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ERIC Database

Premier Index for Education Studies

Power Searching Information

   Ready to Power Search ERIC?

 

Here are the most important things to remember:

  1.  The platform is:   Use EBSCO search syntax.
  2. ERIC has two sub-files - EJ Journal Articles and ED ERIC Documents
  3. ERIC has a strong Thesaurus of descriptors (subject headings)
  4. ERIC uses mandatory Subject Headings for levels of education (e.g. higher education)
 How to Power Search
  1. Develop your subject sets, using the Thesaurus whenever possible
  2. Use mandatory Level Subject Headings (if applicable)
  3. Combine your sets with AND, OR and/or NOT
  4. Divide your search results, if desired, by sub-file; EJ or ED

 

 Subject Headings, Descriptors, Thesaurus

 

Mandatory level descriptors (educational level).

 Click image to Enlarge

Dividing by EJ or ED:

  1. To limit to ERIC Journal Articles:
    1. put  (ZZ "ej")  in the Search Box with no field selected
    2. Click Search
    3. Combine this set with your other sets to limit to EJ's only
  2. To limit to ERIC Documents: 
    1. put  (ZZ "ed")  in the Search Box with no field selected
    2. Click Search
    3. Combine this set with your other sets to limit to ED's only

To search for non-US countries, use the Subject Heading "foreign countries". For particular countries, search within this set for the Country Name using the ID (Keyword - KW identifiers) field in the dropdown menu.

 

 Proximity [Phrase Searching

See: