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Chapter 4

Locating Published Research

Introduction to Educational Research (5th ed.) Craig A. Mertler & C.M. Charles

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Why Explore Existing Literature?

• To see what has already been done

» To profit from the experiences of others

» Findings

» Cautions

» Suggestions

» Recommendations

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Secondary Sources Of InformationIn The Library

• Not firsthand accounts (primary sources); analyses, compilations, interpretations, summaries of primary information

• Begin a literature search by examining secondary sources

• Specific secondary sources:» The Encyclopedia of Educational Research» The NSSE Yearbooks» The Handbooks of Research» Review of Research in Education» Review of Educational Research» Educational Leadership» Scholarly books» Magazines and newspaper articles

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Secondary Sources Of InformationIn The Library (cont’d.)

• Locating secondary sources

» Library’s main on-line catalog

» Reference section

» Newspaper Abstracts

» Periodical Abstracts

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Primary Sources Of InformationIn The Library

• Original research and other information

• Abstracts can be found in publications such as:

» Psychological Abstracts

» ERIC’s Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE)

• Specific directories of primary sources:

» Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) --

16 clearinghouses that abstract and index research

articles and other papers

◊ Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors

◊ Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE)

◊ Resources in Education (RIE)

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Primary Sources Of InformationIn The Library (cont’d.)

• Abstracts publications:

» Psychological Abstracts

» Dissertations Abstracts International (DAI)…also

known as Digital Dissertations

» Social Science Citation Index

» Digest of Educational Statistics

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Locating Primary Sources

• Manual searching of ERIC’s CIJE and RIE --

• Computer searching -- » Using it is a learning experience -- “trial-and-error”!

» Many databases are available via the Web

◊ ERIC:

˜ AskERIC

˜ Access ERIC

◊ ProQuest Digital Dissertations

◊ ProQuest Periodical Abstracts

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Applying Technology… Searchable Web sites cataloging education articles and documents

• AskEric (

http://www.askeric.org)

• Research Navigator (

http://www.researchnavigator.com)