EDF 600

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EDF 600

• Mrs. Kathy Lowe MLS
• Reference and Instruction Librarian
• lowek_at_montevallo.edu
• 665-6109
• Monday 1- 9
• Tuesday Friday 9 -5

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My goal is to provide

• Orientation to ERIC
• Orientation to Psychology databases
• Guidance in computer search strategy

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Library web pagehttp//www.montevallo.edu/library
/

• 24 x 7 access to Library databases and Library
  Catalog
• Off-campus access to Databases is via your
  student ID number

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ERIC?

• What is the ERIC database?The ERIC database is
  the world's largest single source of education
  information containing more than 1.1 million
  bibliographic records of education-related
  journal articles and non-journal materials. You
  can access the database on the Library web site
  from two sources, EBSCOHost or the Institute of
  Education Sciences.

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Audience

• Who uses ERIC?ERIC is available to the general
  public. Its primary audience includes educational
  researchers, teachers, librarians, school and
  college administrators, educational policymakers,
  instructors and students in teacher preparation
  programs, parents, and the media and business
  communities as they relate to education.

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Content of ERIC

• What types of materials are included in ERIC?
• EJ ERIC Journals provide access to
  education-related resources in journals.
• ED ERIC Documents non-journal bibliographic
  information. Types of non-journal materials
  indexed in ERIC include books conference
  proceedings and selected presentations
  literature reviews and bibliographies
  Congressional hearings and reports reports on
  federal/state standards, testing, and
  regulations research reports U.S. Department of
  Education and contractor reports and working
  papers from established research and policy
  organizations. Materials indexed through July
  2004 also included lesson plans.

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Recent changes in ERIC

• Will the structure of the record in the ERIC
  database change?Yes. ERIC is adding fields to
  help users evaluate the quality of the material.
  For example, a quality indicator, "Peer
  Reviewed," has been added to the Search Results
  display.

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How current is the material in the ERIC database?

• In June 2005 ERIC resumed adding materials to the
  database. The first ERIC update since July 2004
  included materials published from January 2004
  forward. ERIC will include materials within a
  month of their acquisition, updating the file on
  a weekly basis.

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Primary Research Articles

• These are articles in which the authors present
• a new set of findings
• conduct original research
• design an experiment, a survey, a questionnaire
  etc. to conduct the original research

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Characteristics of Primary Research Articles

• Articles will usually include subheadings such as
  
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References cited

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Finding Primary Research Articles in ERIC Journals

• Limit your results to Publication Type Reports
  - Research / Technical
• Scope of
• Reports - Research / Technical
• Original research, technical research, reports,
  studies, empirical results, experimental
  statistical studies, surveys, case studies,
  theory testing, systematic scientific
  investigations, seeking facts and/or
  generalizable principles. Emphasis on materials
  utilizing a formal research design, but may
  include informal reports and verbal presentations
  of such efforts. Includes proposals for needed
  research.

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Finding Primary Research Articles in ERIC
Journals (cont.)

• Limit your Results to Journals
• Your Citation should include
• Publication Type Journal Article (080)
• Publication Type Reports Research/Technical
  (143)
• ERIC Number EJ XXX XXX

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Important

• All ERIC Publication Type Research Reports /
  Technical are not primary research
• To be sure you have primary research
• You must read the abstract
• You may have to read the entire article

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Clues to Look for

• Methods This section describes the techniques
  used to execute the experiment in detail,
  including the collection of data, and the
  statistical procedures used. This is usually full
  of technical jargon, so it can be difficult for
  non-specialists to read.
• Results This section is typically a very
  technical presentation of the outcome of the
  experiment. The results are usually described
  with the aid of tables, statistical tests where
  appropriate, and figures and diagrams if
  necessary.
• Discussion This is where the authors interpret
  their results in light of previous work in the
  area. Here the authors must convince the reader
  of the validity and importance of their findings.
  Sometimes, ideas for future or follow-up research
  are included.
• References cited The authors must list all the
  articles they cited within their own article as
  the last section of the paper. This is an
  excellent way to find citations to other related
  articles.

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Words to Look for

• Hypothesis
• Effects ofon
• Subjects were administered
• Randomly assigned
• Control group
• Means, standards, deviations..

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Secondary Research

• Secondary ResearchSecondary literature presents
  an overview of a topic by summarizing the
  research and data from many different sources.
• It is not original research, but an excellent
  source of background information.

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Locating Secondary Research in Journals

• How do I locate secondary research?1. ERIC
  Publication TypeIn ERIC you can limit your
  results to Report  - Evaluative
• Reports - Evaluative Studies evaluating research,
  alternative courses of action, or the merits of a
  particular process or program. Studies of
  feasibility of a given course of action.
  Evaluations of programs. Studies oriented toward
  decision-making and concerned with judgments
  rather than generalizations

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Locating Secondary Research in Journals (cont.)

• Or Limit Publication type to Reports
  Descriptive
• ERIC Publication TypeIn ERIC you can limit your
  results to Reports  - Descriptive
• Scope of Reports DescriptiveIncludes project
  descriptions, program descriptions. Description
  of systems , procedures, or practices in actual
  cases.

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Locating Secondary Research in Journals (cont.)

