See below for a list of recommended databases for Education and educational research.
These have been divided into:
Key Databases - These are top recommended databases for conducting research into Education topics.
Other recommended databases - These often multi-disciplinary databases can also help with finding Education-based research, particularly for research topics which span multiple research areas.
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Consult the A to Z of Library Databases to overview and access all available subscription databases.
(Formerly Education Research Complete) Education Source Ultimate is the world's largest and most comprehensive full-text research database designed for education students, researchers, professionals and policymakers. Coverage spans all levels of education and includes a range of topics including education ethics, educational technology, literacy, research methodology and more. With access to 2,113 active full-text education journals, it is the largest database in the Education Source family. ESU also includes 1,178 journals with searchable cited references.
ESU features 415 videos from SimpleK12, which provide practical online teacher training and address the evolving landscape of education.
Basic Searching | Advanced Searching | Creating Journal Alerts | Creating Search Alerts | EBSCO Library Guide
Education Source Ultimate is the recommended starting point for your Education research journey. Whilst being the largest Education database, it also maintains a great focus on this research area, ensuring your search stays neatly on track.
It can be the best place to help refine and tweak your search strategy and keywords while still hitting the most comprehensive and focused Education literature.
The British Education Index provides information on research, policy and practice in education and training in the UK. Strengths include aspects of educational policy and administration, evaluation and assessment, technology and special educational needs. It covers all aspects of education from preschool to higher education. Sources include education and training journals, mostly published in the UK. Some international literature is included.
The British Education Index is a focused database on all aspects of UK Education. While some international literature is included, the majority will focus on literature published in the UK. This can be particularly useful for maintaining a specific focus on your Education research to a specific context.
ERIC International consists of two abstract databases which can be searched together or separately:
Both ERIC and the AEI are great database resources for expanding your research internationally and finding relevant literature across multiple educational environments. These database can be particularly useful for refining and expanding both your methodologies and your search vocabulary, by researching how educational topics are talked about and discussed in different countries/continents.
Scopus is one of the largest multi-disciplinary abstracting and indexing databases of research literature and quality web sources. It offers access to over 16,000 titles from more than 4000 international publishers, with abstracts available back to 1966. Citation data is available from 1996. Coverage includes scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature, including arts and humanities. There are also 23 million patent records from 5 patent offices as well as links to 'Articles in Press' from over 3,000 journals.
Scopus Library Guide | E-tutorials and demos
Scopus is great citation tracking database, which is a great folllow-up on your Education research. Use Scopus to analyse research areas and interests, track citations on key articles, and help identify key journals and authors. Scopus can also be used as a final search database for conducting any kind of systematic searches, or just taking a systematic approach to your searching.
As a broad multi-disciplinary database, this will cover a range of other subjects to complement the Education databases.
Full-text access to more than 8,000 journals (over 7,000 peer-reviewed) and indexing for almost 12,000 covering the following disciplines: business, communications, computer science, biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, psychology, education and nursing.
Coverage: Varies according to title.
Academic Search Complete is a great broad multi-disciplinary database, which will allow your Education search to span a number of different research areas
Archive of almost 2,000 core scholarly journals in Anthropology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Language & Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology and Statistics. Current content is not generally available.
Coverage: Varies according to title.
JSTOR is another great multi-disciplinary database, covering a broad range of research areas and can help you find relevant literature to a number of Education-related topics
Covering the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science and gender studies, Project Muse offers over 530 full text titles from over 60 scholarly publishers.
Coverage: Varies according to title
This database can be useful for researching Education topics which are more aligned to the humanities and social sciences areas, particularly arts & culture, and literature
ASSIA is an indexing and abstracting tool covering health, social services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education.
Coverage: 1987 - present
This collection provides access to databases covering international literature in social sciences, including politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education. Featured databases include IBSS, Sociological Abstracts and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Together, they provide abstracts, indexing and full-text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, and more.
You will need to create an account to access content. Click on 'My Data Login/Create an Account' in the top right hand corner - 'New User' - 'Create an Account'.
The world's largest archive of social science data for research with over 6,300 studies from sociology, political science, criminology, history, education, demography, gerontology, international relations, public health, economics and psychology.
This database can be useful for finding literature around Educational research in social sciences and politics, as well as international relations, policy, and economics
Indexing for approximately 3,000 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health. In addition, this database offers access to health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, audiovisuals and book chapters. Full text of approx 750 journals, plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials.
E-tutorials: CINAHL Headings Tutorial | CINAHL Basic Searching | CINAHL Advanced Features | EBSCO Library Guide
As a nursing and health literature database, CINAHL may be useful if researching any health-oriented Educational topics, e.g. physical education impacts, etc.
PsycINFO contains nearly two million citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in the field of psychology. It also includes information about the psychological aspects of related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law. This database also allows seamless linking to the fulltext of articles contained in PsycArticles database.
E-tutorials (EBSCOhost) 
: Basic Searching | Advanced Searching | Creating Journal Alerts | Creating Search Alerts |
PsycINFO can be useful when conducting Educational research crosses over with aspects of psychology, such as mental health, psychological or mental effects within the school or education sector, etc.
WoS is a multidisciplinary citation database covering over 10,000 of the world's highest impact research journals. It also offers the unique "citation searching" feature, allowing users to see how many times a paper/author has been cited and by whom. It consists of the three databases: the Science Citation Index Expanded (1945-present), the Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present) and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present).
Help & E-tutorials: Web of Science - Search Tips (05:37 minutes) | Web Of Science Library Guide
Web of Knowledge is a web-based platform which provides access to high-quality research information. Several products are available to search within the Web of Knowledge platform
Web of Science is another Citation Database, like Scopus, which can help further Educational research which extends further into the Social Sciences.
Produced by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials provides coverage dating back to 1908 with indexing for some journal titles extending back into the 19th century. Full-text journal articles and reviews are selected for inclusion by leading religion scholars.
ATLA Religion Database may be useful when researching Religious Education, or for finding literature relating to religious teaching.