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Special Education

This guide covers the field of special education.

Article Databases related to Special Education

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.

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.

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:

Highlights of a OneSearch results page with this text added: "Use the Filter Panel on the left to narrow your results." "Consult the evaluation icons to quickly assess a work." "Make connections between articles by exploring who cited a document." and "Access the full text with a click."

CHOP, DROP, and OR method...illustrated

Start with your topic.

You might describe it in a phrase or a question.

CHOP it up into its individual concepts.

Essentially you're identifying the most important words in your topic description.  Often these are nouns.

DROP those terms into individual search boxes.

The order isn't important.

Add synonyms or related words for relevant concepts, using OR.

These other terms may come from your head, a thesaurus, or something else you've read that's on-topic.

Look at good records for related words you can add into your search.

The subject field of a library database is a great place to look for useful search terms.

After you evaluate your results, and revise your search, you repeat the process...over and over!

After all, research is an iterative process -- you're unlikely to find the best results with just one search.

Find It @ Ball State: Helping you find the full text of the title you want

When you'button with this text: "Find It @ Ball State"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

red arrow pointing to area with Full Text Format Options

If we do NOT have immediate full text access to the article, the OneSearch record for the article will be displayed.

Links "Request the item with Interlibrary Loan / ILLiad"