ScholarSearch - finding full-text

If you are searching in ERIC you will see articles, ERIC reports, and sometimes other resources. 

Some of our databases have full text incorporated in them; almost all of our databases, however, are connected to "Find it @Drew" which will check all our electronic journal sources to see if an article is available.

If the articles are directly connected into the database, it will give you a direct link to the PDF or HTML or Linked full text

Some items will not be in our collections and you'll be directed to request them through Interlibrary Loan.

For many, you'll need to click Find it @Drew to see whether it's available electronically

Finding full text at Drew

When you click Find it @Drew you will be taken to a page that will offer you a list of links to the resource in our electronic journal holdings. (Sometimes we have a journal article via more than one database; that's why you see multiple links. Click one of the links to get to the full text:

Finding full-text at Drew

If we don't have access to the journal/article online, Find it @Drew will give you links

• to look for it online as free, open access via Google Scholar
• to request it through our Interlibrary Loan system (ILLiad)

NOTE: The first time you request an article or book via ILLiad (our InterLibraryLoan system), you  will  be asked to fill out a short form. It may take several days to receive an article via InterLibraryLoan;  books can take longer.

If you already have information about a specific article (author, journal or magazine title, title of the article, etc.), use Drew's Journal List Search.  Enter the title of the journal or magazine, and then drill down to the specific item you need.

ERIC

Selective index of journal articles in Education and reports in Education from 1966 to the present.

Basic search strategy

Library databases general use 'boolean logic,' 'keyword,' and 'controlled vocabulary' (subject heading) searches rather than Google-type 'natural language searching'

When searching in ERIC or any other library-type database, you want to separate your topic into concepts and connect them with boolean logic (and parentheses, if necessary).

• When two concepts, and/or the keywords that express them, should BOTH appear in any relevant searches, you want to connect them with AND like this: digital storytelling AND instruction
  This narrows your search
• When EITHER of two alternative concepts, or synonyms/related keywords would make your result relevant, connect them with OR, like this: classroom OR instruction
  This widens your search
• As in math, different search boxes or parentheses allow you to group results:
  digital storytelling AND (instruction or classroom)

Other search tiips

• You can 'truncate' a term with an asterisk * to find that term and all its suffixes: teach* gets teach, teaches, teaching, teacher, teachers, teachable, etc.
• Phrases can be kept together in search by enclosing them with quotes: "adaptive learning"
• Use "Apply equivalent words" and "apply related subjects" to widen your search.
• Use limits (see next slide for details).

Limiting in ERIC

ERIC has snazzy ways to limit your results:

In the limits drop-downs, you can use Ctrl-click  or Shift-click select more than one term.

• Education level is the level of the students being taught/the education being provided. (note that Elementary Education and Primary Education are broadly similar, as are High Schools and Secondary Education: choose both, plus respective grade levels, for the best results)
• Intended audience is the audience of reader to which the text is directed. (Teachers and Practitioners should be selected at the same time.)
• You can also limit to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) publications to get academic standard journal research
• If you limit to full text publications, you may miss some that are in Drew's other databases
• You can limit by date, language, publication type, etc.
• The What Works Clearinghouse rating is specific to research articles published after 2002.