Bilingualism

ERIC is the most comprehensive database for scholarly articles in the field of education. It is designed to facilitate the kind of research undertaken by educational practitioners, so it foregrounds the information that researchers in the field need to quickly assess scholarship, such as the educational level discussed and the research methodology employed.

When you're looking at the list of search results, you'll notice that the page has two columns: a "dashboard" to the left and the results themselves to the right. I don't use the dashboard myself because it requires you to create a new account with EBSCO, the vendor that licenses the database. If you're comfortable creating a new account, the dashboard can help you keep track of your research.

At the top of the results list, just under the search bar, are filters to help you limit your results to only peer-reviewed scholarship, for instance, or by publication date.

The Advanced Search options allow you to add more search terms or narrow by education level, intended audience, language of publication, and more.

The item descriptions in the results list typically include the following elements:

• article title
• type of resource (such as academic journal, book, or book chapter)
• citation (including author, publishing journal, and publication date)
• abstract (a brief description of the article's main argument or findings)
• subjects (a list of subject headings tailored to research in education, usually including a controlled vocabulary of topics, the educational level studied, and the research methodology used -- the list of subject headings is a great place to identify effective search terms!)
• link to text or "Find It @ CUNY!" button

All of these elements are selected to make it easier for you to determine -- without even reading the article! -- if it is:

• current: check the publication date
• relevant: check the title, abstract, and subjects
• accurate & authoritative: almost everything included in this database is peer-reviewed
• aligned with the purpose of your research: check the name of the publishing journal to get a sense of who the intended audience is and what scholarly conversation the article is contributing to, and check the subject headings to see what population is being studied.

APA PsycInfo is one of the most comprehensive databases for scholarly articles in the field of psychology. It is designed to facilitate the kind of research undertaken by professionals in the field of psychology, so it foregrounds the information that researchers in the field need to quickly assess scholarship, such as the educational level discussed and the research methodology employed. The user interface is pretty similar to ERIC's interface because both databases are made available by the same vendor, EBSCO, but there are a few differences that the reflect differences across the disciplines.

The item descriptions in the results list typically include the following elements:

• article title
• type of resource (such as academic journal, book, or book chapter)
• citation (including author, publishing journal, and publication date)
• abstract (a brief description of the article's main argument or findings)
• subjects (a list of subject headings tailored to research in psychology, usually including a controlled vocabulary of topics, the age and gender of the population studied, and the research methodology used -- the list of subject headings is a great place to identify effective search terms!)
• link to text or "Find It @ CUNY!" button

All of these elements are selected to make it easier for you to determine -- without even reading the article! -- if it is:

• current: check the publication date
• relevant: check the title, abstract, and subjects
• accurate & authoritative: almost everything included in this database is peer-reviewed
• aligned with the purpose of your research: check the name of the publishing journal to get a sense of who the intended audience is and what scholarly conversation the article is contributing to, and check the subject headings to see what population is being studied.

You can also use the limiters in the top menu to narrow your search results, or select the Advanced Search option, which is where you'll find filters specifically designed for research in Psychology, such as Age Group, Population Group, and Methodology.