LibGuides: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Resource Guide (Centre for Learning & Teaching): Find articles & search databases

Recommended databases for SoTL and educational research

ERIC (Educational Resources Information Centre) - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
PROQUEST VERSION *Key database for Education. Contains documents and journal literature from over 775 periodicals in education. Video tutorial on searching with the ProQuest platform
Dissertations & Theses (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Dissertations and theses provide great insights into new research and questions in SoTL. The also have extensive bibliographies that can be consulted for further reading.
Taylor and Francis Online This link opens in a new window
Over 1,600 scholarly journals spanning all areas of the Humanities, Social Sciences, Science and Technology. A great resource for education scholarship.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Annotated Literature Database
A project led by Nicola Simmons at Brock University, this resource provides helpful summaries of key SoTL literature organized by topic

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search for academic sources using the Google search engine. To learn how to configure Google Scholar to access the most material, watch this quick video.
EBSCOhost Databases This link opens in a new window
Search multiple (or all!) Ebsco databases at once. After clicking on the above link, you will get to choose which Ebsco databases you would like to search. Video tutorial on searching with the Ebsco platform
ProQuest Databases This link opens in a new window
Search multiple (or all!) ProQuest databases at once. By clicking on the link above, you will begin to search all of the ProQuest databases that Dal subscribes to. If you would like to be more selective, just click on "Databases" near the top of the screen to select from the full list. Video tutorial on searching with the ProQuest platform
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) This link opens in a new window
DOAJ's goal is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals, thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. Aims to be the one-stop-shop for users of open access journals.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Dalhousie subscribes to JSTOR's Arts and Sciences I-VII, Business, Ecology and Botany, Language and Literature, and Life Sciences collections. These databases cover hundreds of journal title backfiles from 41 academic disciplines. It is a unique digital archive of journals, starting with the very first issues. The collection covers material from the 1800s up to a 'moving wall' of between zero and 8 years before current publication.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is one of the largest abstract and citation databases 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.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Search across all Project Muse titles for citations and articles of interest. Full-text of articles is available to only Dalhousie users
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,650 serials, including full text for more than 3,600 peer-reviewed titles. Video tutorial on searching with the Ebsco platform

Google Custom Search: Canadian academic sources
Created by Mount Royal University, this Google custom search will help target grey literature associated with Canadian academic institutions.

SoTL searching tips

Be open to reading and engaging with literature that is different from that of your discipline. You might have to search differently than you have in the past, use different terms, and be open to new methods and article styles.
Make use of the "Cited by" function in Google Scholar to find more relevant information
Remember that "not all SoTL work makes it into scholarly literature" (MacMillan, 2016), so don't forget to search the public web for grey literature.
- pairing allintitle: with your keywords in Google can help narrow your results
- try regional domain names, e.g. "undergraduate research" site:edu (for U.S.), "undergraduate research" site:ac.uk (for U.K.), "undergraduate research" site:edu.au (for Australia). Try this Google custom search (created at Mount Royal University) for Canadian academic content.

Credit: Margy MacMillan (cited in Chick, 2016)