ERIC is the largest database of education-related journal articles and self-published documents in the world. Established by the US Department of Education in 1966, you can learn more about ERIC here.
Two versions of ERIC are available. First is the publicly available website that was upgraded in 2004 to include full-text to most of the recent self-published documents. Drexel also subscribes to the ERIC database through the vendor EBSCO to gain the benefit of "SFX" links in the records which often link to the full text of articles in our other online databases.
TIP: Search both versions of ERIC to get the best results.
Within ERIC, the two types of content may be searched together (the default) or separately. Use the "Document Type" options to retrieve only journal articles ("journal") or self-published documents ("documents").
TIP: Try your search both ways to see the different results you get.
Journal Articles
This first half of ERIC provides standardized indexing and short abstracts for a broad spectrum of commercially published education journals. Each article citation has a unique accession number that begins with the letters "EJ." [Background: this was formerly published as a stand-alone product called "Current Index to Journals in Education" or "CIJE"]
Self-published Documents
This second half of ERIC provides standardized indexing and short abstracts for books, dissertations, published and unpublished reports, curriculum guides, conference proceedings, and much more. Each RIE document has a unique accession number that begins with the letters "ED." [Background: this was formerely published as a stand-alone product called Resources in Education or "RIE"]
Finding Full Text
For general search help see here. Once you have results, you'll need to determine if your document is journal article (EJ) or a document (ED). To find out, look at the accession number in the citation you have retrieved.
If the accession number begins "EJ," you are looking at a journal article.
Example:
Integrative Thinking and Creativity in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Author: Sill, David J. Source: Journal of General Education v50 n4 p288-311 2001 Accession No: EJ650971
For best access to journal articles, use ERIC through EBSCO. In the citation for your article, see the tiny SFX button and a link to "Search SFX." That will open a separate window with any options for electronic access. For older articles (pre-1995) search the journal title in the main library catalog to determine if hard copy is available.
If the accession number begins "ED," you are looking at a report, book, curriculum guide, or other non-journal document.
Example:
Managing Paraeducators in Rural Inclusive Classrooms.
Author: Dover, Wendy F. Publication: U.S. South Carolina No. of Pages: 8 Accession No: ED463104
About 80% of older RIE documents are available full-text in EBSCO (1993-2004) through the link "Access ERIC ---> Full Text." (If your document is a book, also check the
Library catalog).
All of the newer RIE documents (since 2004) are available through the
publicly available ERIC website if not also through the EBSCO version.
Contact your librarian if you have questions or call the reference desk at 215-895-2755 (Hagerty) or 215-762-7184 (Hahnemann).
Obtaining Materials Not Owned by Drexel
If you require ERIC documents or journal articles not available through the Library students and faculty may request them via
Document Delivery/Interlibrary Loan. (Be sure to include ERIC Document number and number of pages on the book form.)
NOTE: Temple University and the Pedagogical Library of the School District of Philadelphia have complete collections of the ERIC Documents on microfiche. UPenn has a partial set at Van Pelt Library. (see Area Libraries).
Subject Browsing via the Thesaurus
Using official ERIC subject terms (descriptors) can help you to improve your ERIC searches. To identify useful descriptors, use the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors. The thesaurus is available online or in print. For detailed help see here.
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Questions about using these resources? Contact Tim Siftar, Information Services Librarian.
