Library research for graduate students in Education: Journal literature

Locating journal articles

A thorough search of the journal literature is at the heart of the research process. Here you will find theoretical and practical applications, critical commentary, and up-to-date articles focussing on current research in your discipline.

A literature review summarizes and synthesizes current research, relates current research to prior related research, and is an essential part of most research papers, theses etc

An effective review of the journal literature requires knowledge of the terminology used to describe a particular topic, as well as an understanding of the structure of individual databases. It will be worth your while to spend some time acquainting yourself with the search and limit features within academic databases including ERIC & ProQuest Education Databases.

If you are having difficulty finding resources on a particular topic, determining appropriate search terms, or narrowing/focusing your search, please feel free to contact me to book an in-office consultation.

Parsing your research question

Before you search!

Taking a few minutes to break your topic or research question into its component concepts will be time well spent. Focus on the major concepts, ignoring for the time being, leading phrases such as "benefits of" or "relationship between." At the same time, try to identify related search terms, synonyms, and alternate spellings etc. Example:

Education-specific databases

ERIC (Ovid): Education Resources Information Center
ERIC is the most comprehensive of the Education-specific databases available at the University of Saskatchewan. A thorough search of ERIC Ovid is a must for any graduate student undertaking an exhaustive literature review on an education-related topic. Focus is on North America.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law. .
Education Database
ProQuest Education Journals offers the user convenient access to the education literature by means of a user-friendly, intuitive search interface. At the graduate-level, use ProQuest as an adjunct search tool, in addition to ERIC, Google Scholar and other academic databases.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Multidisciplinary databases

Academic Search Complete (ASC)
A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database indexing journals, including thousands of peer-reviewed journals. Abstracts and indexes are also included for monographs, conference proceedings, and reports.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database (CBCA)
Provides full text access to articles from scholarly journals, books, and magazines. CBCA Complete brings together content from CBCA Business, CBCA Education, and CBCA Reference.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Sage Journals
Full text collection of over 500 SAGE electronic journal titles in business, social sciences, humanities, medicine, engineering, and physical and life sciences, with a deep backfile to volume 1, issue 1.
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Access is restricted to current students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
JSTOR
"JSTOR is a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive of scholarship that includes leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences and sciences, as well as primary sources. It includes over 1,000 leading academic e-journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences..."
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Search tips: ERIC OVID

Select "Map term to Subject Heading." This feature will help you identify the specific search terms used in this database
Enter one concept at a time. This will allow you maximum flexibility in combining terms.
Take advantage of the option to limit to "Peer Reviewed." This will narrow your search to research-based articles which have been vetted by experts in the discipline.
Set up a Personal Account. This takes only a minute, and will permit you to save and re-run searches at a later date.

Test yourself -- ERIC OvidSP

Test your understanding with a short quiz.

Take the quiz!
You will have to access the ERIC database in order to answer these questions.