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ECS 300: ERIC: Sample Advanced Search

Venn diagram of our search

    • For further explanation and visuals of Boolean logic, click here

    ERIC: Advanced Search

    • In ERIC, click Advanced search above the search box

    • Note both the Help link with the question mark at the top right of the page: , and the Tips link above the search boxes: the Help will provide help on doing an Advanced Search, and the Tips provide help with things like Boolean operators, phrase searching, etc.

    • We’ll look for articles and documents on learning style and knowledge level

    • There are two concepts in this search: learning style, and knowledge level
    • Once again, we'll use the Boolean operators to join concepts in our search. See the link in the box to the left of this one for a review of Boolean searching
    • In the first box of the first line of search boxes, type: "cognitive style"
    • At All fields (no full text) -- All, use the drop-down menu to select Subject Heading (all) -- SU. These are the subject terms from the ERIC Thesaurus, and they use "cognitive style" rather than" learning style" as a subject for this concept
    • The quotation marks make the computer read the term as an exact phrase, and make the search more precise. Tip: this also works in Google
    • In the first box of the second line of boxes, type: "knowledge level"
    • At All fields (no full text) -- All, use the drop-down menu to select Subject Heading (all) -- SU
    • At Limit to, click in the boxes to the left ofnext to Peer reviewed and Scholarly journals
    • The icons under the article titles indicate whether an article is available full text online or not, but only from ERIC:
      • If there’s only an “Abstract” or “Citation” present, that article is not available full text from ERIC
      • “Full Text – PDF” usually means that the journal article was scanned into the computer, and therefore exists in its original version, with images, page numbers and all, exactly as in the paper journal
    • To see if the Library owns the journals containing articles that aren't available full text through ERIC, do a journal title search in the Library's catalogue or click Where can I get this