Databases of education, psychology and logopedics

There is one shared platform which contains specific databases for behavioural sciences: the EBSCO platform. Its main features are shown below. Also many Proquest collections and databases are relevant to educational sciences. The main features of Proquest have also been introduced below.

The multidisciplinary Scopus (link opens in a new tab) is useful to all.

In addition, there are some other important databases for educational sciences in particular. Read more about these specific databases under the discipline-specific sections.

To see the whole list of resources available, please visit the library’s web page Information retrieval and training – Information resources by discipline (link opens in new tab).

EBSCO platform for databases

EBSCO maintains one generic database of its own: the Academic Search Premier. It is a multidisciplinary database, but especially useful in educational sciences, in particular when your topic features a multidisciplinary approach. Through the EBSCO platform, it is possible to use other databases as well, either alone or together with multiple databases.

The most important resource for psychology, the PsycInfo database, is also used through the EBSCO platform.

The selection of databases can be done via this link:

Screen capture of Ebscohost search form with a highlighted hint: in Ebscohost database in changed from the current Searching [database name] -link above the search box. — You can access any EBSCO database through UEF Primo and change the selection at any time during the session.

Boolean operators: as usual. Proximity operator: Nn (near; no specific order); Wn (within; given order). Truncation: middle and end. Wildcards: # replaces one or zero characters; ? replaces one character. Phrase: quotation marks recommended. Stemming and spelling: as usual. Search fields to start with: Select a field (searches authors, subjects, keywords, all title info including source title and abstracts, may vary by database. — Search technical specialities in EBSCO databases

Video tutorial: (link open in new tab)

Using search terms, editing, saving:

Introduction to the New EBSCOhost – Tutorial (3:39)

ProQuest platform for databases

The ProQuest (link opens in a new tab) service consists of several sub-collections, which all contain several individual databases. Collections and databases that are relevant to educational sciences are listed below:

ProQuest
- Social science premium collection
  - Education collection
    - ERIC database
    - Education database
- (Art, design & architecture collection)
  - Arts & humanities database
  - Design & applied arts index
- (SciTech premium collection)
  - (Natural science collection)
    - Agricultural & environmental science collection

These collections/databases can be searched separately or together; you may choose the combination by yourself. However, if you use several databases at the same time, you will loose some search tools, like the use of the ERIC Thesaurus in the search.

Screen capture of Proquest search form with a highlighted hint: in Proquest the database is changed from the menu in the left corner of the page using the link "Change databases". — You can access any ProQuest database through UEF Primo and change the selection at any time during the session.

Boolean operators: as usual. Proximity operator: NEAR/n (no specific order) and PRE/n (given order). Truncation: middle and end; maximum of 5 characters are replaced; truncated term doesn’t count in relevancy order. Wildcards: ? replaces one or zero characters. Phrase: as usual. Stemming and spelling: as usual. Search fields to start with: Anywhere except full-text – NOFT. — Search technical specialties in ProQuest

Read more about the essential databases by field of science:

Education

In educational sciences, there are some important databases that are all used through one platform, ProQuest. Additionally, two other educational databases are introduced here.

ERIC database is the major source not only in educational science but also in the pedagogy of specific subjects, like biology, history, etc.

ERIC / Proquest

covers the years: Core collection is indexed from 1966 to present. Includes some material from 1907 onwards.
covers the document types: Journal articles, research reports, conference papers, dissertations, books, grey literature, etc.
uses the thesaurus: ERIC Thesaurus

Open ERIC in a new tab in UEF Primo.

ERIC (the Education Resources Information Center) is the largest and most essential source of educational literature. It is used through the ProQuest platform. The ERIC database is a comprehensive international reference database in education research. ERIC only indexes material that is in English.

The database encompasses 1,248 journals and 727 non-journal sources. It contains over 1,800,000 total records; 48,000 are added annually. Almost 25 % of the records are included in full-text (ERIC Collection Snapshot, January 2021. Link opens in a new tab). The most records, however, are linked in full-text in other UEF Primo services.

The ERIC Thesaurus is an authoritative education-related thesaurus. Please note that new terms may be included quite slowly, and the thesaurus description of an educational system is mostly based on the U.S. school system.

ERIC is administered by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education. They also offer a free website eric.ed.gov. To access licensed material and gain full advantage from search techniques and other useful database features, it is recommended to use the database on the ProQuest platform.

Video tutorials: Playlist of ERIC training videos (link opens in a new tab) by University of Toronto Libraries

See the technical details of Proquest databases on the top of the page.

Search query example in the ERIC-database: Supporting self-regulation skills through learning analytics to improve learning outcomes

Education database / Proquest

covers the years: 1988 – present
covers the document types: Journal articles, research reports, conference papers, dissertations, books, magazines, plenty of non-journal materials
uses the thesaurus: the general ProQuest thesaurus

Open the database in a new tab in UEF Primo: Education database.

