Search Tips for ERIC (via EBSCOhost) Iona College Libraries
The ERIC database is a product of the Educational Resources Information Center, a nationwide information network sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It is the largest education database in the world, containing over 1 million abstracts of journal articles and documents on education research and practice. Accessing the ERIC database via EBSCO will allow you to easily connect to the full text of many journal articles and documents contained in the database. Please note: Every journal article and document in ERIC is assigned a unique number. All journal articles are identified by a number beginning with the prefix EJ; all ERIC documents are identified by a number beginning with the prefix ED.
SEARCHING: ENTERING TERMS
Default Fields will search the Article Title, Subject Headings, Author, and Abstract for the words you enter. To search all fields, including the full-text of the article (when available), select All Text. Or, you can choose to search just one field to narrow your search. Selecting Descriptors (All) or Descriptors (Major) will allow you to search subject terms found in the ERIC Thesaurus; selecting Identifiers (All) or Identifiers (Major) will search additional identifying terms not found in the ERIC Thesaurus.
SEARCHING: COMBINING & CONNECTING TERMS
Combine terms using the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT: AND - combines terms so that each search result contains all of the words. Example: science and elementary OR - combines similar terms so that each search result contains at least one of the words. Example: science or mathematics NOT - excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the words that follow it. Example: science not social (eliminates results containing “social science”) Quotation marks allow you to search for an exact phrase. Example: “writing across the curriculum” Parentheses can be used to group ideas. Example: (media and literacy) and (“elementary education”) Special characters can be used to search for multiple spellings of words, various word endings, or to specify proximity of terms:
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Function Wildcard Truncation Near Within
Special Character ? * N W
Sample Command wom?n math* math n5 manipulatives bilingual w4 education Result Will result in articles with the word women or woman Will result in articles with the words math, mathematics, mathematical, etc. Will result in articles with the requested terms within the specified number of words from each other in any order Will result in articles with the requested terms within the specified number of words from each other in the order you entered them
SEARCHING: SETTING LIMITS
Click on the Refine Search tab located below the search boxes to apply various limits to your search. Limits may include: * Specific journal name * Publication date range * Specific ERIC number (EJ or ED number) * Journal or Document (restrict search to journals (EJ numbers) only or to documents (ED numbers) only) * Educational Level * Publication Type (such as teaching guides, instructional materials, etc.)
SORTING RESULTS
Search results are automatically sorted by date, beginning with the most recent articles. To resort results by relevance (to your search terms), source, or author, click on the Sort by menu and choose another option.
ERIC THESAURUS
The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors contains subject headings (or “descriptors”) that are assigned to articles and documents in the database. By locating a proper descriptor, you can easily find the most relevant articles on your topic. Click on the Thesaurus tab (top of screen, next to Publications) to browse the Thesaurus:
Enter a term in the Browse for box. Clicking on a descriptor that appears in the results list will display a description (or “scope note”) and all broader, narrower, and related terms. You can add a descriptor to your search by clicking on the box next to it, and then on the ADD button above the list. If you already have a search term or terms in the Find box, you can add descriptors to it by clicking on the box next to the descriptor that you want to add, selecting AND, OR, or NOT from the drop-down box, and then clicking ADD.
LOCATING FULL-TEXT ERIC DOCUMENTS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES
ERIC DOCUMENTS: Most ED documents (entries in your results list identified by an “ED” number) from 1993present are full-text. Click the link that reads Full Text from ERIC that follows the abstract of the document in the results list (see following illustration). If the article is available in full text, it will appear on the screen automatically.
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Documents are in PDF format (Adobe Acrobat files) and can be printed using the printer icon at the top left corner of the document screen (not the browser “file/print” button):
If the document is not available online, there will either be no Full Text from ERIC link following the abstract, or clicking the link will bring you to an ERIC screen which will indicate that the full text of your document is not available online via the ERIC database. Many ERIC documents are available in our ERIC microfiche collection. Make note of the document’s “ED” number and see if the microfiche is available at Arrigoni Library. If microfiche is not available at Arrigoni Library, you can submit a document delivery request to the library’s Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery office either by filling out an article request card, or by filling out the online article request form at http://www.iona.edu/library/infoserv/artreq.htm ERIC JOURNALS: Many full-text journal articles (entries in your results list identified by an “EJ” number) will be available directly in the ERIC database. Click on Linked Full Text following the abstract of the article to access the full text. On the following screen, next to Formats:, select HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text (whichever is available). To obtain the full text of a journal article that is not available in the ERIC database but may be available in another database, follow the steps below: Step 1: Click the Check for full-text journal availability link. This link will allow you to see if we have the journal indicated in your citation in full text format (either electronic or print), and the years for which full text articles are available (i.e., the “holdings” for that specific journal). In the following example, you would be looking for English Journal, volume 92, number 2, November 2002:
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Step 2: If Iona has the journal you need, the resulting screen will show the journal title followed by links to the Iona College Libraries Print/Microform collection (our online catalog), and/or additional databases in which the journal is in full-text format. If the journal is in our collection in the library in either print or microform, you must click the “Iona College Libraries” link to see the years that are available (holdings) for that journal. If the journal is available electronically in another database, click on the title of the database (as in the example below). Be sure to check the date range for which full text is available next to the database link – in the example below, English Journal is available in full-text format in ProQuest Research Library for the years 1988 to present:
Step 3: Then, depending on the database you enter, you can either browse by journal volume/issue/year to find your article, or do a search in that database (eg., a title search for the article you want) to find the full text of the article. In the example below, just browse for the date/volume/issue:
MARKING/PRINTING/E-MAILING/SAVING ARTICLES
Instead of immediately reading or printing each article during your searching, you can click the associated with each article record you want. This will add the article to a temporary folder. folder icon
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After adding all the articles you want, click on the icon (located above the list of search results) to see all of your selected articles. From this screen you can remove the articles and citations you do not need, then print, email, or save (to a disk/computer) those that you want.
IMPORTANT NOTES
Printing & Saving: When a full-text article is available in PDF format only (not HTML) or it says “Linked Full Text,” you must print and/or save these articles separately. E-mailing: When e-mailing articles with PDF full-text, make sure you check the PDF as separate attachment (when available) box below the box where you enter your email address. Articles with Linked Full Text must be e-mailed separately. Your folder of saved articles will be deleted after printing/saving/e-mailing unless you uncheck Remove these items from folder after printing/e-mailing/saving.
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