Amidst many changes at the US Department of Education right now, changes are coming to the most popular database of educational literature: ERIC. Editors of some journals have received notifications that include versions of the message below:
The Department of Education is working with the Department of Government Efficiency to “reduce overall Federal spending” and “reallocate spending to promote efficiency” (EO 14222). As a result, ERIC will be significantly reducing the number of records we index going forward. We expect to be reducing the collection by approximately 45% starting April 24, 2025.
At this point, we believe that all records currently in ERIC will remain available. Not all journals have been notified if they are being deselected from the database yet, but there are efforts amongst librarians to track which journals are being deselected. If you find out that a journal is being pulled from ERIC moving forward, please submit this form.
Database Recommendation: Moving forward, and in light of recent research, NIU Libraries recommends using the combined ERIC and Education Source (EBSCO) to search for educational literature. Education Source has a wider range of educational journals than ERIC, but lacks ERIC's coverage of educational reports and quantitative data, so searching the two of them together should suffice for most research purposes.
We will keep you updated about any further developments.
Questions? We may not know the answer but please do email us!
Your education librarians.
Alissa Droog, Dee Anna Phares, and Meredith Ayers
