Research Guides: ED703 Methods of Qualitative Research: Finding Qualitative Research

The search process

It can be helpful to remember that researching is not linear and won't be perfect. Here are our suggestions:

Do a keyword search. Type in your search terms, whatever they might be, and see what you get!
Check the subject terms. What subject terms are showing up in the most relevant articles?
Try another search. Search using the subject terms with "SU Descriptor" selected, or try another general keyword search.
Check the references. What articles are cited in the most relevant articles you're seeing?

And repeat!

Remember, we're here to help make the search process go smoothly.

Search strategies

Keywords and tips to help you find qualitative research:

Putting quotations around a phrase will search for the entire phrase
- For example, searching "constant comparative method" will bring up results with that exact phrase. Without quotes, some results might only include the word comparative.

Adapted with permission from the University of Maryland.
case studies	ethnological research	heuristic	participant observation
action research	ethnography	hermeneutics	observational method
cluster sample	ethnomethodology	interviews	phenomenology
constant comparative method	evaluation methods	life experience	purposive sample
content analysis	field studies	lived experience	qualitative
descriptive research	focus groups	narrative	semiotics
discourse analysis	grounded theory	naturalistic observation	thematic analysis

Using subject terms

Databases usually use a controlled vocabulary to describe the main ideas of journal articles in a standardized, consistent way. These are often called "descriptors", "subject terms", or "subject headings". You can use these terms as an additional way to find articles that are very relevant to your search terms. Here's an example from ERIC.

In the screenshot below, the location of the descriptors for this particular article is highlighted. You can see that "SU Descriptors" is selected from the drop-down menu next to the search box as well. (By doing so, I am searching ONLY the descriptors field. This means that if I were to search for a term that is NOT an assigned descriptor in ERIC (for example, "ethnomethodology"), I will get zero results.)

This is a good way to: 1) find articles that are "very much about" your search term 2) determine what terminology the database uses to describe a particular concept.