• Limit your Results to Journals
• Your Citation should include
• Publication Type Journal Article (080)
• Publication Type Reports Evaluative (142)
  orPublication Type Reports Descriptive (141)
• ERIC Number EJ XXX XXX

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ERIC Documents

• Commonly referred to as ED Documents
• Never a journal article
• Sometimes referred to as Non-journal
• Available full text on the ERIC database from
  1994 present
• Library has ED Documents in microfiche from 1966
  - present

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ERIC Documents

• Identified by ED XXX XXX
• ERIC EbscoHost allows you to refine search to
  Documents
• Full text electronic access is often via Adobe
  Acrobat.

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Additional Databaseson the Library Web page

• ERIC is your first approach
• PsycINFO
• PsychArticles
• Academic Search Premier
• Medline

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What ERIC may NOT offer

• Most current journal articles
• Ease of use
• Fast results may require patience on your part

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Benefit of ERIC Thesaurus

• ERIC Thesaurus
• ERIC has a controlled vocabulary of
  education-related terms called Descriptors that
  are maintained in the ERIC Thesaurus. Descriptors
  are used to organize database materials by
  subject. Using Descriptors in your search can
  help you locate materials of greater relevance to
  your topic.

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You say tomato, I say tomahto

• ERIC Descriptors are not the same as keywords.
  Keywords match words found in a bibliographic
  record and may or may not fully represent the
  subject of an article or document.
• ERIC Descriptors, also known as indexing terms or
  subject headings, help you locate subject-related
  materials that may not contain the keyword in the
  indexed record

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You say tomato, I say tomahto

• Benefits of Using the ERIC Thesaurus
• Identify appropriate terms for conducting
  systematic searches.
• Save time by reducing guesswork and
  trial-and-error methods.
• Retrieve relevant material

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Planning a Search for ERIC Descriptors

• Describe the topic in your own words.
• Divide the topic into major concepts
• Use the Thesaurus to locate the appropriate
  Descriptors for each concept of the topic

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PsychInfo

• General
• Nearly 2,290,000 records as of October 2006
• More than 91,000 records added to the database
  from January June 2006
• Updated weekly

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Journal Coverage in PsychINFO

• More than 2,000 titles covered
• 98 are peer reviewed journals
• Journal records78 of database
• Accepted for coverage if archival, scholarly,
  peer-reviewed, and regularly published with
  titles, abstracts, and keywords in English

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Book Coverage in PsychINFO

• Chapters from authored and edited books
• 7 of database
• Authored and edited books4 of database
• English-language, published worldwide
• Selected if scholarly, professional, or
  research-based all with psychological relevance

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Dissertations and other secondary publications

• Selected from Dissertation Abstracts
  International (A and B)
• 11 of database
• Abstracts in dissertation records starting 1999
• Selected on basis of classification in DAI in
  sections with psychological relevance

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Geographical coverage

• Publications from more than 49 countries
• Journals in more than 27 languages

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PsycINFO Classification Categories and Codes

• Every record in PsycINFO databases receives a
  classification code, which is used to categorize
  the document according to the primary subject
  matter.
• These classification codes can help you target
  your search by allowing you to restrict retrieval
  to a specific category.

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PsycINFO Classification Categories and Codes

• The Classification Categories Codes are
  composed of 4-digit numbers and a title.
• You search them using the numerical codes, not
  the title of the category.
• There are 22 main categories, and all but one
  category have subcategories.
• Some of the subcategories also have narrower
  subcategories.

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Why Search Using Classification Codes?

• 1. When the alternative is to search for many
  different descriptorsexamples you want
  documents about treatments for Alzheimer's
  Disease you want documents about psychological
  tests and inventories

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Why Search Using Classification Codes?

• 2. When you want to EXCLUDE a categoryfor
  example
• you want documents about eating attitudes in
  healthy individuals

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Why Search Using Classification Codes?

• 3. You want to limit your retrieval to a specific
  settingexamples you want documents about
  achievement motivation in teachers and students
  you want documents about personality traits of
  military personnel

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PsychINFO Thesaurus Features

• Includes more than 8,000 standard and
  cross-referenced terms.
• New terms are mapped back to all relevant records
  in APA's databases spanning all years.
• Scope notes define the terms.
• Term hierarchies show the relationship to other
  terms.
• The year indicates when the term was added to the
  Thesaurus.

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PsycARTICLESAPA's Full-Text Journal Article
Database

• PsycARTICLES is a database of full-text articles
  from journals published by the American
  Psychological Association, the APA Educational
  Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological
  Association, and Hogrefe Publishing Group

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PsycARTICLES

• 58 Journals
• Coverage list  Current list at
  www.apa.org/psycarticles/covlist.html
• Years covered  1985present  18941984
  Historical content to be added later this year
• Number of articles  More than 120,000 as of
  September 2006  The addition of historical files
  added 72,699 full-text records

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Are all the articles cited in PsycINFO also in
PsycARTICLES?

• No
• PsycINFO contains abstracts from more than 2,000
  journals published by many different publishers.
• PsycARTICLES provides full-text for a select
  number of journals published by APA, the Canadian
  Psychological Association, Hogrefe Publishing
  Group and the Educational Publishing Foundation