EDUC 229 International Education
Why Databases?
Databases are collections of information. We purchase access to several databases that contain journals and magazines where you can find articles for your research.
There are two types of databases for articles:
Subject-specific: These databases gather articles from journals about specific disciplines or topics, such as Education or Psychology.
- Good for: Finding scholarly articles on very specific topics
Multidisciplinary: These databases gather articles from across multiple disciplines. It could be a database that covers a wide variety of social sciences or it could be a database that covers a wide variety across the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences. Using a subject-specific database often means you can search for very specific topics and find materials.
- Good for: Finding scholarly articles on your topic from a variety of perspectives from different disciplines
Peer Reviewed/Refereed/Scholarly Articles
Articles that are peer-reviewed can also be referred to as peer-reviewed, refereed or scholarly articles.
Scholarly articles are written by researchers or experts in a field to share the results of their original research or analysis with other researchers, experts and students. These articles go through a process known as "peer review" where the article is reviewed by a group of experts in the field and revised based on peer feedback before being accepted and published by a journal.
This short video further explains what peer review is and why it's important.
Best Databases for Starting Education Research
These databases are good subject-specific databases for education research:
- ERIC This link opens in a new window
Education journal articles (EJ references) and ERIC documents (ED references), 1967-present. EDs before 1997 are requestable using the Microforms Request page and usable in the Microforms Vewing Room in the LC.
A free version of ERIC is available for all to use at this link: https://eric.ed.gov/.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
- Education Database This link opens in a new windowArticles from 550 journals in the field of primary, secondary and higher education, 1988-present.Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
These are multidisciplinary databases that also have education research. Social Science Premium Collection covers multiple disciplines in the social sciences and Scopus has coverage in the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences. With Scopus, you can sort by citation to see highly cited articles.
- Social Science Premium Collection This link opens in a new windowOne place to search across 16 different social science databases.Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowScopus is an indexing and abstracting database of peer-reviewed scholarly content covering the sciences, social sciences, and arts & humanities, comparable to the Web of Science. Scopus allows for the discovery, tracking, and analysis of scholarship that includes: journal articles, conference proceedings, trade magazines, book series, books and book chapters, and patents.
Use Scopus to:
• Search for documents by topic, title, author, or institutional affiliation
• Perform citation searches and establish citation alerts
• Export citations to reference management systems
• View impact metrics for authors and journals
• Integrate Scopus content with ORCID profilesAvailable on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
- Last Updated: Nov 13, 2024 2:00 PM
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