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MS_HE_406-0: Research and Analysis I

Searching in ERIC

The ERIC database is an excellent tool for locating literature related to all aspects of education at every educational level. You can start with a simple keyword search in ERIC like so:

 

This will yield some good results and you can enter additional keywords using Boolean operators such as AND, OR, NOT to refine your search. For example, you might enter study abroad AND employment to find articles about how participating in a study abroad program might influence future employment prospects.

 

 

ERIC also has a built-in thesaurus and advanced search option to help make your searches more precise.

 

 

The ERIC thesaurus is a set of defined terms or subject headings (known as "descriptors") that indicate what topic is being discussed in the material. You can look these terms up and insert them into your search.

 

 

 

 

Use the ERIC advanced search option to do more complex searches. You can enter keywords into separate search boxes and use the pull-down menus to tell the system to search for those terms in specific fields such as the title, author or subject.

You can also apply other limits to your search to further refine the results. For example, you can limit your search to only materials dealing with higher education by using the educational level limiter.