Bibliographic databases are essential research tools when comprehensive literature searches are required such as in systematic reviews, scoping reviews, evidence synthesis, or guideline development. ERIC (Education Resource Information Center), is a well-known and major database for education research published by US Institute of Education Sciences.

In a recent publication, Michael Lam, a Year 4 Medical student at Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS), and his co-authors, Helen Lam, Manfred Gschwandtner and Dr Philip Chan, investigated the benefits of including ERIC in comprehensive literature searches on medical education topics.

The group could demonstrate that between 1977 and 2022 the ERIC database includes 3925 unique references on medical education that are not included in key medical databases such as Medline, Embase or Cochrane Central. These papers would be missed by medical education researchers, if they do not include ERIC in their search strategy.

Michael says that “so far there is no consistent use of ERIC in medical education research. But I hope that this paper will change this and improve the quality of comprehensive literature reviews in medical education by encouraging researchers to include ERIC in their searches”.

Read the publication
Lam, M.T., Lam, H. R., Gschwandtner, M., Chan, P. (2024) ‘To use or not to use: ERIC database for medical education research’ Medical Teacher, pp. 1-8. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159x.2024.2422003

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This blog post was authored by Manfred Gschwandtner, KMMS Librarian, Kent and Medway Medical School.

Featured image shows the ERIC search box as accessed on 09/12/2024 at ERIC – Education Resources Information Center.