The free, authoritative index for education research.
At a Glance
| Publisher | Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education |
| Coverage | 1.6M+ records indexed since 1966, with 320,000+ full-text documents, including journal articles and grey literature (reports, conference papers) |
| Access | free (eric.ed.gov); also licensed via EBSCO/ProQuest |
| Free alternative | it is free |
| Regional | global, U.S.-centric. |
Our Take
ERIC is the go-to index for education literature and, unusually for a database this authoritative, it’s free — with strong coverage of grey literature (policy reports, working papers) that journal indexes miss. Two caveats worth knowing: it’s U.S.-oriented, and a 2025 reduction in active journal indexing narrowed its ongoing coverage, so recency in some titles may lag. Use it as the first stop for education research and grey literature; supplement with Scopus or PsycINFO for international and psychology-of-education work.
Power Tips
- Use the ERIC Thesaurus descriptors and the full-text filter to pull free reports and conference papers the journal indexes skip
- for the most recent literature, cross-check a subscription index given ERIC’s 2025 indexing cuts (verify current coverage).
Alternatives & Complements
PsycINFO · Scopus · JSTOR · Google Scholar.
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