Evidence Synthesis Methods Interest Group

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Charge: To promote and develop competencies around evidence synthesis including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, scoping reviews, and other related methods of research synthesis, through activities such as: Facilitating discussion and peer-support; Creating and managing a resource page; Encouraging programming and publications around systematic reviews through ACRL.
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Save the date! June journal club - Selecting a specialized education database for literature reviews and evidence synthesis projects

  • 1.  Save the date! June journal club - Selecting a specialized education database for literature reviews and evidence synthesis projects

    Posted May 12, 2025 09:55 AM
    ACRL-ESMIG, 
    Please join us on June 10, 2025 at noon CT for a journal club featuring the authors of the following article. The authors will present for ~30 minutes, and the remainder of our time will be Q&A and discussion. This topic is timely as I know many of us are concerned about the future of ERIC and want to make informed decisions about education databases to use for the purposes of evidence synthesis. 

    Fitzgerald, S. R., Weaver, K. D., & Droog, A. (2025). Selecting a specialized education database for literature reviews and evidence synthesis projects. Research Synthesis Methods, 16(1), 30-41. doi: 10.1017/rsm.2024.11 (open access)

    Abstract: While the Institute of Education Science's ERIC is often recommended for comprehensive literature searching in the field of education, there are several other specialized education databases to discover education literature. This study investigates journal coverage overlaps between four specialized education databases: Education Source (EBSCO), Education Database (ProQuest), ERIC (Institute of Education Sciences), and Educator's Reference Complete (Gale). Out of a total of 4,695 unique journals analyzed, there are 2,831 journals uniquely covered by only one database, as well as many journals covered by only two or three databases. Findings show that evidence synthesis projects and literature reviews benefit from the careful selection of multiple specialized education databases and that ERIC is insufficient as the primary education database for comprehensive searching in the field.


    Looking forward to this virtual event,
    Amy

    --

    Amy Riegelman (she, her, hers)
    Social Sciences & Evidence Synthesis Librarian, University of Minnesota
    Information Specialist for Campbell Disability Coordinating Group