Using ERIC Search

ERIC Database Fields

All fields are searched when terms are entered using "Keyword (all fields)". Field names marked below with an asterisk (*) are either searchable individually or can be used as limiters.

Abstract
A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource.

Abstractor
ERIC added this field in 2005 to indicate abstract authorship. Previously abstractor initials were recorded at the end of the abstract.

Accession Number
See ERIC Number.

Audience
ERIC added this field, previously known as Target Audience, to ED (ERIC Document) records in January 1984, but uses it only when the author clearly specifies an intended audience. Some entries from May 1975 to December 1983 include the retrospective addition of the terms "Practitioners" and/or "Students". ERIC has designated eleven distinct audiences:

Administrators
Community
Counselors
Media Staff
Parents
Policymakers
Practitioners
Researchers
Students
Support Staff
Teachers

Note: Many document records do not include a target audience.

Author*
Personal author, compiler, and editor names are accessible via the Author field. ERIC indexes the author name exactly as it appears on the document. If more than one person authors a document, ERIC indexes all authors in the order in which they are listed on the document. Prior to 1997 different rules applied regarding multiple authors. For materials with two authors, ERIC indexed both names; for materials with three or more authors, ERIC indexed the first author only, appending the comment "and others."

Note: Use Institution to search for authoring organizations, e.g., a university, school district, foundation, etc.

See ERIC Search Tip

Corporate Author
See Institution.

Descriptors*
Terms from the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors used to organize materials by subject.

Note: Descriptors are not the same as keywords. Descriptors are Thesaurus terms used to describe the subject of a document or article. Keywords only match words found in the bibliographic record, and may or may not represent the subject.

See ERIC Search Tip

Education Level*
Specifies the level of education that is addressed in the document or article. ERIC introduced this field in 2005; previously the information was included as a Descriptor. A specific grade may be indexed, e.g., Grade 6, and/or a category. The following table provides the Education Level hierarchy, indicated by the font styles:

ALL UPPERCASE - First, or primary, level
Bold - Second level (or first sub-level)
Plain Italics - Third level (or second sub-level)

Education Level	Scope Note / Definition
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION	Activities and/or experiences that are intended to effect developmental changes in children, from birth through the primary units of elementary school (grades K-3)
Preschool Education	Activities and/or experiences that are intended to effect developmental changes in children, from birth to entrance in kindergarten (or grade 1 when kindergarten is not attended)
Primary Education	Education provided in kindergarten through grade 3
ELEMENTARY SECONDARY EDUCATION	Formal education provided in kindergarten or grade 1 through grade 12
Elementary Education	Education provided in kindergarten or grade 1 through grade 6, 7, or 8
Adult Basic Education	Education provided for adults at the elementary level (through grade 8), usually with emphasis on communicative, computational, and social skills
Intermediate Grades	Includes the middle and/or upper elementary grades, but usually 4, 5, and 6
Middle Schools	Various combinations of grades 5 through 9 - mainly 6-8, but also 5-7, 7-8, or 7-9
Secondary Education	Education provided in grade 7, 8, or 9 through grade 12
Junior High Schools	Providing formal education in grades 7, 8, and 9 - less commonly 7 and 8, or 8 and 9
High Schools	Providing formal education in grades 9 or 10 through 12
High School Equivalency Programs	Adult educational activities concerned with the preparation for and the taking of tests that lead to a high school equivalency certificate
POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION	All education beyond the secondary level - includes learning activities and experiences beyond the compulsory school attendance age, with the exception of adult basic education and high school equivalency programs (in the UK, referred to as Tertiary)
Higher Education	All education beyond the secondary level leading to a formal degree
Two Year Colleges	Public or private postsecondary institutions providing at least 2, but less than 4, years of academic and/or occupational education (community colleges)
Adult Education	Providing or coordinating purposeful learning activities for adults (non-degree)

ERIC #*
A unique accession number assigned to each record in the database. These are also known as the ERIC Document Number (ED Number) and ERIC Journal Number (EJ Number).

See ERIC Search Tip

Full-Text Availability*
If ERIC has permission to post the document, a PDF icon appears in this area. Searchers need Adobe Reader 6.0 (or later) to download and read these materials.

If full text is not available, ERIC provides one or more of the following links:

Not available in ERIC - links to the Help section for information about locating full text
Find in a Library - if the ERIC bibliographic record contains an ISBN or ISSN, this links to an external site to search for the material in libraries registered in the OCLC WorldCat system
Publisher's Web site - publishers with active indexing agreements have the option to permit linking to their site. Links are provided by the publisher, and may lead to the home page, full text, publication information, etc.

Identifiers*
Subject terms not found in the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors. These include geographic names, laws and legislation, and tests and measurements.

Examples: France (Paris); Americans with Disabilities Act 1990; Stanford Achievement Tests.

Institution*
The names of authoring organizations, e.g., a research foundation, government agency, school district, or university responsible for the intellectual content of the document.

ISBN*
International Standard Book Number (ISBN) - a unique numeric identifier assigned to the document.

