Educational Research Using ERIC.ed.gov Paul B. Barron George C. Marshall Foundation Copyright 2012 – All rights reserved Copies may be made for non-profit educational uses only.

2 The ERIC Collection Records, including full text, for: Journal articles, mostly peer-reviewed Books Research syntheses Conference papers Technical reports Policy papers WVPT 2012 NTTI

3 Search Options: Basic Search by: keyword, title, author, descriptor, or ERIC #. WVPT 2012 NTTI

4 Search Options: Advanced Additional search fields Additional search rows Limit results to: Full-text availability ERIC Digest and/or ERIC Journal Peer-reviewed records Specific date range A publication type An educational level WVPT 2012 NTTI

5 NOTE! Search Tips Especially the, “Use quotation marks around a phrase to find an exact match.” NOTE! Additional search rows. WVPT 2012 NTTI

6 The ERIC Thesaurus Use the Thesaurus to identify appropriate words and phrases from ERIC's controlled vocabulary (descriptors) for precision searching. Descriptors - list of education-related words and phrases assigned to ERIC records Searching with Descriptors will locate records indexed by subject, regardless of the terminology the author may have used. WVPT 2012 NTTI

7 Q uotation M arks & S pecial C haracters Phrase Search or Word String Search Put quotation marks around a phrase to search for an exact phrase. Searching "educational technology" narrows a search to only those records containing the exact phrase "educational technology". Without quotation marks, ERIC performs an AND search for any terms you enter. Searching educational technology without quotes locates all records containing the words technology and educational. WVPT 2012 NTTI

8 Using Quotation Marks with Descriptors Any Descriptor longer than one word, including any text in parentheses, must be enclosed within quotation marks. Examples: Searching in Descriptors for “Higher Education” locates records relevant to higher education. Searching in Descriptors for Higher Education without quotes yields no results. WVPT 2012 NTTI

9 K eyword S earching vs D escriptor S earching Searching by keywords requires matching the exact words found in a record. Recommendation Search with both! Use keywords as synonyms for descriptors. Keyword(s) can be the popularly accepted term(s); for example, twice-exceptional. WVPT 2012 NTTI

Thesaurus Search for gifted 10 WVPT 2012 NTTI

Descriptor List for gifted 11 WVPT 2012 NTTI

Descriptor Details 12 WVPT 2012 NTTI

13 Keyword Search Locates the exact terms “early childhood education” in a bibliographic record and may or may not fully represent the subject of an article. WVPT 2012 NTTI

14 Keyword Search Results NOTE (48321 Results) The phrase early childhood education is a descriptor and found in the title and the abstract of the article. WVPT 2012 NTTI

15 Descriptor Search Descriptors, also known as indexing terms or subject headings, locate subject-related materials that may not contain the keyword in the indexed record. WVPT 2012 NTTI

16 Descriptor Search Results NOTE (24606 Results) The phrase early childhood education is found only in the article descriptors because the indexer determined that early childhood education was the subject of the article. WVPT 2012 NTTI

17 C ombination S earch in A dvanced S earch The search locates articles in which “early childhood education” is the subject of the article and in the article’s title. WVPT 2012 NTTI

18 Title & Descriptor Search Results NOTE (1564 Results) The phrase early childhood education is found in the title of the article and the article’s descriptors. WVPT 2012 NTTI

19 V iewing the P artial or the F ull A bstract? NOTE The four-line partial abstract provides only the focus of the paper. WVPT 2012 NTTI

20 V iewing the P artial or the F ull A bstract? NOTE The full abstract provides the date range and population of the studies. WVPT 2012 NTTI

21 Author Search Searching for "Smith, Robert" locates records authored by Robert Smith. Searching for "Robert Smith" locates no records authored by Robert Smith, but if you specified a keyword search, ERIC returns records with the name Robert Smith in the abstract, title, or other field. Searching for Smith, Robert without quotes locates records with the names Robert OR Smith. WVPT 2012 NTTI

Author Search Note the correct syntax: Last name First name Enclosed within double quotations marks WVPT 2012 NTTI 22 Don’t need these!

“Search, Author” Results WVPT 2012 NTTI 23

I want full-text sources! Select the Advanced Search option and check Full- Text Availability 24 WVPT 2012 NTTI

Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) ERIC EBSCO ProQuest Recommendation – Meet with a reference librarian to review their search features. Always use the Thesaurus! 25 WVPT 2012 NTTI

26 Recommendations Always always use the ERIC Thesaurus Locate ERIC descriptors. Check the Scope Note to define the term(s). Search with keywords and descriptors Keywords (synonyms for descriptors) Always always read the full abstract. WVPT 2012 NTTI