For the Week 4 discussion, you are asked to search for a quantitative article related to confidence intervals. In the Week 1 assignment guide we went over:

• picking an appropriate database
• evaluating what you find

This guide will demonstrate:

• how to search for a quantitative research article that includes confidence intervals.

Studies using confidence intervals can be found in just about any field of study. Below you will find an example in a criminal justice database; however, this search strategy can be used in any of the Library databases. For more information on choosing an appropriate database and search terms to fit your research interests, please refer to the Week 1 assignment guide.

This search will demonstrate how to search for articles using confidence intervals in the ProQuest Criminal Justice database. Depending on your subject area, the database you search may look different than this example. Nevertheless, you can still use a similar search strategy.

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


 

2. Click on Criminal Justice.

3. In the Criminal Justice databases box, select an appropriate database from the list provided.

4. The first database listed in this box will be ProQuest Criminal Justice. Click on the link to access the database.

Note: If you have not already logged in to the Library databases, you will be prompted to log in with your myWalden Portal user name and password.

5. Once you are in the database, go to the first search box and enter:

"confidence interval"

Note: Putting this phrase in quotation marks tells the database to search for this exact phrase, instead of the individual words.

6. In the second search box you can enter a research topic of interest to you. For example:

substance abuse

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.

Here is what your search boxes should look like:

6. To limit your results to only peer-reviewed articles, go below the search boxes and click in the box next to Peer reviewed.

Click here to see this image in context.

7. Then click on the Search button to run your search.

8. Look through the results to make sure that the article includes a confidence interval. For more information on evaluating what you find, please refer to the evaluate your results section of the Week 1 assignment guide.

Note: If you do not see the Advanced Search screen when you enter a ProQuest database, click on the Advanced Search link above the search box.

The following resources will provide more information on confidence intervals:

Here are the steps to search inside SAGE Research Methods Online for more information on confidence intervals.

1.  From the Library homepage, click the Start Your Research link in the toolbar along the top of the page.

2. In the Search by Type box, select the Dictionaries & Encyclopedias link, and then click on the brown Encyclopedias & Handbooks tab from the column on the left side of your screen.

3. In the top Find Encyclopedias and Handbooks box, click on the Sage Research Methods Online link.

4. Type the method into the search box:

confidence intervals

5. Click the Search button.

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