Monday, January 31, 2011

Who is ‘AskEric’?

This is one of the best resources for anyone associated with education. I strongly recommend this as a great place to start your research.

About the ERIC Collection

ERIC provides unlimited access to more than 1.3 million bibliographic records of journal articles and other education-related materials, with hundreds of new records added multiple times per week. If available, links to full text are included.

Within the ERIC Collection, you will find records for:

  • journal articles
  • books
  • research syntheses
  • conference papers
  • technical reports
  • policy papers
  • other education-related materials

You may also search special collections from the What Works Clearinghouse and the Regional Educational Laboratories.

Who Uses ERIC

ERIC users include education researchers, teachers, librarians, administrators, education policymakers, instructors and students in teacher-preparation programs, parents, the media and business communities, and the general public. The user community conducts more than eight million searches each month through the ERIC Web site and commercial and non-commercial sites.

What's in ERIC

Journals in ERIC

ERIC indexes education journals, the majority of which are peer-reviewed. Most of these journals are indexed comprehensively - that is, a record for every article in each issue is included in ERIC. Some journals are indexed selectively - that is, only those articles that are education-related are selected for indexing.

Journal records typically include bibliographic data (author, title, date, journal citation, publisher) and an abstract, or short description of the work. A small number of journal publishers also make the full text of an article available at no cost directly through this Web site. The majority of journal articles need to be obtained through library print and electronic holdings or directly from the publisher. To aid in the finding process, ERIC includes Find in a Library and/or Publisher's Web site links at the end of every record with an ISSN number.

Other Materials in ERIC

In addition to the journal literature, ERIC indexes education-related materials from a variety of sources, including scholarly organizations, professional associations, research centers, policy organizations, university presses, the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies, and state and local agencies. Individual contributors submit conference papers, research papers, dissertations, and theses.

Records for these materials typically include bibliographic data (author, title, date, source), an abstract, or short description of the work, and a link to the full text in PDF format. ERIC appreciates the individuals and publishers who have given ERIC permission to display the full text at no charge. For most materials from 2004 forward, if full text is not available in ERIC, links to the publishers' Web sites and to libraries that may have the full text are provided.

Identifying and providing full-text access to this "grey literature" or "fugitive literature" is one of ERIC's signature strengths. Grey literature provides searchers with a wide variety of important information about education. Diverse in format, it ranges from informational materials to very substantive, rigorously researched and reviewed documents, including research syntheses, conference papers, and policy reports. All materials are reviewed and selected in accordance with the ERIC Selection Policy ERIC Selection Policy.

Getting Started with ERIC

The ERIC Web site allows you to search education-related bibliographic records any time at no charge. A growing number of full-text materials are becoming available in the ERIC Collection as PDF documents in ERIC or via links to library holdings and publishers' Web sites.

  • Use the ERIC Web site's Basic Search or Advanced Search tools to search the ERIC Collection.
  • Use the Thesaurus to identify appropriate words and phrases from ERIC's controlled vocabulary for precision searching.
  • Use My ERIC to manage your search criteria and search results, save searches, and track your online submissions.