EDUC: Education Research Resources

The SCU Library does not subscribe to any specific collections of educational or psychological tests, measures, or assessment instruments. However, there are strategies you can use to identify, evaluate, and access these resources for your research and assessment needs.

Search in ERIC

ERIC has a Tests/Questionnaires filter that will limit your results to instruments or articles that include them (most often in an appendix).

In ERIC via the library (EBSCO), the filter is located under Document Type and can be applied before or after you search.

In ERIC via the Department of Education, run your search, and then limit your results under Publication Type.

Search an Open Collection

You can search an open collection or resource to identify existing instruments that are freely available.

Use the Scholarly Literature

Another strategy to identify measures is searching the scholarly literature.

Search for an empirical study focused on the population, construct(s), and intervention(s) you're interested in, and look at the article's methods section to identify measures used by the researchers.

ERIC via the library (EBSCO) has an Assessment and Survey Identifiers search box. (ERIC via the Department of Education has an Assessments and Surveys filter instead).

APA PsycINFO has a Tests & Measures field, accessible from the drop-down menu to the right of each search box.

You can use these fields in two ways:

1) Search for keywords related to your construct (e.g., anxiety). Results will include studies using measures related to the keyword you searched.

2) Search for the names of specific tests or measures. Results will include studies using the specific measure you searched.

Information about test reliability and validity may be found by searching ERIC or APA PsycINFO using the Assessment and Survey Identifiers or Tests & Measures fields (see above). Search the name of the measure to find articles about its development and/or revision, as well as assessments of reliability and validity.

Further information about and reviews of psychological tests are available in Mental Measurements Yearbook. SCU Library does not currently subscribe to this resource. You may be able to access test reviews from the Mental Measurements Yearbook via InterLibrary Loan or via the public access computers at the SJSU Library.

Many educational and psychological tests and assessments are proprietary, and may have restrictions and/or fees associated with their use. If you need to access the full text of an instrument for research, reach out to your librarian for help, or try one of the following strategies.

1) Consider using an openly-available measure. If you don't need to use a specific test or measure, consider an openly-available instrument that assesses the same construct(s). See the section above containing a list of open collections.

2) Search for the measure in ERIC, APA PsycINFO or ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. You may find test items listed or described in the methods section, or a full instrument appended at the end of a document.

3) Use a specialized resource. APA PsycTests is one place to find full text of various instruments. Information about access, publishers, pricing, and permissions for major tests are available in Mental Measurements Yearbook. SCU Library does not currently subscribe to either of these resources. You may be able to access test information from the Mental Measurements Yearbook via InterLibrary Loan, though InterLibrary Loan may not be able to obtain copies of full instruments. You may be able to access APA PsycTESTS or Mental Measurements Yearbook via the public access computers at the SJSU Library.