Education database includes over 1,000 journals in full-text and 18,000 dissertations. Many journal titles are indexed in the ERIC database. Education Database coverage spans the literature on all levels of education.

Beyond scholarly journals, Education database indexes magazines, newspapers and non-journal materials. The user may benefit from the wide-ranging collection in full-text. On the other hand, a considerable amount of the content is not peer-reviewed.

Video tutorial: Education database (ProQuest) (6:49) (link opens in a new tab)

Academic Search Premier / EBSCO

covers the years: no information found
covers the document types: journal articles, books, book chapters, newspapers, news videos, images etc.
uses the thesaurus: Academic Search Premier – Subject terms

Open the database in a new tab in UEF Primo: Academic search premier

Academic Search Premier is a multi-disciplinary database with a wide range of subjects and document types.

The strength – and weakness – of the database is its wide array of documents and document types. It is genuinely multicultural with 30 languages represented in the contents. The database provides access to more than 4,600 full text journals and magazines, including 3,870 peer-reviewed journals. Total number of journals and magazines indexed and abstracted is 18,400, of which 16,320 are peer-reviewed (2022).

According to EBSCO’s home page (link opens in a new tab), this database also provides access to over 5,000 open access (OA) journals, which are presented as referrals for DOAJ.

The language of the user interface can be changed even to Finnish, but English should be kept as the search language.

See the technical details and video tutorials of EBSCO databases on the top of the page.

Additional to Home economics & Craft science

Design & applied arts index / Proquest

covers the years: 1973 – present
covers the document types: Journal articles, news items and reviews
uses the thesaurus: The general ProQuest thesaurus

Open the database in a new tab in UEF Primo: Design & applied sciences index.

This database is useful for craft science. Subjects include, among other things, ceramics, glass, jewellery, wood, metalsmithing, fashion and clothing, textiles, furniture, interior design, product design, architecture, advertising and industrial design.

Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI) is a source of abstracts and bibliographic records for articles, news items and reviews published in design and applied arts periodicals. DAAI contains more than 212,000 records from over 500 scholarly and 100 other publications. Around 1,200 new records are added monthly.

Agricultural & environmental science collection / ProQuest

covers the years: 1960 – present. Some historical material included.
covers the document types: Journal articles, dissertations, books and conference papers
uses the thesaurus: Several thesauri are available

Open the database in a new tab in UEF Primo: Agricultural & environmental science collection

This database collection can be interesting in relation to home economics. It includes agricultural and environmental science collections. Subjects of interest for home economics are, for example, agricultural economics, environmental education, food and nutrition, public health and waste management.

The database has 4,487 publications, of which 3,415 are peer-reviewed scholarly journals, published not only in English (May 2022).

Depending on your topic, you may find other suitable databases in home economics. Academic Search Premier, Scopus and Web of Science are comprehensive high-quality multidiscipline databases. PubMed offers citations in medicine, health sciences and related disciplines.

Logopedics

There is no specific database for logopedics. You may use the multidisciplinary databases Scopus and Web of Science (links open in a new tab), as well as the databases for education and psychology showcased on this page.

For the linguistic dimension of logopedics, see for example Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts from databases of humanities (link opens in a new tab).

For the medical dimension of logopedics, PubMed is good database to start with. Read more about PubMed from page Databases of health sciences.

Logopedics information resources (UEF Library)

Psychology

PsycInfo / Ebsco

covers the years: oldest records from the 17th century, more coverage from the 19th century onwards
covers the document types: journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations
uses the thesaurus: APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms

Open the database in a new tab in UEF Primo: PsycInfo

PsycInfo database is the most important source of psychological and behavioral literature. It has a long history starting from a printed bibliography publication called Psychological Abstracts in 1927. PsycInfo is provided by the American Psychological Association.

PsycInfo contains over 5.1 million records from 3,000 journals and other publications (2022).

PsycInfo’s strong point is the coverage of almost 30 languages and thus the geographical extent. The thesaurus terms, selected by professionals, are included in most of the records. They provide many possibilities to limit the results not only by the subject, but also by the age, gender and population of the research subjects as well as the methodology or even the tests used.

PsycInfo’s weakness is that despite the rigorous indexing of subjects and methods available, you cannot rely on the fact that every record would contain all the aspects of indexing. This must be kept in mind especially when doing a systematic review.

PsycInfo contains also references full text articles from over 100 journals by APA. If you want to search these journals alone, use the PsycArticles (Ebsco) database for that (link opens in a new tab).

See the technical details of EBSCO databases at the top of this page.

Video tutorials (links open in new tabs)

Searching subject terms and adding them to the query: Using the PsycInfo Thesaurus (4:59)

The search tool for selecting and viewing tests used: Searching PsycINFO’s Tests and Measurements Field (4:53)

Search query example

The topic of this query is “the link between work-life balance and well-being at work”. See below: ThingLink

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