Entering the twenty-first century, educational practitioners and
researchers are facing the challenges of meeting the new demands of a
fast-changing educational world. For example, life-long education and
distance education are two major educational recommendations to prepare
people for leading a competent life in the next century. In order to
keep Chinese educators and practitioners in step with these demands, it
is opportune to review the existing needs of scholars in Hong Kong and
other Chinese communities.
We have witnessed an increasing number of Chinese scholars across
Chinese societies engaging in educational research in the last decades.
Fruits of serious research are abundant. A few regional attempts were
made to put the findings together. For example, in the eighties in Hong
Kong, educational researchers such as Chung et al. have conducted a
research into Hong Kong education and published "An Annotated
Bibliography of Studies on Hong Kong Education (1946-1982)" in
1991. However, this valuable work had no records of the work of Hong Kong
between 1983 and the present, no document from the Chinese Mainland, and
only a handful from Taiwan. Moreover, it was not designed for
publishing on the Internet. In recent years, owing to the rapid
development of technology and electronic database, Taiwan collects
indexes of her journal articles and publishes them in CD-ROM. Although
it allows greater library access and wider readership, charged services
are hurdles for users. Many other individual Chinese institutions also
published their publications and news on the Internet.
Nevertheless, individual endeavors tend to be either thin on education,
or weak in giving an overall picture of the cycle of changes in the
field of education in Chinese societies. Educational practitioners and
researchers still have to do physical search in the libraries or reading
rooms of universities, colleges, government departments and voluntary
The Faculty of Education and the
Hong Kong Institute of
Educational Research of the Chinese
University of Hong Kong felt that there is a great need to
collaborate efforts of scholars across Chinese societies, and to provide
a Chinese-oriented educational information resource to serve Chinese
communities. The Chinese Educational Resources Information Center
project (hereafter C-ERIC) began to be developed by the joint effort of
our Faculty and Institute in December 1995. The first stage ends in
One of the main objectives of our C-ERIC project is to use the American Educational
Resources Information Center (ERIC) system as a reference to provide
a bibliographic search of individual words of document resumes (citation
abstracts) to users. The C-ERIC database does not provide a
"full-text" searching. The full texts of C-ERIC documents are
generally available from the C-ERIC journal articles.
This project also aims to establish a free electronic database of
educational studies in Chinese communities. C-ERIC provides
information about our Faculty of Education and the Hong Kong Institute
of Educational Research, and develops a database for educational journal
articles in Chinese societies: the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and
Taiwan. It also includes theses/dissertations submitted for doctoral and
master's degrees of the Chinese University. The information is
disseminated via the INTERNET. The American ERIC only provides citations
and abstracts of journal articles and educational documents in English,
whereas the C-ERIC database includes both Chinese and English.
This educational resources information center is mainly designed for
educational researchers, policy makers, teachers, practitioners,
administrators, media staff, support staff and students across the
The establishment for educational resources for the C-ERIC began in
December 1995. The project committee members contacted and visited the
leading institutions in Taiwan and searching for the likely journals in
the fields of education. In the following years, 1996-7, substantial
and systematic library search was launched both in Hong Kong and the
Chinese Mainland. The database of the University Library System provided
us a user-friendly library search for Hong Kong and Taiwan journals,
whereas trips to the Chinese Mainland permitted us to have first hand
educational resources of her leading journals. In addition, our faculty
members were very generous to lend us their own copies of journal
articles which made the search much easier.
At this stage, the C-ERIC database contains approximately 13,000 entries
(including author, titles and date) on the Internet. Most of these entries
are accompanied by article abstracts. The C-ERIC collects English and Chinese
articles published in 19 leading educational journals in Hong Kong, the
Chinese Mainland and Taiwan, dating back to 1990. Users are welcome to visit
the database at our homepage: http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/ceric/index.htm.
