EDUC 294A: Thesis Seminar-PLI

Ask a Librarian 24/7 Chat

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:02:10 -0800

How to Narrow Your Topic

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:50:11 -0700

"I'm writing a paper on World War II."

Often students start their research with a very general topic, even though they may realize the topic is too large to deal with in a 10-15 page paper. Faculty and librarians tell them, "You have to narrow this down." But how do you narrow a topic?

Thought experiments to try:

Think about your topic from the disciplinary perspective. If you are in a sociology class, ask a sociological question about World War II, like "How did WWII affect women?" If it's a political science class, your question might be something like "How did WWII affect presidential elections in the US?"

Think about subsets or aspects of your topic. Some good aspects are:
- by place, such as a country or region
- by time period, such as a century, decade or year
- by population, such as men, women, ethnic group, youth, children or elderly

You can combine these ideas, "What were the major impacts of WWII on women in France, in the decade after the war?"

Take a look at our brief tutorial on topic selection and narrowing. (Slides 5-9 of the tutorial deal with topic narrowing.)

How Do I Make an Appointment?

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:33:56 -0800

Research and writing can very specific and a single in-class library presentation may not provide you with all the information you need. You are more than welcome to contact a Librarian. Feel free to schedule an appointment via the EDP Research Advisory Service, or contact Jill Woolums(jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu)
or Dean Rowan (drowan@law.berkeley.edu) to ask a question, set up an appointment, or get more help with anything related to the Library and research. You can also use the 24/7 Reference service.

Education Literature Intro

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:49:47 -0700

Top Three Databases.

The UC Libraries provide several index/databases for searching literature in education. The three primary education databases are ERIC, Education Index, and Educational Research Abstracts (ERA). Click the tabs above to find specific search tips for doing research with each database. Also, find several related psychology, social science and language/literacy databases under the "More Databases" or "Psychology" tabs above. Several of the related databases, such as PsycInfo, are searchable simultaneously with ERIC on the ProQuest platform.

ERIC, EdIndex and ERA all search for scholarly journal articles in education. There is some overlap among them with respect to journal coverage; however, each indexes some journal titles not covered by the others.

In addition, ERIC indexes Documents (known as "ERIC Documents") from hundreds of organizations producing education-related material. Document types include books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers, and school district documents. Organizations providing non-journal content to ERIC include research foundations, federal and state agencies, policy organizations, university affiliates, and commercial publishers.

ERA also searches ebooks and reference materials published by the Taylor & Francis Group, that includes Routledge, Psychology Press, CRC Press, and Garland Science,

Where to Find ERIC, EdIndex, and ERA.

All the primary education databases - ERIC, Ed Index, and ERA - and PsycInfo are linked from the EDP Library's homepage.

Key Education Topics

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:54:56 -0700

To discover resources on the following top education topics, use the databases indicated.

Educational Administration
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
Business Source Complete
CQ Researcher
EconLit

Educational Psychology
PsycInfo
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
APA eBooks and PsycTests
Counseling Transcripts and Videos
PsycCritiques

Children
  ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
  PsycInfo
Family and Society Studies
Sociological Abstracts
  Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts

Families and Parenting
  ERIC
  Family and Society Studies
PsycInfo
Sociological Abstracts
  Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts

Higher Education
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
CQ Researcher
Chronicle of Higher Education

History of Education
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
America: History and Life
CQ Researcher

News sources for Education
Chronicle of Higher Education
CQ Researcher
Education Week
More News Sources

Sociology of Education
  ERIC
  Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
Family and Society Studies
PsycInfo
Sociological Abstracts
  Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts

Urban education
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
Urban Studies
CQ Researcher

ERIC.gov Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:15:16 -0700

Use the Advanced Search engine for the best results.

Advanced Search lets you refine your search by: keywords, title, author, descriptor, source (i.e. journal name), ERIC Accession Number, ISBN, institution, sponsoring agency, publisher, date range, peer review status and more.

