Research Guides: TE 854: Education Databases

What Are Peer-Reviewed Articles?

Peer reviewed journals, also called scholarly or academic journals, publish original research in a specific field.

Other scholars (peers) working in similar research areas review the articles before publication.

How can you tell whether a publication is scholarly or not? Most peer reviewed/scholarly journals share the following traits:

Author's credentials and institutional affiliation (where they work) listed
Formal structure, often includings sections such as abstract, literature review, and bibliography
Citations to other peer-reviewed publications

Examples of peer-reviewed publications:

Ask a librarian if you are unsure whether a source is peer-reviewed.

Best Bets for Education-Related Research

Education Source (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Full text articles from over 1,700 education-related journals, with indexing for thousands more journals, books, and conference papers back to 1929.
ERIC via FirstSearch This link opens in a new window
Covers all areas of education and education-related aspects of other disciplines. "ED" documents (1994-present) may be available in full-text online.
Teacher Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Indexes nearly 300 periodicals covering education topics such as: Assessment, Best Practices, Current Pedagogical Research, Curriculum Development, Instructional Media, Literacy Standards, and School Administration.
This database is also freely accessible at this alternate link: http://www.teacherreference.com

Other Helpful Databases for Education-Related Research

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Searches across numerous publishers and institutional sources for reports, dissertations and theses, and scholarly publications. Using this link will indicate which Google Scholar results are available in full-text through UNK databases or other free/open-access sources.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is the world's largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. It contains comprehensive coverage from inception of both U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,500 scholarly journals, all of the world's constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase. This Government, Politics & Law HeinOnline 18-database package offers special collections on Criminal Justice, Religion and the Law and Women and the Law among others.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A digital archive containing the full-text and full-page views of hundreds of journals. JSTOR's Arts & Sciences Archive Collections (1-10) and Life Sciences Archive Collection are available at UNK.
Individuals not affiliated with UNK may access content through a paid, personal JPASS account. Limited, free access is also available by registering for JSTOR's Register and Read program.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE offers 300+ journals from 60 scholarly publishers in the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to more than 500 full-text journals related to psychology, psychiatry, and related disciplines.
Social Science Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
Search across a range of ProQuest’s specialist index and full-text social sciences databases, covering subject areas including Politics, Sociology, Education, Linguistics, and Criminal Justice