EBSCO ERIC Database Guide

Adding Databases

Searching

Peer Review

Viewing/ Printing

EBSCOhost Account

Thesaurus

Visual

Note: This guide is for using the EBSCO version of ERIC through Fogler. Users connecting through MARVEL! should ignore the instructions in the Start section.

Locating  ERIC on the Fogler Web Page
1. From the Fogler Library web page go to the link "Search in a Database" under the heading Articles on your topic.
2. Under the Databases A-Z list click on  E.
3. Then click on the link for ERIC (EBSCO).

Accessing ERIC Remotely
1. You will need to enter your name and the number on the back of your Maine card in order to access ERIC.
2. Your Maine card should be automatically activated for every semester that you are enrolled. If your is not working, take it to the circulation desk in the Reserve Reading room on the first floor of Fogler to be activated.

Adding Databases

It is easy to simultaneously search ERIC and Education Fulltext

Click on the link for Choose Databases next to the search box

Click on the box to add Education FullText

Now click on the OK button and you are reading to start searching

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 Searching

These instructions are for the default search in ERIC. 

Using the Single Search Box
1. For phrase searching, enter the phrase you want to find.
2. To search for terms that might not be close together  AND to look search for more than one term (e.g author and topic). Example: Dodge AND aggression
3.  Use OR to search for synonyms. Matching records will contain either of your terms. Example: children OR adolescents
4.You can use NOT to eliminate certain aspects of a term. Example: curriculum NOT reading
5. Put ( ) around terms to make a complex search. Example (children OR adolescents) AND discipline
6. IUse * to truncate words so that you can capture both the singular and the plural. Example: child*
Note: If you do not get many results for your search try putting your search terms into separate boxes or add AND between your terms.

Using Multiple Search Boxes
1. Using Advanced Search allows you to use multiple search boxes. Click on the link for Advanced Search to begin.
Entering Your Search Terms
2. Advanced Search  provides AND between search boxes for you.  You can change the drop down menus to OR and NOT.

Sorting Your  Results
1. The default listing is by date
2. Results can also be listed by  author or source or relevance.

Narrow Results by Subject
1. You can narrow the results within your results by clicking on a subject term in the box on the left of the search results. Below are the subject terms returned for the search "reading fluency elementary."
2. This process can be repeated by clicking on another subject term. Each time the results are further limited.

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Peer Review

1. You can place a number of limits on your search including peer review, journal name, and publication type . When you place a limit on your search you will not see any records that do not match your limits.

2. Because we now have full-text articles in other databases such as Education Full Text, Sage, and Science Direct, it is NOT a good idea to limit your search to full text.  Use Article Linker to access the full text articles from other sources.

Search History
1. ERIC automatically makes a temporary history of searches.
2. Click on the link  Search History/Alerts to see your search history.
3. You can click on the link to see the results or revise a previous search

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EBSCOhost Account
1. In order to save a search, save items permanently in a folder or create a web alert on the EBSCOhost server, you must sign up for an EBSCO host account. There is a link at the top of the page called "Sign Into My EBSCOhost" which leads to an area where you can sign in or create a new account.
2. Click on the "I'm a new user" link to establish a free account.
3. Click on the link "Search History/Alerts" link to save your search.
4. Then choose the Save/Searches Alert link.  To retrieve saved searches or alerts click on the appropriate link.
5. Select either a permanent or temporary Save or an Alert. An alert can be run daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly

Using Folders
1. Click on the icon of a folder located  beneath the citation information.
2. Click on the link at the top of the screen to save all of the items in a search.

Viewing Items in Folder
1. Click on the link Folder View in the upper right area of your computer screen to see items in folder.
2. There are two ways to remove items from the folder. Either click on the icon of the folder below the citation in the results section, or click on the X in the Folder has items area.
3. Once you are in the folder area, you may email, save, print,  or export your items.

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Viewing/Printing

Opening Full Text Documents
	This link pulls full text directly from the ERIC government web site for ED documents
	This link opens pdf journal articles.  The articles have the same format as print journals.
	This link opens html journal articles.  These articles have been recoded using html and do not have the same format as the print journal.
	This button implements a process that connects the database to the journals in URSUS.  This will connect to full text articles if URSUS has access to an online journal either through a subscription or through another database. If no online source can be found, then print resources or interlibrary loan are available.

Printing or Emailing a PDF Document
1. If you article has is a pdf  document you will see icons above article
2. Click on the icon of a printer to print the article.
Do NOT go to the file menu and click on print. If you do this, you will not print the article.
3. To email a copy of the article, click on the icon of an envelope.  Select the option of sending a copy, since the link will not work once you have left ERIC.

Printing or Emailing an HTML Document
1. If you article is an html document you will icons above the article.
2. Click on the icon of the printer to print, the icon the the envelope to save and the icon of the disk to save.

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ERIC Thesausus

Using the Thesaurus
The thesaurus is an index of subject terms that are used in ERIC. Subject terms are assigned to each record, and using them can increase your success in getting records that contain related concepts.
1. Click on the Thesaurus button that is in the top part of the screen.
2. Look for descriptors by entering your search term into the box and then clicking on the Browse button. The default setting is to see descriptors Term Begins With. You can also select Term Contains or Relevancy Ranked.
3. Click on the terms to find the scope note and broader, related, or narrower terms.

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Visual Search

Visual Search allows you to search across broad subjects. 

Enter Your Search Term
1. Click on the link for visual search beneath the basic or advanced search box.
2. Your results will come in a visual map organized by topics.

3 Click on the topics to see subtopics.

4. The first three results for each topic, subtopic, etc are shown.  To see the all of the results for a given column, place the mouse at the bottom of the column.

5. Click on the title to open a record for a citation.

6. Once you have clicked on a rectangle to bring up a document the record will appear on the right hand side of the screen.

7. To print, email, or save the abstract, click on the link Add to Folder.  Click on the More link at the bottom of the abstract to see full text.

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Created by: Cynthia Crosser | Revised: 12/26/2012