Searching the Education Literature: OxLIP+ and ERIC/British Education Index

A. Cross-searching on OxLIP+

Open OxLIP+ (http://oxlip-plus.ouls.ox.ac.uk/)

Click on the tab to Cross Search Select the following from the drop down menus on the top left of the screen:

Select search type Subjects Subject Education Sub categories ALL

In the search boxes at the top, enter your search terms/keywords, using OR to link your synonyms.

Keep your search broad, by keeping the default of All fields

You will see an alphabetical list of education and related databases. The ones with tick boxes to the left are cross-searchable. Select the following 5 key databases, by ticking the boxes to the left:

 ERIC (CSA)  PsycINFO  SCOPUS  Sociological Abstracts  Web of Science

and click

Note that the databases you will want to select to cross-search may vary, depending on your topic. Ask Kate for help in choosing and saving the best database sets for you.

You will see the most highly ranked results for your search displayed. Click on View results by database. Which database found the most hits?

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TIP: You will also want to go back and directly search the databases that found most results. This allows you to use tools such as thesaurus mapping and advanced limits, to control your search.

Click on the link to , to see whether any useful looking articles are available in full text. Click on the icon to add a resource to your research space. Once selected the icon will change to .

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To save your results for another session, you need to Log In (top right) using your Oxford University Single Sign-On (SSO) which is the same as for Weblearn and Webmail.

Click on My Research at the top of the screen.

Use the tick-box next to chosen references and click on Selected and then Send to email lists of resources to yourself or someone else.

If you choose Save you can save results in a number of different formats, including as a direct export to EndNote, Refworks or ProCite.

Note: it is also possible to save sets of databases to cross-search (optional)

Choose resources from the CrossSearch screen or by looking for them through Find database.

 Select the ones you want, by clicking on the icon next to the titles, to create your own list of favourite databases.

 Note that only the ones with next to them are cross-searchable.  Having selected your favourite resource or resources, choose My Research and then My Resources.  The databases you have just selected are displayed in a temporary folder.

 To save a set of databases for future searching, click on the arrow next to the resources you want and then on the save icon . You will be asked to give your new set a name.  Having created your set it will appear as an option from CrossSearch. Instead of selecting Subject from the top drop down box, you select My databases.

C. Thesaurus searching on ERIC / British Education Index (BEI)

1. Using thesaurus mapping

 From OxLIP+ (http://oxlip-plus.ouls.ox.ac.uk/), choose Education from the left hand subject drop down menu.

 Go to the British Education Index or ERIC (Dialog version).

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 Select Advanced search next to the button for the BEI.

 Construct a search using the keywords you have identified. Remember to search for the each search concept individually and to use the thesaurus mapping option, to identify a range of synonyms and alternative keywords for each term.

 When you have carried out your searches, select the relevant line numbers to combine them (e.g. 2 and 4).

 Then click the show titles link to view your results.

2. Viewing your results and identifying resources.

You should now see a list of journal articles and other resources.

 If you scroll to the bottom of the screen there is an option to sort your results. It may be helpful to select publication date and descending, to work backwards chronologically through your results.

 Click on the icon for one of the results. This will take you through to the electronic journal, which should open in a new window within your Internet Browser.

 What message do you see?

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 If there is full-text available click on the link next to the top link for the journal article.

 If there is no full text, click on the link next to Holdings in OLIS (Oxford) to see if there is a print copy in Oxford.

3. Saving your search

One of the most important elements of successful literature searching is to keep a good record of the searches you have done. This is very easy on ERIC and the BEI, as you can email your search results to yourself.

To do this, from your list of results:

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 Tick the boxes next to the articles or resources you want to save (or tick the ‘Select All’ box).  At the bottom of the screen, click the button.

 On the following screen, type in your email address. Also, it’s a good idea to tick the “Print Search Strategy” box. This means that, as well as receiving your search results, you will also be sent a record of the keywords you used to identify those results.

 The best delivery format is HTML, so click that box.

 Finally, click the button.

 Alternatively, you can save your results in the format tagged for tables, which can then be imported into RefWorks.

4. Try running the same search in ERIC, the US equivalent database, to compare your results.

5. Tips for searching other major databases directly:

PsycInfo:  Select the years you are interested in searching (it goes back as far as 1806)  Choose Advanced Ovid Search to have the option to Map Term to Subject Heading (the equivalent to Thesaurus mapping in ERIC/BEI)  To combine your searches, click on search history, tick the searches you want to combine, then click on the AND button

Sociological Abstracts:  Choose search tools, then the tab for thesaurus  To combine searches, click on search history, tick your searches, choose AND or OR and click combine

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