How do I download full text for the article or report I find in ERIC?
If you see a PDF icon and "Download Full Text" in the grey box to the right of a bibliographic citation after you search, then ERIC has permission for you to download the article for free. To only see these articles or reports, check the "Full text available on ERIC" filter when you search.
If full text is not available through ERIC, how can I see the article?
To find the full text of these articles, try the Direct Link on the record to the publisher's website, available in many ERIC records since 2004 or contact your local or university library. The library may be able to help you get access through interlibrary loan or through one of their databases. For a description of the full-text materials in ERIC and tips for finding full text when a PDF is not available, see our videos.
Will the "Direct Link" in the ERIC record take me to the full text
The Direct Link option will take an ERIC user to the website of the content's publisher, where there may be a free, full-text option or information on how to obtain a copy. It is ERIC's intent to bring a user as close to the full text as possible.
I clicked on the "Direct Link" and got an error message—what do I do now?
When a publisher does not give ERIC permission to immediately display the full text, ERIC includes the best link available to the publisher's website for information on obtaining full text. However, not all publishers provide a DOI (digital object identifier), which is a permanent link. Over time, some publishers redesign websites and older links in ERIC records break. Please let us know by emailing ERICRequests@ed.gov.
The article I want says "PDF pending restoration." What does that mean?
The phrase "PDF pending restoration" means that the document is unavailable because the existing copy in ERIC was of poor quality. The document was originally scanned from microfiche many years ago and much of the text was lost in the digitization process. The resulting copy is barely legible, and we are working to improve it. The document can still be found on microfiche and obtained through interlibrary loan from a library maintaining the collection. For background on our efforts to restore unreadable materials to the collection, see slides from the webinar 
Restoring Access to ERIC’s PDFs. As of the end of January, 2023 ERIC had restored 3,096 of these documents to the collection.
What progress has been made to restore the full text of records with the “PDF pending restoration” notice?
ERIC has been actively working to rescan these microfiche documents and restore the text to an acceptable level of readability. As of the end of January, 2023 ERIC had returned 3,096 documents with restored text online. ERIC is prioritizing restoration based on the topics most interesting to today’s users, the effort required to digitize, and the quality of the document. The text on some of the original microfiche is of poor quality, primarily due to the quality of the original documents and ERIC may not be able to create an acceptable digital copy.
