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Rider University Library

Education & Counseling Law

Welcome! This guide was created to help you in your research for Education and the Law.

Finding Articles

BASIC SEARCH EXAMPLE
Enter in your search terms. Use Boolean commands (AND, OR, NOT).

screenshot searching the ERIC database with the search statement: technology AND teaching AND elementary

FILTERS
Use Filters available beneath the search box to focus your resultsscreenschot of EBSCO search box with arrow pointing to the All filters button beneath the searcn box

Using the 'Subject' filter on the sidebar ensures that the resources displayed are officially categorized by an indexer under that subject.

screenshot ERIC filters on the side of the page

 

ADVANCED SEARCH

Using Advanced Search makes it easier to expand your search and make use the Thesaurus. 

Click the Advanced Search box below the search box to the right.

screenshot of ERIC search box with arrow to the advanced search button to the right and beneath the search box

screenshot of an ERIC advanced search with expanded searches first box: technology OR digital OR computer in the Subject field (pull down box to the right of the search box row). the second box is teach* OR educat* OR instruct* with the default in the pull down box (All fields) and the 3rd box is elementary OR primary OR K-5 OR "childhood education" with the pulldown box expanded and an arrow pointing to it.

 

You can find more limiters on the Advanced Search page, including Document Type (as pictured) which leads to only empirical articles.

Screenshot of document type limiters on advanced search page.

 

Click on Subjects on the Advanced Search page to find Subject Terms 

 

screenshot ERIC subjects

Searching in PsycInfo is very similar to ERIC, except for some the options in the filters and limiters. 

screenshot of pscyinfo search box with arrow to all filters

example of advanced search in pscyinfo

 

On the advanced search page, click on subjects to search/browse the thesauraus

 

screenshot of psycinfo subjects

 

 

On the advanced search page, scroll down to Methodology to limit to specific types of articles. For example, the screenshot below limits to empirical studies (using synonyms as well). 

 

screenshot psycinfo limits - methodology

Click on the database name to be able to search more than one EBSCO databases

screenshot of ERIC database with arrow to the name of the database so one can click it

Screenshot of available Ebsco databases to search

WILDCARD and TRUNCATION
create searches with unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.

  • The asterisk (*) truncates the word
    Example  adolescen*  will return articles with the words : adolescence or adolescent or adolescents
  • The hash sign (#) matches one optional character.
  • The question mark (?) matches exactly one character.

Proximity Operators help achieve better relevance in search results, particularly when searching full-text
books, long journal articles or newspaper articles.

  • Near Operator (N) finds results in which search terms are within a specified number of words of one another in any order.
    Example: tax N5 reform finds results that contain tax reform as well as reform of income tax.
  • Within Operator (W) finds results in which search terms are within a specified number of words of one another and in the order in which you entered them.
    Example: hiking W5 trails finds results that contain hiking trails and hiking of easy trails, but does not find results containing easy trails for hiking.