Research Guides: *Education: Research Materials

Article databases

The article databases listed below allow you to search for articles through multiple journals simultaneously. Click on the name of the database below to start searching. If you're off-campus, you'll be asked to log-in using your USC ID and password. For a list of all USC Libraries subscription databases, go to A-Z Database List.

ERIC (ProQuest)
Key database for education research and education literature. Database includes journal articles, conference proceedings, government documents and dissertations on topics about and related to education. Maintained by the Dept of Education.
ProQuest Education Database
Supports the study and application of education across all levels of education, including early childhood education, primary and secondary education, and higher education. The database supports global study and research, including thousands of full-text journals, dissertations and other relevant sources. Coverage: 1988 - current.
PsycINFO
Abstracting and indexing database with more than 3 million records devoted to peer-reviewed literature of journal articles, chapters, books, dissertations and reports in psychology, the behavioral sciences, and mental health.
Education Source
Includes full-text for education journals, and encompasses an international array of English-language periodicals, monographs, yearbooks and more. Coverage in Education Source spans all levels of education—from early childhood to higher education—as well as all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education and testing.
Educational Administration Abstracts
Provides indexing and abstracting for articles in more than 100 journals related to the administration of primary, secondary and post-secondary educational facilities and programs. Subjects covered include: personnel, curriculum, school-community relations, supervision, minority group relations, and professional education. Educational levels include: early childhood education, K-12, community colleges, and higher education. Coverage: 2003 to present. Provided by EBSCO.
PAIS Index
Good resource for policy issues related to education. International in scope, with coverage of journal resources as well as "gray literature" like government information.
Scopus
Large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature in science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Includes bibliometrics tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Provided by Elsevier.
Web of Science
Multidisciplinary database that provides citations covering high-impact journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities, as well as international conference proceedings.
America: History & Life with Full Text
Excellent coverage of history of American education.

Library Search Process

There are three stages of the database search workflow:

Discovery: Do (and redo!) your searching, using varying terms and combining using the Boolean operators "and, or, not" to get good results. Your first search is not your best search, but rather an opportunity to refine your search strategy and your understanding of your topic.
Delivery: If you want to retrieve and item select the link to the full-text if available, or click on the button to see if we own the item. If you want to keep this item, either download the article to your computer, email it to yourself, or print it.
Organize it: Keep the "meta-information" about all the resources you found for your records and to make your bibliographies. You will find yourself returning to resources so having a system in place will save you time and aggravation later. USC Libraries has a subscription to the citation manager, RefWorks, that will help you organize the information you're collecting. For more information visit the Citation Managers guide.