Essential Research Databases
- Education Source This link opens in a new windowProvides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,850 academic periodicals. Includes full text for more than 1,800 journals, 550 books and monographs, education-related conference papers, citations for over 4 million articles, including book reviews, and over 100,000 controlled and cross-referenced names of educational tests. Spans all levels of education from early childhood to higher education and also includes educational specialties such as multilingual education, health education and testing.
- ERIC This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
ERIC is a widely searched education database used by millions of researchers, students, faculty, librarians, and others searching for education research. - Professional Development Collection This link opens in a new windowDesigned for professional educators, provides a highly specialized collection of some 520 high-quality education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles as well as more than 200 educational reports. Includes full text for Chronicle of Higher Education, Educational Leadership, Journal of Education, Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Learning Disabilities, and Theory Into Practice.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowFrom the American Psychological Association, contains many citations and summaries of articles from journals, book chapters, and technical reports relevant to education and educational psychology.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowGoogle Scholar provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature. When accessing this database through the link provided here you will find free connections to the pay-for-view materials that are located in our subscription sources. Just click on "Find Full Text @SMU."
Types of Research
Primary Source In educational research, these sources most often take the form of empirical studies in which the creator was a direct witness or in some other way directly involved with the research. Look for the words like STUDY and/or METHOD in the article.
Secondary Source A report about primary sources, secondary sources, or some combination of the two. Textbooks are categorized in this category.
Theoretical Article A source that proposes a way of thinking about how a phenomenon operates and why it operates as it does. Example: Piaget’s description of his Stages of Development.
Literature Review This is a review of scholarly literature. It involves the process of reading, analyzing, and evaluating scholarly articles on a topic and is synthesized through the writer’s lens.
Meta-analysis This is a method of piling a whole bunch of studies on a topic together and then using statistics to synthesize the results of the studies. Break that word apart by meaning! Meta (Beyond) analysis
Quantitative research One example of this type of empirical research is the experimental study that explores the relationship between two or more variables.
Anecdotal Evidence Evidence, which may be true and verifiable, but should be sparingly used because of the dangers of generalizing from an insufficient amount of evidence. This type of article has NOT been through a peer-reviewed process.
Qualitative research Descriptive studies that explore the quality of relationships or situations fit into this category of empirical research. In this world, investigators may care about HOW things occur and the perspectives of the subjects they study. Data collected is mainly in the form of words or pictures and seldom involves numbers. Ethnographic research and case studies are two examples.
Off Campus Access
You will be asked to supply your Saint Mary's user name and password to access subscription databases from off campus. Problems? Use our 24/7 chat or contact the Help Desk (507-457-7800 / helpdesk@smumn.edu) or the Library (507-457-1562 / lib@smumn.edu)