Selected resources for EdD research
Core Databases & Journals
The databases listed here are among the most commonly used in education-related research. If your research interest takes you outside of the disciplines represented in this list, find many other options, grouped by subject, here.
Hover over a database's title to see a short description of what it contains.
If the journal does not appear in the search below, or the available date range does not match the date you need, request the item via ILLiad.
Use CLICsearch to find specific journal titles. Search results will contain holdings and links for those we have access to. If it does not appear, check your spelling and then request via Illiad, our interlibrary loan service.
To browse issues, click on the links below and choose an issue.
To find articles within these journals, you'll want a journal index like ERIC, where you can use search terms for your topic and limit the search to a journal name.
Note: For the Chronicle of Higher Ed, click on the small login link on this page and scroll through alpha list.
Book searching & featured titles
Try CLICsearch for Bethel, Concordia-SP, Hamline, Northwestern, St. Thomas, and St. Kate's. Requests usually take only 1 business day.
Try WorldCat for a search of nearly all libraries
For topic overviews and background information
Reference books are not intended to be read cover to cover. They're to be consulted for background, context, definition and outline, and they usually include brief but excellent bibliographies that point you to further research on the subject. They're a great place to get quick info, or to get a basic grounding in something with which you may not be overly familiar.
In print, through BUL databases, and on the open Web
PsycTESTS®, produced by the American Psychological Association (APA), serves as a repository for a growing selection of psychological tests and measures, including thousands of actual test instruments and test items that are available for immediate download and use in research and teaching.
The interface looks like PsycINFO, but the contents are restricted to tests. Use words associated with what you want to measure. You may want to search PsycINFO first, to get a sense for the best terminology to use.
ERIC contains nearly 30,000 theses and dissertations, and most documents from 1996 to the present are available in full text online.
NOTE: In ERIC bachelor's, master's, and doctoral theses are all given the source type of "Dissertation/Thesis," so note the degree for which the thesis was completed in the item record as you browse.
One of the best ways to find tests (AKA measures, scales, instruments, surveys, questionnaires, assessment, evaluation) is to search the journal literature in your discipline. For Education research, the best place to look is ERIC. After ERIC, try PsycINFO, which indexes tests and measures of all kinds, and also has limiting features for both Methodology and Tests & Measures. Super helpful!
OK. But how? It's easy, really. Once you formulate your search (see the "Search Tips" section of this guide on the "Find Articles" tab), add a variety of terms commonly used to describe assessment or evaluation, like this:
Among your results, you'll find various studies that use some kind of instrument. Sometimes these are reproduced within the article, and sometimes only mentioned. If you need to find a test that is mentioned in an article, check the reference list to see its source. You can also try searching the database using the name of the test. Not all of these will be available to students, but some will. Remember that professional ethics require that if the article does not explicitly grant permission to use a test reproduced in its entirety, you should attempt to contact the author for permission. Contact information is usually provided within the PsycINFO record. Or ask your friendly librarian for help!
What if you need a particular thesis and it’s NOT freely available online? You may use interlibrary loan to request a copy
Request a copy via ILL (Interlibrary Loan)
Note: In many cases we can acquire an electronic version, but some theses are often physically owned by only one library at the degree-granting institution. Some libraries will loan their copy, some will not. It’s always OK to try, but it’s not a sure thing that you’ll get it.
Find a record for the thesis in the WorldCat catalog. From there you can click on the Request Item button, log in with your Bethel account, and submit the form.
OR
Find a record for the thesis in a Bethel database like ERIC or PsycINFO. Click on the link to Search for Bethel Libraries Full Text. Look for the link to request.
See how to do this here.
OR
Fill out a blank ILL form. Find a link to ILLiad, our requesting system, on the library’s website (Library Accounts link). Login with your Bethel account. Click on the link for Dissertation/Thesis requests. Fill out the form and submit it.
And Last But Not Least
It's always worth trying a search engine--Google, Bing, or your favorite--using quotation marks around the title and perhaps the author's last name, if the title isn't unique--to see if the author has posted the dissertation on the web somewhere. It's surprising how often this is the case.
And for cases where you can't find a free copy, but you CAN find contact info for the author, try to get in touch with the author and ask if they'd be willing to share a copy of their thesis with you. Many people are thrilled that someone is interested in their blood-sweat-and-tears project, and would happily oblige.
Contact a librarian