The selected journals are listed as follows:
- Hong Kong
- Asian Journal of Counselling
- published by Association of Psychological and Educational
Counsellors of Asia, Hong Kong Headquarters
- Editor: Professor LEUNG
- Curriculum Forum (ceased to be published in 2001)
- published by Department of
Curriculum Studies, the University of
Hong Kong (HKU)
- Education Journal (formerly known as Studium)
- published by Hong Kong Institute of Educational
Research, the Chinese University
of Hong Kong (CUHK)
- Editor: Professor TSANG Wing-kwong
- Educational Research Journal
- published by the Hong Kong Educational Research Association (HKERA)
- Editor: Professor CHAN
- Journal of Basic Education (formerly known as
Journal of Primary Education)
- published by Hong Kong Institute of Educational
Research, the Chinese University
of Hong Kong (CUHK)
- Editor: Professor LEE Chi-kin John
- New Horizons in Education (formerly known as
- published by Hong Kong Teachers' Association
- Editor: Professor HO Kwok-Keung
- Chinese Mainland
- Acta Psychologica Sinica
- sponsored by the Chinese Psychological Society and Institute of
Psychology, Academia Sinica
- co-sponsored by the Department
of Psychology, the Chinese
University of Hong Kong
- Applied Linguistics (Yuyan Wenzi Yingyong)
- Curriculum, Teaching Material and Method
- Educational Research
- published by China National Institute of Educational Research
- Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Science Edition)
(known as Journal of Beijing Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences) during 20002002)
- published by Beijing Normal University Press
- Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Science Edition)
- published by State Education Commission
- Bulletin of Adult and Continuing Education
(formerly known as Bulletin of Social Education)
- published by Department of Adult & Conitnuing Education, Taiwan
- Bulletin of Educational Research
- published by Department of Education, Taiwan Normal University
- Chinese Journal of Science Education
- Distance Education
- Contemporary Educational Research Quarterly (formerly known as Educational Research & Information)
- published by Center for Educational Research, Taiwan Normal University
- Journal of Education and Psychology
- published by Department of Education and Department of Psychology,
- Journal of Educational Media and Library Sciences
- published by Tamkang University
Moreover, the C-ERIC also provides abstracts of approximately 110 postgraduate
dissertations and theses of our Faculty.
This database covers the authors' names, titles of the journal
articles, and abstracts in Chinese and/or English. It also provides abstracts
of local educational masters' and doctoral theses/dissertations.
Key Word Search
- A simple keyword search on fields of the journal
articles is provided. The searching keywords may be in Chinese
(BIG5 code) or English. At the moment, only the fields title,
author and keywords are searchable.
Free-Text search on available article abstracts
- The free-text search page utilises a Chinese-capable indexing
engine, GAIS, as the backend
search engine. You can key in any keyword expression (in both English
or Chinese) to search, and the returned results contain a list of pages
matching your keyword expression.
- Our Chinese ERIC thesaurus provides a helpful means to locate articles
from our database through keywords browsing.
- The existing database holds the following two types of resources:
At this stage, all selected journals dated from the current issues back
to 1990 whilst educational theses or dissertations dated from the
present back to 1980.
- English and Chinese articles published in leading academic
educational journals in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan;
- Educational theses or dissertations submitted for doctoral and
master's degrees of the Faculty.
We used the Thesaurus of the American ERIC and the Descriptors List
(Jiaoyu Zhuti Cibiao) published in the Chinese Mainland as reference, to
construct our own C-ERIC Thesaurus. All terms in the C-ERIC Thesaurus
have actually been used in indexing (either in their present form or a
close variant form). The key words assigned to each of the nine groups
are listed alphabetically within each group in the Key Word Group
Display. Each term in the Thesaurus is assigned to one Key Word Group
and to only one. This principle of single-group assignment reflects
guidelines established to determine the placement of key words which,
because of the breadth of their scope, could be assigned to more than
one group. Terms are assigned to groups basing on (1) the broadest
application of the term in indexing or (2) the way the term has been
used most frequently in indexing according to the American ERIC
Thesaurus. Key Word Group Codes Key Word Group Codes are also provided
for each term at its main alphabetical entry point. The two-digit
number indicates the broad category to which that term belongs. The
codes are useful for identifying other key words that are conceptually
related to the term, but that do not necessarily appear in the term's
Computer search allows users to have a quick review of the database in a
single effort as well as to access both index data and every word in a
database record. It also eliminates the time consuming, and sometimes,
difficult task of scanning separate journal articles.
- Knowing how something is stored makes finding it easier.
Users/Searchers should be aware of the guidelines of search techniques.
The four techniques listed below aim to provide subject access to the
journal articles and educational theses contained in the database.
- Article Browsing
Users can search an article from the full records of our published
article titles from the main page
- Key Word Search
Users can perform a search according to a search term which is
translated into key words from the Thesaurus. A search term can be any
"indexable" concepts, authors (e.g. Piaget), title (e.g.
Gifted Program in Hong Kong), or key words (e.g. Socialist Market
Economy) of an article. Users can enter a search term in the textbox
provided, and select up to 3 searchable fields among author, title and
key words from the selection-box. (URL:
- Free-text Search
Users can perform a search according to a search term (word or phrase)
to view all the article abstracts which contain the word/phrase.
