The objective of this commentary is to call attention to the feasibility and importance of large-scale, systematic, quantitative analysis in international and comparative education research. We contend that although many existing databases are under- or unutilized in quantitative international-comparative research, these resources present the…

Objective: The authors review existing assessment tools related to evaluating residents' teaching skills and teaching effectiveness. Methods: PubMed and PsycInfo databases were searched using combinations of keywords including "residents," "residents as teachers," "teaching skills," and "assessments" or "rating scales." Results: Eleven evaluation…

Librarians have long struggled to find user-friendly mediums to provide meaningful information to patrons using bibliographies, pathfinders, and subject guides with varying degrees of success. Content management systems, such as Springshare's LibGuides, have recently been developed to facilitate the creation of online subject guides. Special…

In various research areas, the availability of open datasets is considered as key for research and application purposes. These datasets are used as benchmarks to develop new algorithms and to compare them to other algorithms in given settings. Finding such available datasets for experimentation can be a challenging task in technology enhanced…

The purpose of this study is to review 10 NCES databases that can be used for researching postsecondary issues and provide lesser-known facts to using the datasets that are important but may not be widely understood. Issues addressed include: (1) access; (2) statistical issues; (3) database nuances; and (4) database training opportunities. A…

Reviews the history of the Public Relations Body of Knowledge Abstracts, a database of public relations research and literature. Describes the uses of the abstracts for research purposes, and reports assessments of new research directions as set forth by members of the Public Relations Society of America's permanent Body of Knowledge Board. (MM)

This study compared and contrasted the use of hypertext and relational database knowledge representation techniques in the analysis of qualitative data. A parallel analysis of teacher interview transcripts was conducted with two computer programs: "EntryWay," a hypertext editor, and "FoxBase+/Mac," a relational database with a…

Discusses some widely available spatially referenced datasets, including raster and vector datasets. Strategies for improving accessibility include: acquisition of data in a software-dependent format; reorganization of data into logical geographic units; acquisition of intelligent retrieval software; improving computer hardware; and intelligent…

One response to the large and rapidly growing number of legal cases with which nonlawyer researchers must deal is computerized legal data retrieval technology. LEXIS, an example of such technology, improves upon traditional research tools in two ways: it increases the speed with which researchers may discover relevant documents and, through its…

Surveys some of the traditional and nontraditional electronic sources of information that can be of use in research and teaching. The discussion includes information about: 1) cost; 2) ease of use; 3) the earliest bibliographic entries; and 4) the frequency of updates. (Author/LMO)

This report describes and illustrates the Northwest Regional Laboratory's (NWREL) Database and School Profiling project. Uses and implications for future data assembly and database design activities are explained. Analysis of the database has impacted evaluation and policymaking activities regarding at-risk youth, rural education, early childhood…

The concept of risk-adjusted measures of quality is discussed, and a methodology is proposed for risk-adjusting and integrating multiple adverse outcomes of anesthesia services into measures for quality assurance and quality improvement programs. Although designed for a new anesthesiology database, the methods should apply to other health…

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is one of the major bibliographic databases in the world. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Tests, Measurement, and Evaluation (ERIC/TM) contributes to this database by acquiring, selecting, and processing documents pertaining to all aspects of testing, evaluation, and learning theory. The ERIC/TM has…

Discussion of issues concerned with providing library reference services to machine readable data files focuses on numeric databases. The team approach used at the University of Florida, which incorporates reference librarians, programers and data managers, database producers and vendors, and professional associations, is described. A bibliography…

A future, automated, interactive, knowledge delivery system for use by researchers was tested using a manual cognitive model. Conceptualized from schema/frame/script theories in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence, this hypothetical system was simulated by two psychologists who interacted with four researchers in microbiology to…