ERIC (via EbscoHost) Searching Tips
There are two types of ERIC items:
- ERIC Journal articles, which are peer-reviewed articles that have appeared in scholarly journals and have an EJ
identifying number; and
- ERIC Documents, which are items such as conference proceedings, reports, curriculum guides, etc. and have an ED
identifying number. ERIC Documents are typically self-submitted by authors for inclusion in the database.
The Advanced Search option allows you to search by various fields (title, author, etc.) selected from the drop-down
menu next to the search box. Refine your search by making use of Special Limiters such as "Journal or Document."
"Default Fields" (keyword) search: a broad topic search that will look for keywords in all fields of an
item record (title, author, subject, abstract, etc.). Evaluate the search results and refine the search as needed.
Click on the article title to view the full record, including the abstract and Descriptor terms
(these can be used to find other related articles on the same topic).
The Descriptor terms come directly from the ERIC Thesaurus, which is a standardized list of terms used in
ERIC to reflect the primary topics of articles. Do a Subject search on those Thesaurus/Descriptor
terms for a list of references on that topic. There is a link to the Thesaurus from within ERIC, or go to
http://www.searcheric.org/.
Print, Save, or E-mail your search results using the "Folder" icon.
The E*Subscribe service provides access to nearly 80% of ERIC documents (ED) published from 1993-present, in
full-text PDF format. There is a direct link in the ERIC item record to check for document availability from the ERIC Document
Reproduction Service. If the ERIC Document is not available online, it is available in microfiche (arranged by ED number) in our
Media/Microforms Center .
To locate an ERIC Journal (EJ number) article of interest:
- Note the source information: the journal in which the article appeared, along with the volume, issue, year, and page numbers.
- Look up the title of the journal in the NCSU Libraries Online Catalog
to see if the NCSU Libraries subscribes to the journal (check for year and volume needed).
- Use the call number of the journal listed in the catalog to locate the journal
in the stacks (current issues -- 1st floor, West Wing; older issues -- Tower).
- Search the Journals Finder for electronic and print availability
of various journals.
There is additional information and an online ERIC Tutorial at
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/eric/.
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