Empirical Research Paper

Example: You are interested in doing a research paper on monetary policy and want to find some empirical research articles for reference.

1. Go to the library homepage
2. Click on Omni Advanced Search which allows you to select the search scopes: Laurier Library, Laurier+Waterloo+Guelph Libraries, or Laurier Library+Omni Libraries. Print material can be requested from partner university libraries in Ontario through Omni. Electronic resources are only accessible to Laurier users. Consult Omni FAQ for more information.
3. Type in the keyword “monetary policy” into the search box. Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine or exclude keywords in a search, resulting in more focused and productive results.
4. As monetary policy is a broad topic, you will get large sets of results. Use the filters on the panel under "Modify your search" to refine the results such as peer-reviewed journals, resource type, publication date, language and more. It would be very helpful to limit search by subject. In this example, you are looking for empirical papers. Click on Subject, and then select Economic Models and click apply filters. This may help narrow the search. Consult Getting started with Omni for guidance.
5. You may also look through the titles on the result page. The titles containing “effects”, “empirical research”, “empirical analysis”, “approach”, “models” are mostly articles that contain an empirical application.

Accessing a Database

• Go to the library homepage
• Click on Search resources (databases by title and description) below the Omni search box
• Enter in the database name in the search box
• Click on Filter and select a database that matches your request
• Off-campus Laurier Network Login will be required for authentication

Key Databases for Searching for Journal Articles

ProQuest

Contains scholarly, trade, popular and news titles, many of which are available in full-text or full-image. Search with keywords related to your research. You may limit search to full text and filter by subject, geography, date, etc. located on the left side of the search result page.

EconLit (via ProQuest)

Provides citations and full-text content for more than 400 economic periodicals, as well as books, book chapters, dissertations, reviews, conferences and working papers.

Scholars Portal Journals

A single-access search gateway to the full text of online journals published by several major academic journal publishers. Search with keywords related to your research. Click the link to subject terms below an article title to find more articles grouped under a specific subject quickly.

Business Source Complete

Comprehensive database, with citations and full-text content, for leading business journals including scholarly, trade, popular and news titles. Search with keywords related to your research. On the search result page, click on Subject: Thesaurus Terms on the left side to filter your search by subject. You may also limit search to full text and filter by geography, date, etc. located on the left side of the search results page.

Academic OneFile

Academic OneFile is a source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from international journals and reference sources. Coverage includes Economics and finance.

Search Tips

Boolean Operators: AND OR NOT

AND requires all terms joined by it to appear in the document which narrows your search. E.g. Philips Curves AND inflation; OR requires at least one of the terms joined by it to appear in the document in any order which broadens your search. e.g. Consumer Price Index OR CPI; NOT excludes documents containing the term(s) following it. e.g. GDP NOT Canada

Video tutorial: Better Searching Using AND, OR, NOT

Truncation symbols *

enable you to search for variations of a word. Enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end. Examples: econom* = economy, economics, economist, econometrics, econometric, etc.

Wildcard symbols ! ?

substitute a symbol for one letter of a word; useful if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning. Example: Labo?r = labour, labor

Quotation marks “ ”

require words to be searched as a phrase, in the exact order you type them. Examples: “exchange rate”, “Gross Domestic Product”.

Tutorial: Planning a Literature Review

Tips for searching, analysing, and organizing sources for your literature review.

The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It

Written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre at University of Toronto.

An Example of Literature Review

Fadeyi, O. A., Ogundeji, A. A., & Willemse, B. J. (2014). Establishing the linkages between the South African agricultural trade balance and macroeconomic indicators. Agrekon, 53(4), 92-105. Access this article, download it and see Section 3 Review of Relevant Literature.

Writing Center

The writing center program offered by Center for Student Success at Laurier can help you enhance your academic writing including literature review. You may book an appointment with the writing tutors.

Please use the sources on the Economics Subject Guide to find aggregate data or microdata.

The Citing Sources Guide available at Laurier Library includes different citation styles and tips on how to cite by subject including data and statistics.

Refer to Citing page of Economics Subject Guide for examples of citing major economic/financial databases.