Browse by Topic using the Thesaurus. Index terms, referred to as “descriptors,” are assigned to every item in the ERIC database. Click on “Thesaurus” from the ERIC homepage. Here you can browse alphabetically, by category or search by descriptor.

Find Effective Keywords using the Thesaurus. First think of your question in your own words. Enter those words into the thesaurus search engine to see if there is a descriptor that matches your words. If not, ERIC will provide suggested words. For example, to find articles and documents about tests that measure attitude, enter "test* attitude." The asterisk picks up both singular and plural. The results indicate two descriptors: "Attitude Tests 1966_1980" and "Self Attitude Test."

Refine Your Search. Click on the ERIC Search button to launch an ERIC search from the Thesaurus. ERIC will automatically create a search using the descriptor, but will first give you the opportunity to refine the search by presenting the advanced search screen with its many limiter options.

Once the results appears, you will have another opportunity to narrow your search by author, publication, dates, audience, educational level or additional descriptor.

ERIC

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:53:26 -0700

Where to find ERIC. Find ERIC on the EDP Library homepage under ERIC for the Eric.gov interface or MultiEdPsyc for the ProQuest platform. The MultiEdPsyc link has been configured to search several related databases at once. With one search engine, simultaneously search ERIC, PsycInfo, Communication Abstracts, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, and MLA International Bibliography. The MultiEdPsyc link is available ONLY on the EDP Library homepage.

What's in ERIC ERIC, publicly sponsored and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is the primary and leading index to journals and other literature published in education.

ERIC provides an index to citations for (1) journal articles and (2) ERIC Documents relating to the field of education. Journals and documents are indexed back to 1965. The index points to over 780 journals, representing more than 1.3 million bibliographic records. Check the journal list for titles.

ERIC Documents are from hundreds of organizations producing education-related material. Document types include books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers, and school district documents. Organizations providing non-journal content to ERIC include research foundations, federal and state agencies, policy organizations, university affiliates, and commercial publishers.

How to find full-text of cited material: The Library provides full-text access (online or in print) to most of the journals indexed in ERIC and the other databases searchable from the ProQuest platform. From ProQuest, follow to discover UC’s online or print full-text coverage.   In ERIC.gov, click on "Find in a Library", then on the button, . WorldCat connects the ERIC database to the UC Libraries' collectons.

     ERIC has digitized the entire collection of ERIC Documents (formerly on microfiche). ERIC has not received copyright permission to provide online full-text of a small portion of the documents, however. Most of this portion is available on microfiche at the EDP Library. Microfiche may be checked out and taken to Doe Library for scanning onto a flash drive or printed at EDP. For digitized ERIC Documents follow (via CSA) or the pdf link, ERIC Full-text ,( via Eric.gov).

     If an item is not available full-text from the UC Libraries, ask a librarian for assistance, or use the “Request” links in Melvyl or Oskicat to request an interlibrary loan.

ProQuest Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:25:13 -0700

ProQuest. This search engine is used to find sources indexed in PsycInfo, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, Social Service Abstracts and many others. ProQuest provides a three-row search engine. The first row limits term entry to one, the second and third rows permit entry to two similar/synonymous terms. To clarify intent, rows can be combined with “and”, “or”, or “not”.

Do not check the box labeled “full-text” as you will miss most of the material available online at UC and find only the content we buy from ProQuest. ProQuest indexes, i..e., points to, more content than that which they sell in full-text. UC buys full-text content from many publishing vendors. Everything UC has purchased is seamlessly linked and findable via the UC-eLinks yellow button. The UC-eLinks button does not appear until one clicks on either the Title or the Citation/Abstract link from the Results page. This displays the individual item record together with other navigation tools such as finding full-text or sending to citation management software (i.e., RefWorks).

