The Journey Starts Here: Finding special education research in subscription databases

Abstract

When providing reference services to students in multidisciplinary or emerging fields, it can be especially challenging to identify which subscription databases offer the best access to relevant mate- rials. By using citation analysis methods to create a balanced checklist, librarians can not only identify prominent resources in the field, but can also have a better understanding of which disciplines are contributing to the field. This study examined special education, identified 39 journals from five disciplines that were highly cited across disciplines, and found that EBSCO’s Academic Search Premier provided the best access to the materials.