Searching ERIC

What is ERIC?

ERIC is an acronym for the Education Resources Information Center.

It is a database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education that contains citations and abstracts to journal and report literature in all aspects of educational research.

Accessing ERIC

You can access ERIC from the Library's home page by:

1. Clicking on Databases, Journals & Books

2. Clicking on the letter "E"

3. Scrolling to ERIC to select it.

If you are off-campus, you will be prompted to log in with your NetID and password.

Identifying Concepts

Our search question is:

Does high-fidelity simulation improve teamwork skills of nurses?

Our main concepts are shown in bold.

Searching for 1st Concept

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Let's determine the subject heading for simulation.

-> Click on Thesaurus in the blue bar at the top of the page. This is where we will find the best subject headings for our concepts.

-> Type simulation in the "Browsing: ERIC -- Thesaurus" box. Click Browse.

Searching for 1st Concept

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-> Click on the term simulation to display more details.

You are now in the Tree View for this term.

The Tree View shows broader, narrower, and related terms to consider for simulation.

Searching for 1st Concept

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-> To select simulation, check the box to the left of it.

-> If you want to include all of the narrower terms, check the box in the Explode column on the right. You can also leave this box unchecked and only check the narrower terms you want included.

-> Click Add. ERIC should add simulation and any other terms you selected to the search box at the top of the screen.

-> Click Search.

Searching for 1st Concept

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Next, we need to search for our keywords for this concept.

-> Click Clear to clear the search box.

-> Type simulation OR simulations and then click Search.

Searching for 1st Concept

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Finally, we will combine our subject and keyword searches.

-> Click on Search History below the search box.

-> Be sure to clear the search box by clicking Clear.

--> Check the boxes in front of our two searches (S1 and S2).

Searching for 1st Concept

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-> Click on Search with OR.

The result set now includes subject and keyword terms for our first concept.

Searching for 2nd Concept

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We will repeat these steps for our second concept of teamwork.

-> Click on Thesaurus in the blue bar at the top of the page. 

-> Type teamwork in the "Browsing: ERIC -- Thesaurus" box. Click Browse.

-> Click on the term Teamwork to display more details. 

-> Check the box to the left of Teamwork to select it.

-> There are no narrower terms for teamwork, but you can check boxes for related terms (e.g. cooperation), if desired.

-> Click Add and then click Search.

Searching for 2nd Concept

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Next up...our keywords! 

-> Click Clear to clear the search box.

-> Type teamwork OR team OR teams and then click Search.

Searching for 2nd Concept

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Then we'll combine all the terms for this concept.

-> Again, clear the search box.

-> Check the boxes in front of our two searches for this concept (S4 and S5).

-> Click on Search with OR.

The result set now includes subject and keyword terms for our second concept.

Searching for 3rd Concept

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Ready to repeat this for our third concept of nurses?

-> Click on Thesaurus. 

-> Type Nurse and click Browse.

Searching for 3rd Concept

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Nurses it is!

-> Click on the term Nurses and note the broader, narrower, and related terms.

-> Check the box to the left of Nurses and any others you wish to include. Explode the term if you want to include the narrower term School Nurses.

-> Click Add and then click Search.

Searching for 3rd Concept

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What's next? You got it...keywords!

-> Click Clear to clear the search box.

-> Type nurse OR nurses and then click Search.

Searching for 3rd Concept

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Combining the terms for this concept...

-> Again, clear the search box.

-> Check the boxes in front of our two searches for this concept (S7 and S8).

-> Click on Search with OR.

The result set now includes subject and keyword terms for our third concept.

Putting It All Together

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Now we need to combine all of our concepts and see what our result set looks like. To do so:

-> Clear the search box.

-> Check the boxes in front of our final searches for each concept (S3, S6, and S9). 

Putting It All Together

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-> Click Search with AND.

What do you think of the number of results? Too few? Too many?

Narrowing or broadening searches

-> Narrow the search by including more concepts. For example, adding a 4th search for high-fidelity OR "high fidelity" as keywords would reduce the result set.

-> Broaden the search by adding more synonyms or "like terms" to our existing concepts. For example, adding manikin OR manikins to the simulation concept would broaden the result set.

Hint: Check the subject headings, titles, and abstracts of relevant articles for useful terms to include.

Limiting Results

-> Narrow by publication date on the left of the result set, if needed.

-> Click Show More to see more limits, such as language, if needed.

Note that, unlike CINAHL, ERIC does not have a limit for study type. However, there are limits for Journal Articles and Publication Type.

The End

You have successfully completed the Searching ERIC tutorial!

If you have questions or need help searching ERIC, contact Jamie Conklin at jamie.conklin@duke.edu or at 919.660.1120. Alternatively, contact Duke Medical Center Library & Archives at 919.660.1100.