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Welcome to the ERIC database. This wizard will help you to build a query using the terms in ERIC's thesaurus. To begin, enter a word for the wizard to look up.

   

Note: This was our first draft of the Wizard and is no longer supported. We have been busy adding features to the frames version. If your browser supports frames, we highly recommend you use that version. Also, this version is limited to 1990 and later. The frames version has databses going back to 1990 and 1976.
Help for navigation of the ERIC thesaurus for successful ERIC searching

The query form will allow you to formulate the following search strategy:

[(set1) and (set2)] excluding (set3).

That is, located citations will contain any of the terms in (set1) and any of the terms in (set2); citations containing any word in (set3) will be excluded.

After you input a starting word or phrase, relevant parts of the ERIC Thesaurus will appear on the right. To look up a new word, either click on the hypertext link or enter a new word or phrase in the [Look Up] box at the bottom of the frame. To add terms to your query, click on the checkbox(es) next to the desired term(s) and then scroll to the bottom and click on an [Add to Set x] button.

Right now, you can use the wizard to search the ERIC database mounted at the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation (ERIC/AE). An advantage of the ERIC/AE search engine is its "query-by-example" feature, which allows you to ask the computer to find "more like this". The database covers 1976 and later. Note: The frames version of this software offers many more features, including pre-packaged search strategies on hot topics and an interface to other ERIC database locations.

About ERIC and the ERIC Thesaurus

ERIC, the Educational Resources Information Center, is a federally-funded project of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. The ERIC database is an internationally-accessible collection of practically- and research-oriented documents for educational practitioners and researchers at all levels.

The ERIC Thesaurus represented in this search interface offers an effective gateway to the ERIC documents database. The ERIC Thesaurus has been developed as the list of descriptors, or controlled vocabulary, by which ERIC citations are indexed. Via this interface, you can navigate the thesaurus to ensure that you are using the words in our controlled vocabulary for more accurate, fruitful search results. As you navigate the thesaurus, you will encounter for most terms a definition along with identified related terms, broader terms, and narrower terms. Be sure to read the instructions in Help for easy navigation of the thesaurus.

The thesaurus content is the result of 30 years of work and refinement by the ERIC system. This has been a collaborative project typically involving over 40 people each year. Jim Houston of the ERIC Processing and Reference Facility spearheads this amazing and widely recognized effort.

Related sites and pages:

ERIC/AE Home page     E-mail ERIC/AE
Search ERIC page
ERIC System page
ERIC on low cost CD-ROM
U.S. Dept. of Education
The National Library of Education

Document delivery services:

ERIC Document Reproduction Service - for ERIC documents (ED######)
CARL - for many ERIC journals (EJ######)
Known bugs and limitations:

Possible forthcoming features (our wish list):

Tell us what you think. Do you like what we have done? Do you recommend it to other? What possible forthcoming features are important to you? Which limitations annoy you?

Designed by Larry Rudner and Liselle Drake , ERIC/AE
Written 1/97 as a IIS ASP script for Windows NT. Technical information on how we did it.

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