ERIC Online is accessible through the following Web site: http://www.eric.ed.gov.
Creating a My ERIC account allows users to save searches, manage citations, and submit non-journal materials.
New researchers without an account should begin by selecting Register to Use My ERIC.
Once you have created a My ERIC account, you will login using the My ERIC Login page.
The Basic Search allows users to find information by entering in a subject term and type of document (i.e. the Search In box). For more specific search options, navigate to the Advanced Search.
In the Advanced Search interface you can limit your search by keyword, title, author, subject descriptors, eric number, and much more.
To narrow your results, use the Limiters. Options to narrow your search results include full text availability, publication date, publication type, and education levels.
Another tool ERIC provides on its toolbar is the Thesaurus feature. ERIC has a standardized list, or “controlled vocabulary,” of education-related terms called Descriptors that are maintained in the ERIC Thesaurus of Descriptors. Descriptors are used to organize ERIC records by subject. Using Descriptors in your search can help you locate materials of greater relevance to your topic.
Planning your search using ERIC Descriptors:
The results page is a list of resources based upon your search criteria. Displayed above your list of results will be your original search terms. Results will be listed by relevancy, with each record containing the citation information for the item and a list of descriptors.
On the left of your screen, additional options to narrow your search will appear.
After locating an article of interest within your search results, view the citation description to determine if your article is full text.
To connect to the journal, you would click on the database link and find your article.
My Clipboard allows users to temporarily save articles of interest to one central location. If you do not create an ERIC account (My ERIC), your marked citations will be lost when you leave ERIC.
To use My Clipboard, add citations using the Add button in the upper right hand corner of the citation. It will automatically be added to your clipboard.
To see the articles you have saved, click on the clipboard icon in the upper right hand corner.
The management options above the records allow you to print, email, export, or permanently save your items.
Similar processes are used to export citations to your documents and to Endnote (a bibliographic citation managing software).
Begin by selecting Export Citations in your clipboard.
If you want to download your selections as a file, click on Text File and choose a display type.
To add citations to Endnote, select Citation Manager File and click Download. For information about Endnote.
ERIC provides a multitude of RSS feeds for keeping current on various topics in education. To subscribe to a feed, click on the RSS icon in the lower right hand side of ERIC's main page.
This will will direct you to a list of RSS feeds available through ERIC.
Select those you are interested in and choose which reader you would like it to be displayed in (you will need to have a Feed Reader already set up to do this).
