Locate the methods or methodology section of the article. Review this section for clues as to if the research is qualitative or quantitative.
Qualitative research uses words/text as data. Quantitative research uses numbers as data. Mixed methods research uses both.
Other characteristics of qualitative and quantitative research include
Qualitative
- Exploratory
- Inductive (hypothesis-generating)
- Asks: How? Why?
- Uses a small number of participants
Quantitative
- Structured
- Deductive (hypothesis-testing)
- Asks: How Many? How much? How often?
- Uses a large number of participants
Nicholson, K. (2022) What is Qualitative Research? [video]. YouTube.