The advocacy paper could touch on several subject areas. For the most part, you will have the best luck searching in education databases, such as ERIC and EBSCO’s Education Research Complete. However, you may want to consider searching cognate databases related to your topic. For example, databases in sociology (SocINDEX) or psychology (PsychInfo) may provide access to journal articles that will assist you in your research, even if they are not directly related to education.
One of the best ways to improve your searching is to use the most appropriate search terms. For example, the topic of “dispute settlement” may be better searched (at least in some databases) by using the term “conflict management.” One way to determine the best search terms is by using the thesaurus provided in a database.
Alternatively, you can try searching the subject terms provided by an especially relevant article that you have found. For example, let's say I am interested in studying “toxic leadership,” but am not finding enough relevant research – one way to locate more articles is to search the SUBJECTS of an especially relevant article.