- Thesaurus Browsing
Users can perform a search according to key word groups listed in the
Usage examples can be found in our online user guide.
Individual letters to the editors of selected journals were sent to
secure the copyrights of publishing their article abstracts on our own
database, and composing our own where necessary.
This electronic database is designed to be a free educational electronic
network; providing users with ready access to this extensive body of
education related literature network through the World Wide Web.
The C-ERIC attends to the needs of educational and social sciences users
communities, especially in the Chinese contexts. Milestones of
achievements for the C-ERIC electronic network are as follows:
- Data input for local journals dating back to 1990 accomplished
dating back to 1990 according to the schedule of the project.
- The data was processed and the article abstracts were published
on the project's web page (URL:
- The data was reconstructed and stored in a database engine.
This provided a framework to enable efficient web page retrieval.
- Overseas journals (from the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan) were
evaluated for web publication in our electronic network.
- A search engine was developed to provide a fast and efficient
interface for users to retrieve journal articles.
- The selected educational journals were processed and published
on the web.
- This project employed a huge amount of human resources in the
- screening the journal articles,
- searching for missing journals, and
- composing abstracts for some of the journal articles.
- Resources Aspect
At this stage, our database only collects educational articles of
18 leading journals in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan.
Journal articles published in Singapore and Macao are not yet included.
Other documents such as government policy papers, articles appearing
in conference or seminar papers, books, monographs and conference
proceedings are not included in the database. Only a handful of
educational theses and dissertations have been included. This figure is
far from adequate to give a representative view on the area.
The C-ERIC Thesaurus of Key Words is still under construction, and the
scheme of classification is subject to further revision. At this initial
stage, we do not classify search terms into descriptors. Rather, all
terms are used as key words. No descriptors scope note/brief statement
of the intended usage of a descriptor is provided.
- Technical Aspect
Two main technical problems have been encountered. The first was that
certain Chinese characters cannot be operated by the Chinese word
processing system. The other was caused by the incompatibility of the
Big 5 code and the GB code. This created difficulties in simplified and
traditional Chinese characters conversion.
This report of the C-ERIC project has discussed the process of data
collection, development of the electronic database, and its
contributions as well as limitations. In so doing, we have also
illustrated the way the literature on education and educational issue
was indexed for the database, and how information can be retrieved.
Given the wide-ranging nature of the selected journal articles, the
journal abstracts composed by us may not be perfect. Moreover, owing to
both time and resource, some significant documents might have been
inadvertently left out of this electronic database, and that certain
other items which have been included may not meet the approval of some
readers. Apology is offered for any error of commission or omission,
and suggestions for correction and improvement will always be most
The C-ERIC project has its mission to serve the educational groups
especially in Chinese societies, with an updated educational resource.
For this purpose, we feel that we should devote our attention and effort
in the next stage to ensure quality database mechanism, scrutinizing and
enlarging the scope of our educational database in the Asian region. The
following highlights the main recommendations for future development:
In order to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date educational resources
information center for Chinese societies, our database needs to be
substantiated both horizontally and vertically.
Horizontally, attention is paid to widen the scope of the resources.
The number of journals to be selected from the existing three societies
should be increased. In addition, journals published in Singapore and
Macao should also be included in the database. Other educational
documents such as articles appearing in periodical publications or
conference proceedings, monographs or seminar papers are target
resources of the database in the next stage. Vertically, the coverage of
journals should be lengthened dating back to 1980s.
On the basis of the existing C-ERIC Thesaurus, we aim to develop the
scheme of classification further. One way of doing it is to construct
publication type codes to categorize all documents according to their
"form" of publication.
- Inter-region Collaboration
Technological advancement in Chinese communities not only allows our
database to be developed in a coordinated and effective manner, but also
promotes greater academic exchanges and development. This being so, we
have a vision to collaborating efforts with these of our professional
friends and colleagues in the Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, Singapore and
- Establishing a Chinese educational resources information
We see ourselves as providers of educational resources, monitors and
enforcers of relevant laws and regulations. We are also leaders,
facilitators and supporters of quality improvement. Therefore, it is our
mission and vision to take our C-ERIC one step further to organize
educational research findings, publications and latest development in a
systematic manner. This will be helping in monitoring the development of
the educational literature, its patterns and cycles of changes.
Achievement of this, we need to have incentives to encourage greater
inter-region scholar participation, to promote academic exchanges,
quality educational research among Chinese societies, to call for
funding flexibility to meet the needs of resources collection and to
purchase necessary technical items to substantiate a quality database