Which database is commonly used to locate education-related research?

• A. Hathitrust
• B. ERIC
• C. PubMed
• D. Google Scholar

Answer: (B)

When you’re looking for education-related research, using a database built for the field makes the search more precise and efficient. ERIC, the Education Resources Information Center, is designed for education topics and widely used by students and researchers. It indexes a broad range of education materials—journal articles, books, reports, conference papers, and gray literature—covering K–12, higher education, policy, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and more. A big advantage is its controlled vocabulary through the ERIC Thesaurus, plus filters for education level, setting, audience, and resource type, which help you zero in on exactly what you need.

Hathitrust is a broad digital library of scanned books and other materials, useful for historical or primary-source material but not a focused source for locating current education research. PubMed concentrates on biomedical and health sciences, so it’s not the right fit for education topics. Google Scholar surveys many disciplines, which is helpful for broad searching, but it can yield less targeted results and less transparency about quality and indexing compared to a field-specific database like ERIC.