Certificate Program.

Find Articles that Use Methods

Most databases do not allow you to search by research method. To find articles that use a specific methodology, you will need to include methodology terms with subject terms in your keyword search. For example, if you were searching for a quantitative study on depression and social media use you would search for: Depression AND social media AND quantitative.

You may also want to include more specific terms for the type of study, or data analysis type.

Example search terms to search for a Qualitative study:

Qualitative

Ethnographic

Focus group

Content analysis 

Case study

Example search terms to search for a Quantitative study:

Quantitative

ANOVA

Pretest

Statistical

Validity

Few databases will allow you to search articles by research method used. APA PsycInfo is one exception.