See ERIC Search Tip

ISSN*
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) - a unique numeric identifier assigned to the serial or journal.

See ERIC Search Tip

Journal Name
Use Source to search for the journal in which an article appears. The title of the article is cited in the Title field.

Language
The name of the language(s) in which the document was written. A document may contain text in more than one language.

Level
Indicates whether or not the document can be accessed in an ERIC microfiche collection. Applicable only to those documents indexed prior to 2005 (ERIC record numbers ED010000 - ED483046). This field has the following values:

Level 1 - Available on microfiche
Level 2 - Available on microfiche
Level 3 - Indexed only

Pages
The total number of pages in an item, including all front-matter. Previously used only for document records, in 2005 ERIC expanded use of this field for journal articles.

Peer Reviewed
ERIC introduced the peer reviewed field in 2005 for journal articles and U.S. Department of Education publications. Records for all other materials display N/A.

Publication Date*
The date a document or article was published by the journal, institution, or author. Users can search a single year or a range of years. The publication date is shown in the search results and record details in the format YYYY-MM-DD (year, month, day). The year is required; the month and date are not. If unknown, month and day are indicated by 00.

Note: Publication Date is not the date the document was added to ERIC. A document published in 1992 may have been indexed in a subsequent year.

Publication Type*
In 1974 ERIC began to assign publication types (Pub Types) to each record. A maximum of 3 Pub Types are assigned per record.

