Intro to Communication Research Guide

Scholarly Articles

Communication and Mass Media Complete The database combines two earlier databases in the fields of communication and mass media studies CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association (NCA), and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Pennsylvania State University). CMMC offers cover-to-cover (core) indexing and abstracts for over 300 journals, and selected (priority) coverage of over 100 more, for a combined coverage of over 400 titles. This database includes full text for nearly 200 journals. Many major journals have indexing, abstracts, PDFs and searchable citations from their first issues to the present.

Communication Abstracts Abstracts articles from journals, conference proceedings and hard-to-find documents. Includes scientific research and government policies. Distinct from ComAbstracts and ComIndex, Communication Abstracts is produced at Temple University and provides abstracting coverage of books and journals in all areas of communication studies (mass, interpersonal and new communication technologies).

ComAbstracts  From the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship, this is a database of the abstracts of primary literature for communication studies.  Strong tools for browsing such as concept explorer, idea monkey, and index searches.

ComIndex Also from the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship, provides complete coverage of over 50 scholarly journals.

GenderWatch Full text database for scholarly ,popular and alternative publications focusing on gender, feminist studies, transgender and mens studies.  Covers a wide range of disciplines, not limited to communication studies.

Contemporary Women's Issues Index to articles and reports with focus on health, workplace issues, legal status, education and interpersonal relations.  Covers a wide range of disciplines, not limited to communication studies.

Article Database Search Tips

• Use Synonmys, brainstorm and mine found resources
• Notice controlled vocabulary, index, descriptor and subject terms
• Use truncation * works for most databases
• Combine terms with boolean operators, AND contains both terms, OR contains at least one term
• Search phrases, quotes work for most databases
• Use dropdown menu or radio buttons to limit search to fields such as title, subject, abstract, descriptors
• Use the online Help

Types of Periodicals & Research

• Scholarly, Trade and Popular Publications
• Finding Qualitative & Quantitave Research

• Read the Abstracts!
• Terms to add to search for Qualitative:  case study, interview, ethnography, observation, textual analysis, focus group, comparative analysis
• Terms to add to search for Quantitative:  survey, statistical, experiment, content analysis

Good Places to Start

• Encyclopedia of Public Relations
• Encyclopedia of Political Communication
• Encyclopedia of New Media
• Encyclopedia of Gender and Society
• Encyclopedia of Masculinities
• Encyclopedia of Communication & Information
• Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods
• Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods
• Encyclopedia of Children Adolescents and the Media

 APA Style

• RefWorks  Web based program for importing, formating and organizating citations.
• Research and Documentation Online  Well regarded secondary guide to formating citations using APA & MLA.
• APA Style for Electronic References

When using citation generators from databases, RefWorks or other web bases tools, always proof the results for formatting, capitalization and punctuation.