For this week's discussion, you will learn how to search for and locate a quantitative article involving analysis of variance (ANOVA) that relates to your discipline by:

• choosing an appropriate subject database
• conducting a search with relevant keywords
• identifying a quantitative research article that uses ANOVA
• find and identify a post hoc study article

Start your search by entering a database that fits your subject area with these steps:

1. On the Library Homepage, click the Research by Subject drop-down.
 

2. Click on the subject area that matches your program of study from the list.

3. Once you have clicked on a subject, scroll down until you see the list of databases and click on the title to enter the database.

Note: The databases are organized with the largest collections at the top of the list, so selecting the first database is generally a good way to start.

Once you are in a database, you will see a search screen with multiple search boxes. We need to set up our search:

• We will use the following keywords to find articles that use this methodology:
  • ANOVA
  • "Analysis of variance"
• You may also want to search with keywords that describe a topic related to your discipline. You do not have to type in a topic, but if you do, keep the topic broad.

We will build an example search below for articles that use ANOVA with the topic of reading comprehension in the database called Education Source:

1. In the first search box, type:

ANOVA OR "Analysis of variance"

Note: Put quote marks around "Analysis of variance" to glue these words together as an exact phrase.

Note: Type the word OR between these two synonyms to tell the database we will take either the acronym ANOVA OR the phrase "Analysis of variance."

2. For this example topic, type in the second box:

reading comprehension

Note: Some methodologies are rarely used for certain research topics. You may need to broaden your search topic to find a study that uses this methodology.

The search boxes will look like this:

3. Click Search.

4. Look in the article titles and abstracts to determine if the methods used in the article include ANOVA. You can also look in the Subjects listed for an article:

Refer back to the Evaluate your results box for Week 1 for more help.

Note: Articles may use more than one method in their quantitative analysis of data. You can use an article even if it uses other methods along with ANOVA. For instance, an article my use ANOVA and t-Test to analyze data.

Try it and test yourself:

The following tutorial will show you how to use our database SAGE Research Methods Online to find information about quantitative methodologies, including ANOVA:

Here are the steps to search inside SAGE Research Methods Online for more information on ANOVA:

1. On the Library Homepage click on the Databases A-Z link.

2. Click on S, scroll down, and then click on Sage Research Methods Online.

3. On the Sage Research Methods Online homepage, type the method into the search box:

ANOVA

4. Click the magnifying glass icon to Search.

You will now see your results with a definition of the ANOVA method above the results list. It will look like this:

• This resource from our search gives an overview of the method:

Klugkist, I. (2008). Analysis of variance (ANOVA). In P. J. Lavrakas (Ed.), Encyclopedia of survey research methods (pp. 27-27). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412963947.n18