Finding Types of Research

"Quantitative research consists of the collection, tabulation, summarization, and analysis of numerical data for the purpose of answering research questions or hypotheses."

In addition,

"Quantitative research is concerned with making generalizations from a study sample to a target population, a process called statistical inference."

- Eugene Levine, Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

To put it in lay terms, quantitative research is all about things that can be measured.

There are no filters for quantitative articles in the search system or databases. One way you can narrow down to these studies is to add a search term of quantitative to your search statement. Example: "heart disease" AND diet AND quantitative.

You will need to read through the article abstracts of the results to determine if the study meets the criteria of a quantitative study. To increase the likelihood of finding a quantitative article, be sure to use filters to narrow your search results to peer-reviewed, scholarly or research articles. Each database will have different filters, but most will have something that will allow you to limit to these types of articles.

If you are looking specifically for randomized controlled trials, which are a specific type of quantitative study, there are tips for finding these on the Randomized Controlled Trials page of this guide.