The University of Florida Libraries offers hundreds of databases researchers can use to explore the literature and to compose an academic paper. At the Education Library, resources collected support the 26 academic degree programs in the College of Education focusing on teaching and learning; educational administration and policy; special education; counselor education; and educational psychology. This breadth of resources can be overwhelming. To help reduce the anxiety of research, this guide and each subject page (linked above) are intended to help navigate the researcher through the variety of article resources available.

Articles in Print

The Education Library subscribes to many journals and other periodicals useful for research in Education. The periodicals are arranged by title on the ground floor of the Library. Researchers can browse this collection to locate articles.

Databases Basics

Though browsing specific titles may be useful for some, searching an education database is an effective method to locate articles specific to a research topic. Basics to remember about databases:

1. Many key databases are subject oriented, but a few are multidisciplinary.
2. Databases have varying coverage of publication types including journals, magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, reviews, reports and book articles.
3. Databases have varying coverage dates of indexing and full text availability.
4. Many databases contain full text content which enables the researcher to view the full article online.
5. Some databases are also called e-journal databases and provide full text content to articles from selected journals.
6. The libraries pay for access to databases. Login is required when using them from off campus locations. Please review this access page to learn how UF affiliates can connect to these resources.
7. Ask a Librarian or other library staff for assistance using these resources.

Databases for Education

The librarians at the Education Library have identified key databases for use by researchers and students interested in topics in education. These databses index most of the journals held at the Education Library and much more.

Articles and other secondary sources of information are available using Education Full Text (1983 to date) and Education Full-Text Retrospective (1929-1983). The Professional Development Collection is also useful for educators to find appropriate literature.

In addition, ERIC, which is a collection sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, provides access to journal articles, books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers, and other education-related materials. The ERIC database contains bibliographic information of more than 1.1 million citations on education topics going back to 1966 and includes many full text sources.

Other article databases with citation or full text coverage include Academic Search Premier (multidisciplinary database with full text), Web of Science (multidisciplinary citation database), and LexisNexis Academic (full text newspaper database with limited legal (court cases and legislative) and medical resources).

Multidisciplinary e-journal databases with full text content include JSTOR and Project Muse.

Databases listed on the key databases page offer specific subject emphasis for counseling and psychology topics ( PsycNET, PsycInfo, and Mental Measurements Yearbook (a comprehensive guide to over 2,000 contemporary testing instruments)) Literacy and language classes may find Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) to be a useful resource to locate articles.

These are only some of the recommended databases to use for topics in education; more education databases are available.

Full Text Articles

Please note that some of these databases only provide the citation and abstract to articles of interest. If you see full text links, click on them; you may be required to install Adobe Reader for some. If you do not see full text links, clicking on the Find it @ UF button allows a researcher to discover if an article is available in full text from another subscription database or if the journal is held in the collection (click on search UF Library Catalog).