EDLP6040: Curriculum Design: Theory & Practice: Finding Articles

In most of your coursework you will be expected to use high quality, scholarly sources of information. The following tutorial will help you understand what scholarly sources are.

All databases will give you the option of limiting your search to Scholarly or Peer Reviewed articles.

Do not check the Full-Text only box. This will limit you to only the full-text available in THAT database, not to the extensive list of holdings that are available from the Cheng Library.

If your topic is too broad, you'll get too many articles (over 100).

If you get too few or no results, check your spelling, or use related seach terms, e.g. instead of high schools, try secondary education.

Look at the descriptors or subject terms to identify appropriate search terms.

Use the term, and, to narrow your search, e.g. computers and instruction.

Use the term, or,  with related terms to broaden your search, e.g. computers or technology.

Avoid using complete sentences, or prepositional phrases, in the search box.

Different databases use different search terms. You may need to adjust your search terms as you move from one database to another.

If you are working on a major research project, keep a search journal recording the databases you used, the search terms you tried, and the success of the search. This can keep you from repeating an unsuccessful search.

There are a number of Library databases that can be used to find articles about education.

To access the databases,

• Go to the Cheng Library's web page (http://www.wpunj.edu/library),
• Select: Find Articles, 
• Select: Education, 
• Select one of the following databases: ERIC, ProQuest Education Journals, Academic Search Premier, or Google Scholar.

ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)

• indexes both journal articles (EJ) and ERIC documents (ED) related to education.
• "Documents" include books, research and technical reports, dissertations, conference proceedings and other non-journal sources of information.
• ERIC indexes more than 850 education journals.
• The full-text of most  of these resources are available online. 
• ERIC is available in two interfaces, EbscoHost or Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. (Same content, different search features) Most people are more confortable with the EbscoHost interface.

ProQuest Education Journals indexes over 800 education related periodical titles. Full text access is available for 650 titles.

Academic Search Premier from EbscoHost indexes in ALL subject areas, not just education. The full-text of most articles is available online.

 Google Scholar is not a database, however, if you access Google Scholar from the Library's webpage it will link you to any full-text articles that are available from the Cheng Library. Look for the link, Full-Text @ Cheng Library. Many other full-text resources (books, ERIC documents, etc.) are accessible through Google Scholar.

If the full text is not accessible from the database you are using, go to the Library's web page and select: Journals and Periodicals.

• In the Search for Journals box, type the name of the Journal and press, Search.
• If the title is listed, check dates carefully for the availability of the issue that you need.
• If the title is available in a Library database, follow links to the issue date and article.
• If the title is available in WPUNJ Film Holdings, or WPUNJ Fiche Holdings, follow links to log-in as a WPUNJ user. If you want the article emailed to you, select the appropriate box and complete the request form. A copy of the article will be scanned and sent to your WPUNJ email address.
• If the title is available in WPUNJ Print Holdings, you can find a print copy of the journal on the shelves in the Periodicals Department of the Library. If needed, assistance is available from the Periodicals Desk.

If the article is not available from the Cheng Library, you may request an InterLibrary Loan (the Cheng Library will request the item for you from another library). Use this link to request an InterLibrary Loan, http://www.wpunj.edu/library/resourcemgmt/interlibrary-loan.dot  Articles will be emailed to your WPUNJ email account. Allow one week for delivery.