Communication Studies: Articles/Databases

major program; core classes

Communications databases

Finding case studies

  1. Try any database which seems relevant, choose additional databases to search at the same time
  2. Look for ways to limit Language
  3. Search: su("case studies") AND su(ethics) AND su(communicat*)
  4. Look closely at the resulting menus - document types, location/geography, database, publication date, subjects
  • In Web of Science, search: "case studies" AND ethics AND communicat*
  • In JSTOR, search "case studies" OR "case study" in the item title, AND ethics AND communicat* in full text; narrow the Item Type to Articles and Narrow by discipline and/or publication title (choose relevant discipline areas).

Empirical Research vs. Secondary Resources

To find primary sources in a database like Communication Source, use the terms

research (Su Subject terms)

AND primary OR quantitative OR experimental OR method* OR qualitative (SU Subject terms)

AND whatever your topic is.

Statistics

Search tips for finding articles

  • use "quotation marks" around phrases
  • truncate - shorten a word to its trunk or root to get alternate endings - with an asterisk * (shift 8), e.g., truncat* finds truncate, truncated, truncation
  • apply Boolean connector AND to combine unlike ideas, e.g., dance AND promotion
  • apply Boolean connector OR to connect synonyms, e.g., advertisements OR campaigns

Put it all together:

  • "hip hop dance" in one box
  • AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns) in the next box
  • use parentheses in single-box searching - when you don't have another set of boxes, e.g.,:
  • "hip hop dance" AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns)

Use the left or right menus to narrow your results, e.g., by language, date, subject, etc.

Databases have a citation (information about an article such as the title, author, name of the journal or magazine, volume and issue (which correspond to the date), date, and pages) and sometimes they will also contain an abstract, or summary, of the article.

Databases also often cite multiple types of resources - books, essays or chapters, government documents, etc.

Some databases will also have the complete item (called the full text): you should see a link to an HTML or PDF document. Or click on Get it @ GVSU - this will check the other library databases for the full text of the article.

Subjects: Communications
  • Last Updated: Feb 22, 2024 12:35 PM
  • URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/communications