A sample subject search for empirical studies on writing instruction might be:

Row One: AB (Abstract) = “writing instruction”
Row Two: AB (Abstract)= “empirical study”
Row Three: AB (Abstract)= “K-12"

Depending on the selection of databases to be searched, ProQuest can be very granular. For example, in PsycInfo, one can search for a Methodology or Tests & Measurement instrument. To see all fields that are specific to a database, such as PsycInfo or ERIC, it is necessary to change the selection of databases to only one. For example, when selection is changed to only PsycInfo, you will see a more expanded list of limiter choices, including Methodology. Similarly, when selection is changed to only ERIC, you will see a different list of limiter choices, including Education Level and Target Audience.

Better results occur when phrases are placed in quotation marks.

Ed Index

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:09:42 -0700

Where to find Ed Index. Find Ed Index via the EDP Library homepage. Education Index in now on the Ebsco platform. Both Education Full Text and Education Index Retrospective appear together.

What's in Ed Index: Education Index indexes journal articles and book reviews. Ed Index provides citations from over 350 journals as far back as 1996. It also points to citations for nearly 770 journals back to 1983. Newly added is the full-text of The Chronicle of Higher Education back to January 2001. Click on “Journal Directory” after opening the Ed Index search engine to find a full list of journal titles and their coverage. Some of the titles overlap the coverage in ERIC, but several are only indexed by Ed Index. This is why it is important to run the same search in both ERIC and Ed Index.

How to find full-text of cited material: The Ed Index search engine points to citations, including abstracts. The Library provides full-text access, either online or in print (via UC-eLinks), to a large number of journal articles from the present back to 1929. IMPORTANT NOTE: When using the Ed Index search engine, do not check the “full-text” box. Why? Because you will miss many citations and full-text articles which the Library buys and to which we have online access from other content providers (other than Ebsco).

Once a citation is identified in Ed Index, follow UC-eLinks to discover the full-text. If we buy the full-text from Ebsco, there will be a direct link from the initial results page. If links to full-text (online or in print) do not readily appear, ask a librarian, or use the “Request” links in Melvyl or Oskicat to request an interlibrary loan.

Ebsco Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:35:18 -0700

Ebsco's Search Engine. This is the search engine linked to Education Index Full-text, Education Index Retrospective, Academic Search Complete, and Business Source Complete. Ebsco provides only a single column, three-row f search entry. To clarify intent, terms can be linked with “and”, “or”, or “not”.

Do not check the box labeled “full-text” as you will miss most of the material available online at UC and find only the content we buy from Ebsco. Ebsco indexes, i..e., points to, more content than that which they sell in full-text. UC buys all of Ebsco's education full-text content and much more full-text from other vendors. Everything UC has purchased is seamlessly linked and findable via the UC-eLinks yellow button.

For example, a broad subject search for empirical studies on writing instruction in K-12 schools might be:

Row One: TX (All Text) = “writing instruction”
Row Two: TX (All Text) = “empirical study”
Row Three: TX (All Text) = K-12

Ebsco is not as granular as other search engines, such as ProQuest, in that it does not permit searching by more specific fields such as Methodology or Tests & Measurements.

Better results occur when phrases are placed in quotation marks.

T&F Informaworld Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:11:25 -0700

ERA (Educational Research Abstracts Online) is on the Informaworld platform. Because it is a smaller, more focused database, it is most effective when broader, more general terms or keywords are searched. Use the advanced search screen to deselect additional databases not related to education.

Sample Search:
To do a subject search for empirical studies on writing instruction, follow this example:

KW (Keyword) = writing instruction

This search produces a very manageable set of less than 100 results.

ERA

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:19:37 -0700

Where to find ERA. Find ERA (Education Research Abstracts) on the EDP Library homepage. After doing searches in ERIC and EdIndex, run another search in ERA to pick up additional citations.

What's in ERA: The focus of ERA is current international research in education. ERA covers multiple topics including: child development, literacy, multicultural education, sociology of education, and training and general education.

ERA indexes over 860 journal titles, and provides over 50,000 article abstracts. Citations date back to 1995. ERA includes journals from Britian, Canada, Australia, United States and Europe, some of which are not indexed in either ERIC or Ed Index/Retro.

