The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a comprehensive bibliographic and full-text database of education research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC indexes many hundreds of peer-reviewed journals, dissertations, and other information sources focused on education. It is an indispensable tool for anyone in the education and social sciences disciplines. Milner Library wishes to make the Illinois State community aware of a rapidly evolving situation affecting ERIC. 

In March 2025, ERIC made the following announcement to journal publishers: 

“The Department of Education is working with the Department of Government Efficiency to ‘reduce overall federal spending’ and ’reallocate spending to promote efficiency’ (EO 14222). As a result, the number of records added to the ERIC collection will be significantly reduced going forward. The number of actively cataloged sources will be reduced by approximately 45% starting April 24, 2025. Subject matter was not considered during the process to identify which sources would be made inactive. Please note that all records currently in ERIC will remain available.” 

Here’s what we know: 

• In response to the March 2025 announcement, the number of journals and other information sources currently indexed by ERIC was to be reduced from approximately 1,200 to 700 titles by April 25, 2025. Journal publishers and editors were being notified of their status. 
• Librarians and others engaged in government data rescue initiatives have identified some of the journals being removed from ERIC’s indexing. Journal editors may submit their journals for inclusion on this list. Please note that journals removed from ERIC’s indexing should continue to publish new issues but may not have new content added to ERIC, reducing their visibility to scholars.  
• As of April 28, 2025, the acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education announced in a press release that contrary to earlier media reports, the work of indexing for ERIC will continue. AEM Corporation’s contract to engage in this work has been continued but will be “refined in scope.” The press release offered no clarity on what that means. Additionally, ERIC’s Help Desk will cease operations. 

While we do not currently believe that ERIC will go offline, a team engaged in government information rescue initiatives has created ERICA, a backup catalog of 500,000 files from ERIC uploaded as open-access PDFs to the Wayback Machine. 

Please note that Milner Library holds historical ERIC documents in microfilm/microfiche format. We have no plans to withdraw or reduce our historical ERIC holdings. 

This is a very dynamic situation. Milner Library will update this release when reliable new information becomes available. 

Please contact Milner Library Dean Dallas Long at dlong@IllinoisState.edu or Associate Dean Sue Franzen at srfranz@IllinoisState.edu with any questions or to seek assistance.