Publication Type	Scope
Book/Products Reviews	Book reviews, product reviews, software reviews.
Books	The physical format of the resource, whether hardback or paperback; when this category is used, a second one is always included, such as Opinion Paper, etc.
Collected Works - General	Collections of separate works, composite works, materials of mixed or diverse character or multiple focuses.
Collected Works - Proceedings	Records/minutes/proceedings/summaries of conferences, meetings, colloquia, symposia, seminars, workshops, congresses, etc. Intended for documents representing entire conferences.
Collected Works - Serials	Serial (entire), periodicals, bulletins, newsletters, newspapers, collections of articles, sections of journals. Does not include numbers in a monographic series. For individual journal articles, see Journal Articles, below.
Computer Programs	Actual computer programs in any form, e.g., "floppy" disks, tape cassettes, code listings, etc.
Creative Works	Poetry, literary works, essays, novels, short stories, children's books, satire and humor, anecdotes, fairy tales, children's stories, fiction, proverbs, facetiae, quotations, maxims, belles lettres, correspondence, etc. Performing arts materials, dramas, plays, scenarios (movies, TV), scripts, theatre pieces, musical scores, ballets.
Dissertations/Theses	Used when unable to determine more specific type, e.g., doctoral dissertation
Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Dissertations/Theses - Masters Theses
Dissertations/Theses - Practicum Papers
ERIC Digests in Full Text	ERIC Digests provided in full-text within the database record.
ERIC Publications	Documents published by any component of the ERIC system.
Guides - Classroom - Learners	Materials intended for direct instruction of the learner; materials presenting the substantive information that forms the content of instruction, e.g., instructional materials, readings, programmed texts, manuals, laboratory manuals, outlines, texts, workbooks, syllabi, study guides, orientation materials, textbooks, handbooks, exercises, learning modules, problems, resource guides.
Guides - Classroom - Teacher	Materials intended as guides for the teacher, e.g. curriculum guides, course outlines, units of study, lesson plans, teaching guides, leader guides, statements of behavioral objectives. May contain instructional materials, sample examinations, suggested learning activities, etc. Includes teaching tips, teaching techniques, "How to Teach" materials.
Guides - General	Materials designed for immediate and practical use by students, teachers, or administrative or support personnel. "General" is used only when material does not fit a more specific sub-category
Guides - Non-Classroom	Techniques for support and administration, e.g., how to conduct a teacher evaluation; how to conduct inservice programs, guides for research methodology, etc. Manuals, guides/guidelines, handbooks - intended to provide substantive information on "What exists" or "How to do it" for the educational support population. Booklets, pamphlets, brochures, circulars, notices treating or explaining various factual matters within the educational community, e.g., types of jobs available. Guides intended for teachers but not directly related to instruction, e.g., tips for better parent conferences.
Historical Materials	Histories, historical reviews, historical accounts, oral history transcripts, primary historical source materials and documentation
Information Analyses	State-of-the-art summaries (comprehensive treatments, overviews), trend analyses. Information analyses and syntheses, focusing on findings and not simply on bibliographic citations, summarizing the substance of the literature and drawing conclusions from it. Does not include annotated bibliographies.
Journal Articles	Indicates individual journal article. For entire journal issues, see Collected Works - Serials .
Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials	Legislation, legislative hearings and testimony, legislative reports, congressional documents, state legislature documents, laws, summaries of legislative action, lobbying position papers. Court cases, courtroom testimony, court decisions, legal decisions, legal interpretations. Regulations, regulatory agency materials. Codes, administrative codes, codes of student behavior, agreements, rules, policy statements, master plans, contracts (model), collective bargaining agreements, and other materials governing the behavior of various groups. Standards (e.g., NASI, ISO, FIPS), specifications, accreditation standards, professional standards. Executive orders, Federal Register pronouncements. Does not include documents merely "about" specific court cases or legal issues.
Machine-Readable Data Files	Bodies of data encoded in magnetic, optical, or other storage media that are directly readable by computer. The data may be numeric, statistical, bibliographic, textual, etc. ERIC announces education-related data files (e.g., NCES files) that are available from third parties.
Multilingual/Bilingual Materials	Materials whose contents include equivalent or near-equivalent information in two or more languages.
Non-Print Media	Audiovisual aids, films tapes, recordings, cassettes, phonodiscs, videotapes, slides, illustrations, portraits, caricatures, cartoons, photographs, posters, models, flip charts, engineering drawings, flow charts, designs, plans, etc. Graphic/pictorial and other non-print representations, conveying meaning primarily through symbols other than words. Non-print items usually appear in ERIC only as supporting or collateral material to a printed document.
Numerical/Quantitative Data	Numerical data, quantitative data, statistics, statistical compilations, data aggregations, tables. Used only when quantitative data is present in large aggregations, e.g., as in NCES documents.
Opinion Papers	Opinion papers, points of view, position papers, recommendations, "blueprints" for proposed action. Debates, interviews, panel discussions, questions and answers, dialogues, transcripts. Essays, short expository/speculatory papers, "think" pieces, philosophical pieces, criticism, interpretation, editorials, pros and cons.
Reference Materials - Bibliographies	Bibliographies, filmographies, discographies, annotated bibliographies, book catalogs, book lists, collections of abstracts, indexes (locators) to bibliographic materials, topical listings of various media materials. Includes bibliographic essays, literature searches (output of), guides to or descriptions of the literature in a field.
Reference Materials - Directories/Catalogs	Directories of persons, organizations, institutions, etc. Membership lists. Tables of Contents. Includes reference works dealing with organizations/institutions. Catalogs of products, lists and arrays of "things", e.g., pseudonyms, job descriptions, sources, acronyms, abbreviations, etc.
Reference Materials - General	Materials for reference use, as contrasted to materials designed for cover-to-cover reading and study. "General" is used only when material does not fit a more specific sub-category.
Reference Materials - Geographic	Atlases, gazetteers, geographic charts, cartographic materials, maps, zoning charts, school district maps.
Reference Materials - Vocabularies/Classifications	Dictionaries, vocabularies, nomenclature, terminology, glossaries, thesauri, word/term lists, phrase books. Taxonomies, classification schemes.
Reports - Descriptive (i.e., Project Descriptions)	Project descriptions, program descriptions, reports of organizational activities. Descriptions of systems, procedures, or practices in actual cases. Descriptions of significant events, personal narratives/experiences, journalistic accounts of actual activities and occurrences. Descriptive works of various types. Includes annual reports (of organizations), yearbooks.
Reports - Evaluative	Studies evaluating research, alternative courses of action, or the merits of a particular process or program. Studies of feasibility of a given course of action. Evaluations of programs. Studies oriented toward decision-making and concerned with judgments rather than generalizations.
Reports - General	"General" is used only when material does not fit a more specific sub-category.
Reports - Research	Original research, technical research, reports, studies, empirical results, experimental statistical studies, surveys, case studies, theory testing, systematic scientific investigations, seeking facts and/or generalizable principles. Emphasis on materials utilizing a formal research design, but may include informal reports and verbal presentations of such efforts. Includes proposals for needed research.
Speeches/Meeting Papers	Individual addresses, lectures, papers presented at conferences, meetings, colloquia, symposia, seminars, workshops, congresses, etc.
Tests/Questionnaires	Questionnaires, tests, examinations, evaluation and measurement devices, test specifications, compilations of tests, opinion polls (instruments), assessment tools, reporting booklets, rating scales, test manuals, etc.
Translations	Applied to any document translated from its original language into a second language, usually an English translation from a non-English text, but other translation situations also apply.

Publisher
Publisher name and contact information, as provided by the publisher. ERIC added this field in 2005. Information in this field is static, i.e., ERIC does not monitor contact information for updates.

Record Type
A high level indicator of the type of material processed in the ERIC database:

Non-Journal
Journal

Note: Historical references to ERIC materials may include RIE (Resources in Education) for non-journal items; and CIJ or CIJE (Current Index to Journals in Education) for journal records.

Reference Count
The number of bibliographic references actually contained in the indexed item. ERIC introduced this field in 2005. Information had previously been included in the Abstract.

Source*
The entity from which ERIC acquires content, including journal, organization, and conference names; and online submission.

Sponsoring Agency*
The agency or organization that supported or funded the work or production of the document via a contract or grant. A sponsor does not author a work.

Examples:
The Annie B. Casey Foundation; Pew Charitable Trusts; the Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation; U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.

Target Audience
See Audience.

Title*
The name assigned by the author to the document. This field may also contain subtitles and series names.