How to find full-text of cited material. The full-text of most of the articles to which ERA points are linked directly from the ERA platform. ERA points to nearly 350 journal titles. The Library purchases access to full-text articles, either online or in print, for most of the journals cited in ERA. If a hypertext link does not appear next to a citation, do a separate search for the journal in Oskicat or Melvyl to see if the Library purchases the title from another provider. Also, ask a librarian for assistance.

Key Education Topics

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:54:56 -0700

To discover resources on the following top education topics, use the databases indicated.

Educational Administration
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
Business Source Complete
CQ Researcher
EconLit

Educational Psychology
PsycInfo
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
APA eBooks and PsycTests
Counseling Transcripts and Videos
PsycCritiques

Children
  ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
  PsycInfo
Family and Society Studies
Sociological Abstracts
  Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts

Families and Parenting
  ERIC
  Family and Society Studies
PsycInfo
Sociological Abstracts
  Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts

Higher Education
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
CQ Researcher
Chronicle of Higher Education

History of Education
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
America: History and Life
CQ Researcher

News sources for Education
Chronicle of Higher Education
CQ Researcher
Education Week
More News Sources

Sociology of Education
  ERIC
  Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
Family and Society Studies
PsycInfo
Sociological Abstracts
  Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts

Urban education
ERIC
Ed Index
Ed Abstracts
Urban Studies
CQ Researcher

More Databases for Education

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:23:47 -0700

In addition to the three primary databases for education (i.e., ERIC, Ed Index, Ed Abstracts) several other resources are excellent for scholarly literature related to education. These include:

PsycInfo

Academic Search Complete
America: History and Life
American Periodicals
ArticleFirst
British Education Index
Business Source Premier
Children's Literature-Comprehensive Database
CQ Researcher
Chronicle of Higher Education
Digital Dissertations
EconLit
Education Week
ETS Online Research Library
Family and Society Studies
Google Scholar
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences
International Handbook of Research on Teachers and Teaching
ISI Journal Citation Reports
News databases at UC
PAIS with Archives
Periodicals Index and Archive
PsycBooks from APA
PsycCritiques
PsycTests
Sociological Abstracts
Social Services Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts
Urban Studies
Web of Knowledge for social sciences
Who's Who in American Education
Women's Studies International
A-Z. All article databases at UCB.

Books

UC Berkeley subscribes to several eBook packages. Although most eBooks can be found by searching Oskicat or Melvyl, it is also good to check each eBook collection for recently added titles. Check the following eBook collections for material on education and social sciences.
APA eBooks
eBrary
netLibrary
Oxford Scholarship Online
Springer

See also the Oskicat and Melvyl catalogs for print books and other eBooks in the UC Libraries' collections.

PsycCritiques provides book reviews of educational psychology titles.

ERIC.gov Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:15:16 -0700

Use the Advanced Search engine for the best results.

Once the results appears, you will have another opportunity to narrow your search by author, publication, dates, audience, educational level or additional descriptor.

T&F Informaworld Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:11:25 -0700

Sample Search:
To do a subject search for empirical studies on writing instruction, follow this example:

KW (Keyword) = writing instruction

This search produces a very manageable set of less than 100 results.

Ask a Librarian 24/7

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:19:18 -0700

ProQuest Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:25:13 -0700

A sample subject search for empirical studies on writing instruction might be:

Row One: AB (Abstract) = “writing instruction”
Row Two: AB (Abstract)= “empirical study”
Row Three: AB (Abstract)= “K-12"

Better results occur when phrases are placed in quotation marks.

Ebsco Tips

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:35:18 -0700

For example, a broad subject search for empirical studies on writing instruction in K-12 schools might be:

Row One: TX (All Text) = “writing instruction”
Row Two: TX (All Text) = “empirical study”
Row Three: TX (All Text) = K-12

Ebsco is not as granular as other search engines, such as ProQuest, in that it does not permit searching by more specific fields such as Methodology or Tests & Measurements.

Better results occur when phrases are placed in quotation marks.

How Do I Make an Appointment?

jwoolums@library.berkeley.edu (Jill Woolums) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:33:56 -0800