Other Useful Article Databases
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text, peer reviewed articles. More than 18,000 of the journal titles indexed are peer reviewed and almost all of the full text is. Provides searchable cited references for more than 1,000 journal titles so you can easily see what sources a given article cites.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowAllows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines, including education.
- Professional Development Collection This link opens in a new window Covers education journals geared towards teachers and other education professionals.
Access World News
For searching newspapers articles included in the database Access World News. Browse suggested topics, and click to perform a search.
Interlibrary Loan: Get Books & Articles We Don't Have
- Interlibrary LoanRequest a book, article, or other materials not available in the Ball State University Libraries.
Short videos on research
If you learn best by watching, you may want to take a look at this collection of Library Research Mini-Videos. It includes short 3 - 6 minute videos covering basic to advanced searching in ERIC, PsycINFO, and OneSearch. Explore!
Article Databases related to Special Education
- APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window Key database in the field of psychology. Includes information of use to psychologists, students, and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, and education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.
What makes it different: Contains literature from an array of disciplines related to psychology, such as education, business, medicine, nursing, law, and social work.
Special limiters: Can limit by the age group studied or the type of research methodology used, among others.
Searching help?: Includes a Thesaurus link for finding appropriate search terms to use
Search tips for using APA PsycINFO effectively:
- Use the CHOP, DROP, and OR method to construct your search and put it in the search boxes.
- Look at your results, focusing especially on terms used in the "Subjects" section.
- Incorporate new terms and revise your search.
- ERIC (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window ERIC EBSCOhost is a key database in the field of education, providing access to bibliographic records of journal and non-journal literature. About one third of the content is accessible in full text from within the database.
What makes it different: Allows searching of articles in education journals and magazines, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, dissertations and theses, and books. Also includes “grey literature” published by over 1,000 selected centers, agencies, associations, and non-profit organizations.
Special limiters: Can limit searching to journal articles (EJ) or the other various documents (ED).
Searching help?: Includes a Thesaurus link for finding appropriate search terms to use
Search tips for using ERIC effectively:
- Use the CHOP, DROP, and OR method to construct your search and put it in the search boxes.
- Look at your results, focusing especially on terms used in the "Descriptors" section.
- Incorporate new terms and revise your search.
- OneSearch This link opens in a new window OneSearch is a tool that cross searches much of the content our databases and other online sources. You can search across many collections in one search box simplifying the resource discovery process.
What makes it different: Allows you to find a variety of types of documents, from articles to books to videos. Helpful for finding topics which span different subject areas, but results can also be overwhelming.
Special limiters: A wide range of limiters can be applied from the results page on the left.
Searching help?: No thesaurus for finding standardized search terms
Search tips for using OneSearch effectively:
- Click "Advanced Search" to get to the more powerful search screen.
- Use the CHOP, DROP, and OR method to construct your search and put it in the search boxes.
- Look at your results, focusing especially on any terms you notice which could be helpful.
- Incorporate new terms and revise your search.
The "Advanced Search" link is just below the Search box on the libraries' homepage.
Here's an example of a sample search results page in OneSearch:
CHOP, DROP, and OR method...illustrated
Start with your topic.
CHOP it up into its individual concepts.
DROP those terms into individual search boxes.
Add synonyms or related words for relevant concepts, using OR.
Look at good records for related words you can add into your search.
After you evaluate your results, and revise your search, you repeat the process...over and over!
Find It @ Ball State: Helping you find the full text of the title you want
When you'
re using a database, and can't find a link to the full text of an article, look for a Find It @ Ball State button.
Find It helps you to search the Libraries' other databases and subscriptions to see if the full text is available through another resource.
- If it is available, Find It provides a link to the text of the article.
- If it cannot find the full-text, Find It provides a link to Interlibrary Loan so that you can request that we get a copy of the article from another library.
To use Find It, click on the red Find It @ Ball State button.
If we DO have full text access to the article, a page will be displayed with options for access under "Full Text Format Options." The typical options are:
- PDF: the file format reflecting the formatting for a printed page
- Link: taking you to the webpage version of the article
If we do NOT have immediate full text access to the article, the OneSearch record for the article will be displayed.
- Look under "Links" for "Request this item with InterLibrary Loan / ILLiad."
- Click there, and log in with your Ball State username and password.
- More information about placing an Interlibrary Loan request.
