Transcript Education Databases -

Education Databases -- ERIC
What is ERIC?
• Sponsored by the Dept. of Education (U.S.)
• A primary electronic database for education
research
• ERIC stands for the Educational Resources
Informational Center
• Includes indexing for journal articles and
documents (unpublished reports, dissertations,
government studies, conference proceedings,
etc.)
Start at the OCLS homepage
Click on: Education (under Article Databases)
Click on: ERIC (EBSCOHost)
Enter your last name and the
14-digit number supplied by OCLS
or on your student ID card.
The best way to get the most
relevant citations in ERIC
• Use the Thesaurus
• The Thesaurus is the controlled vocabulary or
descriptors or subject headings.
• Descriptors are assigned to each article when
there is enough content to warrant that descriptor.
• E.g. An article about academic achievement and
parental involvement with middle school students will
have at least the following descriptors: academic
achievement; middle school students; parent
participation.
Use the Thesaurus
• One article may have several subject
headings to cover the content of the article.
• Using the Thesaurus will usually generate
results that are more likely to be relevant
to your topic than just keyword searching.
Using the Thesaurus, let’s search for articles
on authentic assessment for elementary
education.
The Thesaurus tells us that the “controlled
vocabulary” or ERIC language for this topic is,
Keep clicking until you get to the screen
with the Scope Note, Broader, Related
Terms and Used For terms.
From the list of related terms, you
decide to select portfolio
assessment, scoring rubrics
Interpreting this page:
• Scope note tells how this term is used in this
database.
• Broader terms are more encompassing terms
than alternative assessment
• Related terms are other ways to look at your
subject >> sometimes they trigger a
different direction with your research
Once you have check marked the terms you
want to search, go to the top and click on
Search
Repeat the same steps through the Thesaurus
so you can get results for elementary level
students.
Now, to review your searches, click on (1) Search
History.
Note that the last search you did is still showing in the
search box. (2) In the 2nd box, type: S1, representing the
first search that you did, (3) click Search.
You have done a Boolean search
Results
= S1
2,910
323
Results
= S2
97,932
Overlap of 2 circles = 323, including
both terms.
The resulting set of citations, includes both articles
(EJ######) and ED documents (ED######).
What is the difference?
• ED = ERIC Documents (usually are texts that
have not been printed in a journal, e.g.
dissertations, conference proceedings,
technical reports, etc.)
• EJ = ERIC Journals (education related
articles from a wide variety of journal titles).
Continue on to
Education Databases -- ERIC
Part 2