Which database should you use?
Start with this list of databases created by the course coordinator
Note an efficient technique for searching can be be to select all relevant medical/allied health/education databases on the EBSCO or ProQuest Platforms and search them simultaneously- see instructions
Other options
- Core Education Databases
- Child development, health and family databases
- Cited reference searching
- Search tools for specific information needs and formats
Find more titles by searching or browsing the A-Z ejournals and databases list
Interdisciplinary databases & search tools for learning intervention and inclusion topics
We highly recommend this list of databases created by the course coordinator. Use these databases to locate journal articles and other sources relevant to your topic.
- CINAHL Complete (EBSCO)CINAHL is an authoritative resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. It has broad content coverage including 50 nursing specialties, speech and language pathology, nutrition, general health and medicine. This database provides indexing for thousands of journals with selected titles available in full text. Coverage commences with 1937.
- MEDLINE (Web of Science)MEDLINE is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database, covering biomedicine and life sciences topics vital to biomedical practitioners, educators, and researchers, such as bioengineering, public health, clinical care, and plant and animal science.
- PubMedPubMed comprises over 26 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of biomedicine and health, covering portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering. PubMed also provides access to additional relevant web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources. PubMed is a free resource that is developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, located at the National Institutes of Health. This record provides access to the Univ of Melbourne customised version of PubMed which includes links to the Library's subscribed full text content.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)Academic Search™ Complete is a multidisciplinary full-text database, providing access to more than 8,600 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,500 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text it offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
- Google Scholar(With University of Melbourne authentication) Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
- Scopus (Elsevier)
Scopus is an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
- Web of Science
Web of Science Core Collection provides quick, powerful access to the world's leading citation databases. Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 12,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 150,000 conference proceedings. You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage to 1900.
Core education databases (try these first)
The Education Library team has developed a core list of databases for locating journal articles and other sources for educational topics.
- Education Database (ProQuest)This easy-to-navigate education database covers primary-, secondary-, and higher education. It also covers special- and adult education. It includes more than 1000 top educational publications (800 in full text). About 75% of the publications covered are scholarly journals.
- Education Source (EBSCO)Education Source (replaces Education Research Complete) with improved coverage. Subject areas include early childhood to higher education, multilingual education, health education, testing, curriculum instruction, education policy, funding and social issues relating to education are covered. includes 2,095 active indexed and abstracted journals. 1,857 of them are peer-reviewed. This includes 56 active full-text journals from the Australia & New Zealand. This product also includes more than 4,100 full-text education-related conference papers and a collection of more than 390 videos from SimpleK12 to provide practical online teacher training that addresses the evolving landscape of education.
- ERIC (EBSCO)ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (US department of education). Included is education research literature from journal articles, conference papers, reports, theses, book chapters and class programs (lesson plans and models).
- A+ Education (Informit)A strong Australian education research focus including educational policy, administration, curriculum, educational psychology. Sources include published and unpublished material, theses, book chapters, conference papers, journal articles. Indexing started from 1989 and full-text coverage started in 2000.
- AEI-ATSIS - Australian Education Index – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Subset (Informit)Australian Education Index includes materials in all levels of education. Journal articles, books, research reports, theses, conference papers, legislation, and web page information are provided. This is the subset of information relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Child development, health & family databases
Use these databases to locate journal articles and other sources relevant to your topic.
- Families & Society Collection (Informit)The collection provides an unique Australian focus on child development, adolescence and youth, services to the aged, marriage and divorce, adoption and foster care. The majority of the content is exclusively offered online via Informit.
- Family & Society Studies Worldwide (EBSCO)Family & Society Studies Worldwide™ is a resource providing coverage of research, policy, and practice literature in the fields of Family Science, Human Ecology, Human Development, and Social Welfare. FSSW is an anthology of 4 database files providing access to more than 1.3 million records. Coverage spans from 1970 to the present.
- PsycINFO (Ovid)Essential resource for psychology and related disciplines. International in scope. Over 2 million records updated weekly. Sources include peer reviewed journals, books (e.g. handbooks and textbooks), book chapters, encyclopedic entries, dissertations, and conference proceedings.
- CINAHL Complete (EBSCO)Covers literature published in nursing and the allied health disciplines such as arts therapy, audiology, exercise physiology, music therapy, occupational therapy, psychology and many other areas. Coverage is international.
- MEDLINE (Web of Science)MEDLINE is the premier database of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). It indexes more than 12 million journal articles in the life sciences (nursing,allied health, pre-clinical sciences, biology, environmental sciences, marine biologye and more). Records are indexed using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).
- PubMedPubMed is developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed provides open access to 30 million citations from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. .
Cited reference searching
Citation tracking allows you to examine research trails and determine the number of times an article has been cited in other papers. It can also reveal connections between authors and other patterns of publication.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is a multidisciplinary database indexing peer-reviewed research literature, trade publications and book series. Coverage includes science, medicine, the social sciences, arts and humanities. Specialist features include cited reference searching.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is another important interdisciplinary resource with 12,000 leading journals in the sciences and social sciences. Included sources are journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature across many disciplines and access peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles. Google Scholar offers cited reference searching.
Tools for specific information needs
Streamed videos and media
These databases have a specialist focus or provide access to a particular format of information, such as streamed media.
- Education in Video (Alexander Street Press)Education in Video is the first online collection of streaming video developed specifically for training and developing teachers. The video titles with hours of teaching demonstrations, lectures, documentaries, and primary-source footage of students and teachers in actual classrooms.
- EduTV (Informit)This database provides access to broadcast programs from free-to-air and pay TV channels in Australia. Download is permitted for educational, research and personal use.
- Kanopy (Kanopy)Streamed video Kanopy provides streamed educational video at optimal quality to University of Melbourne staff and students.
- VideativesThe Videatives platform supports principles of child development and early childhood education. It provides short observational videos of children and accompanying text to create an integrated viewing experience (video + narrative = videative). The purpose of the platform is to make children's thinking visible and to capture what children know and how teachers can build from children's knowledge, to allow the mapping of theory to practice and the generation of theory from practice. You can find relevant videos by exploring: age categories (infants to 7 years); subjects headings; descriptive tags; and a search box.
Comparative education data
- OECD iLibraryThe online library of the OECD provides a gateway to its periodicals, books, working papers, policy papers, statistical databases and tables. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) dataset forms a prominent part of this database.
Research resources
Including resources for research design, methods, proposals, project management.
- SAGE Research MethodsThis database offers research methods support to students learning to conduct research and to faculty while conducting research for publication. It offers more than 1000 books, reference works, journal articles and videos to guide researchers. The Methods Map can help you find the best technique for your research.
- SAGE KnowledgeSAGE Knowledge offers a range of SAGE eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more.