Introductory guidance on the Education Source database (on EBSCOhost) and basic searching tips.

1. Education Source (on EBSCOhost) Database – a Brief Guide
About Education Source
It provides access to a large collection of full-text journals covering all levels of education from
early childhood to higher education: includes full text for more than 2,000 journals; indexing and
abstracts for more than 3,500 journals; citations for nearly 3.7 million articles, and more. Note
that the EBSCOhost platform provides access to other databases: e.g. SocINDEX (full-text social
sciences resources). See the “Choose Databases” link at the top of the database page if you wish
to add another database to search along with Education Source.
How to access it
Education Source is available from on and off UWS campuses: access it from the UWS Library ‘One
Search’ > Specialist Resources list or from the Library Website > Subject Support > Education or
Childhood Studies. You will need to login with your UWS student Banner ID (or staff AD no.) and
network password.
Searching the database
The database has been set to default to the Advanced Search screen. Type in your keyword(s) or
phrase in the search box(es) and click on ‘Search’, leaving the “Select a Field” option as it is.
For example:
Remember to try searching for different / alternative terms for your topic. Note that when you
start typing words into the search box, drop down options for alternative and related search terms
will appear and you can select one of those to search instead.
 About using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to broaden or narrow searches:
o AND: to narrow a search = with all of the words
e.g. outdoor education AND forest schools
o OR: to broaden a search = with at least one of the words
e.g. outdoor education OR outdoor learning
o NOT: to eliminate unwanted words from a search = without the words. Take care if
you use ‘not’ as you may exclude useful results.
e.g. outdoor education NOT adventure
 Enclose phrases within double quotation marks - e.g. “formative assessment”
 Use truncation to search for variant word endings or spellings: use an asterisk *
e.g. assess* will find assess, assessed, assesses, assessment etc.
The database has been set to a default search of “Also search within the full text of the articles”.
For a more precise search, which may help you get more relevant results, try using the drop-down
menu options (these will vary depending on which EBSCOhost database you are searching). For
example, you could try searching for your word(s) only within Abstract (article summary).

2. You could also try searching for a term using the Subject or Author-Supplied Keyword options
Click on the “Search History” link if you want to view or print off the searches you have tried. Note
that these details will be lost when you logout of Education Source, unless you set up ‘registration’
on EBSCO – see below under ‘saving results’.
Viewing and Refining Search Results
Click on the title of an article / result to view the abstract (summary) and other details about the
item, including subject headings. On this article details page, you can access various ‘Tools’
options which you may find useful. For example, click on ‘Cite’ to get the details you need for your
reference, if you plan to use the article in your assignment: see the ‘Harvard’ style option, but note
that you will have to adapt it to ‘UWS Harvard’ style. Click on ‘Result List’ to return to your search
results.
(NB: you can also click on the magnifying glass icon, to right of article title, to open a box to view
the abstract and other details)
On the left of the database screen there are various ‘Refine Results’ options.
Note in particular the Limit To options for Publication Date, and Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals
Note that Education Source defaults to return results limited to full text article access only. If you
want to broaden your search results to include articles that are not available in full text on the
Education Source database, de-select the Limit To > Full Text option. You will then get details of
articles available in citation/abstract only included in your search results, and to find out if these
articles are available in full text from another UWS Library database collection, click on the link to
Check Primo OneSearch for availability.
Saving Results
Click on the blue folder icon, to the right of result item’s title, to select an item “To print, email or
save multiple items”: you can then open the yellow folder icon (from the top of the page) and see
the available saving and other action options. You can set up email alerts and save searches: click
on Sign In at the top of the page and register with EBSCOhost.
Need further help?
To view EBSCO help: click on the Help link at the top of the page or on the ‘?’ symbol to the right of
the search boxes. Contact the Library for advice: library@uws.ac.uk [CA, June 2018]