Transcript EDUCATION DATABASES: - Indiana Wesleyan University

EDUCATION DATABASES:
OVERVIEW
Primary Journal Databases Available
for Education
Education specific:
ProQuest Education Journals
Professional Development Collection
ERIC
Also databases that have education
but a lot of other topics, too:
GaleCengage OneFile
EBSCO Academic Search Complete
First, let’s talk about peer-reviewed
or refereed journals
Characteristics of peer reviewed:
– Purpose is to publish research
studies/results
– Specific to a discipline or subset of the
discipline, e.g. Journal of Special
Education
– Each article submitted is “reviewed” by
an independent panel, committee, etc.
Peer-reviewed journals, cont.
Characteristics of peer-reviewed:
– The journal’s “statement to authors”
tells how/if it is “peer” reviewed.
– A database like Ulrich’s, can identify
journals if journals are peer-reviewed.
(IWU has this available online)
– Very little advertising included
– Formal in format…technical reading
Peer-reviewed journals, cont.
Characteristics of peer-reviewed:
– Authors are scholars in the field and
their credentials are listed.
– Articles will include a
bibliography/references list
– Graphics usually are only charts,
tables that illustrate the statistical
nature of the article, few if any
pictures
Examples of peer-reviewed journals
Journal of Educational Research
Journal of Special Education
Journal of Learning Disabilities
Elementary School Journal
Elementary School Guidance &
Counseling
• Reading & Writing Quarterly
• English Journal
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Let’s also look at the differences of
subject searching and keyword
searching.
• Keyword searching
– Searches for word(s) in the database no
matter where they occur, e.g. author, title,
abstract, etc.
– Flexible because it allows user to select
own words to search
– Less likely to get all relevant hits.
Let’s also look at the differences of
subject searching and keyword
searching.
• Subject searching
– A uniform word or group of words (controlled
vocabulary) used to describe a subject and its
synonyms.
– Most databases give access to the list of uniform
terms
– Results in more relevant search results since the
article/book should be about that subject when
that uniform term is assigned.
– Articles/books can have several subject headings.
Let’s also look at the differences of
subject searching and keyword
searching.
• Let us get down to the basic difference!
– Keyword searching = results that contain
the term searched.
– Subject searching = results that are about
the term searched (higher potential of
relevancy!)
This article, indexed in ERIC, has 8
subject (descriptors) headings.
• Subject searching looks at the Descriptors field.
Someone has already determined that this article
has significant content about those 8 topics.
Let’s briefly look at each
database and how each is best
used…
Be sure you have downloaded:
Education Databases handout
http://www.indwes.edu/ocls/eduation_
databases.pdf
Journal databases all available by:
• http://www.indwes.edu/ocls
• Click on: Education (under Article
databases)
• Databases are listed
under Education:
For all databases
• Click on the
database you want
to search
• Authenticate to gain
access.
• Use your last name
and your 14-digit
library access #
from student ID
card.
ProQuest Education Journals
ProQuest Education Journals
• Contains over 790 journals with almost
615 available full text.
• Information on many educational topics
• Searchable by topic or by journal title.
• Full text articles can be emailed,
printed or saved.
The default search screen is a
keyword search.
With a keyword search you usually get
a lot of results, but not all may be relevant.
You need to critically evaluate the
citations to determine their relevancy to your
research needs.
This database gives some “Suggested
Topics.”
To do a subject search, click on
Browse Topics.
You can either search suggested
topics, or use the thesaurus…
…click on the Thesaurus option
from the far upper right of the
screen.
Using the thesaurus helps
you to see other ways to
search your topic or a related
topic, i.e. reading disabilities
Click on:
Add to
Search
When searching for reading comprehension as
a subject, the results go down more than half
from the previous keyword search.
But the ones you dropped out probably were not nearly as
relevant as these. You can further refine the search by using
Boolean and limiting to a student grouping, e.g. primary
education.
Let’s summarize what we have
already learned before we move on
to learn some more databases
• Understand the significance of using
peer-reviewed journals in education
• Understand the differences of subject
and keyword searching and when it is
appropriate to use each
• Introduced to ProQuest Education
Journals and began some basic
searching
Move on to the Education
Databases, Part 2