Experimental observations on core particle and impurity transport from the Axial Symmetric Divertor Experiment Upgrade [O. Gruber, H.-S. Bosch, S. Gunter , Nucl Fusion 39, 1321 (1999)] and the Joint European Torus [J. Pamela, E. R. Solano, and JET EFDA Contributors, Nucl. Fusion 43, 1540 (2003)] tokamaks are reviewed and compared. Robust general experimental behaviors observed in both the devices and related parametric dependences are identified. The experimental observations are compared with the most recent theoretical results in the field of core particle transport. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.