ERIC Thesaurus Update: Supporting ERIC Users ERIC updates its Thesaurus of Descriptors to ensure that search terms reflect changes in research topics and language. The 2025 updated Thesaurus contains 20 new descriptors, 34 new synonyms, and changes to 107 existing terms.

How Are ERIC Thesaurus Descriptors Assigned? This infographic highlights how ERIC's professional indexers analyze each article and document to assign Thesaurus descriptors that capture the content's subject for accurate search results.

Why Use Descriptors in Your ERIC Search All ERIC records are tagged with descriptors, which are used to indicate the subjects addressed in the article, report, or book indexed in ERIC. In this video, we will show you three ways descriptors can enhance searching in ERIC.

Finding the Right Descriptors for Your Search Video that helps ERIC searchers find descriptors that match their topic.

How ERIC Develops Thesaurus Terms Infographic showing how ERIC develops Thesaurus descriptors, which are used to index ERIC content.

The ERIC Thesaurus — A Key to Finding Resources in ERIC Webinar showing how the ERIC Thesaurus supports users in their search for education resources.

• Part 1: Thesaurus Overview and Background
• Part 2: Maintaining and Updating the Thesaurus
• Part 3: How the Thesaurus Helps Enable Resource Discovery
• Part 4: Wrap Up and Q&A

• Download the Slides
• Download the Transcript

Synonyms: Leading the Way to ERIC Descriptors Looking for the right ERIC Thesaurus descriptor to use in your search? This quick video shows you how the descriptor synonyms can lead to the best choice for your subject.

Using Related Terms in the ERIC Thesaurus This video will show how using related terms from the ERIC Thesaurus of Descriptors can enhance your search strategy.

Anatomy of a Thesaurus Entry This infographic shows fully developed thesaurus entries for a descriptor and a synonym with a brief description of each element and guidance on usage.

Using Broader and Narrower Terms From the ERIC Thesaurus This video shows how to use the thesaurus hierarchy of broader and narrower terms to find additional descriptors you can use in your searches.

ERIC Thesaurus Update 2021: Meeting the Challenges to Support Critical Research This webinar addresses how ERIC balanced support to research efforts during the 2020 pandemic with the ongoing work of updating the thesaurus. Find out the new thesaurus terms and identifiers and how IES is using the thesaurus to tag work on its website for the Regional Educational Laboratories.

ERIC Thesaurus and Identifier Update This webinar covers the 2019 update to the ERIC Thesaurus and identifiers. It describes what's new, what's changed, and how to find more information about the thesaurus and identifiers in ERIC.

2023 ERIC Thesaurus Update This webinar provides an overview of how the ERIC Thesaurus and Identifiers are updated and covers all the additions and changes made in this year’s update.