Peer-Reviewed - Any article that has gone through a process where other academics are asked to review the article and provide feedback before publication. Articles may be accepted, asked to revise and resubmit, or rejected based on comments from peer-reviewers. There is often a "peer-reviewed" button in databases to help you located this type of articles.
Academic Journal Article - Any article published in an academic journal. There are often article types that are not subject to peer review such as review articles and correspondence.
Literature Review - A summary of collected literature on a specific topic. These are excellent for getting a broad understanding, catching up on latest developments, or following the citations for more information.
Empirical Research - A report on original research that was conducted by the author(s). There is no button to help you locate empirical research. The easiest way is to search for terms that usually indicate original research was conducted like this: (survey OR questionnaire OR interview OR mixed-methods OR qualitative OR quantitative). When you read these articles the headings will follow this format: Introduction/ Literature Review, Methods, Results, Conclusions/Discussion
Meta-Analysis - A type of empirical research article that collects other original research, extracts the data, then does another analysis with the data from multiple studies. The easiest way to locate one is to search for Meta-analysis.
Systematic/Scoping Review - A type of empirical research that collects research and reports on the databases, terminology, and the inclusion/exclusion criteria used in selecting articles for inclusion. This is similar to a literature review in that it summarizes research, but does not do additional analysis. The reporting of search methodology is what makes this article type separate from a general literature review.