If you're here, you've likely found yourself enrolled in COM 390 Research Methods and recently (or not so recently) looked at the research assignment for this class and realized either:
Either way, I'm glad you're here!
On this guide you'll find videos (I promise to keep it short), databases (ugh, how boring... but also ESSENTIAL to this course), and tips (I think I'm quite witty, but I like to toot my own horn) to help with your research (see blue buttons above).
If you need additional help, have a question, want to run and idea by someone, please reach out. My contact info is on this page and you can always use our chat service (orange button, bottom right) to talk to a librarian (they're all great, honestly. But I will miss the opportunity to talk with you).
The Haas Library is located on the Midtown Campus and Young Library is located in the Classroom Building on the Westside Campus.
If you need help writing or formatting your paper, contact the Writing Center, located in the Haas Library.
If you need general tutoring support, contact the TRC, located in the Haas Library.
If you need tutoring support business related topics, contact the Ancell Commons, located behind the Young Library.
The library's website can be used to search for journal articles, books, news, streaming media, government documents, and archival material, but NOT SANDWICHES. While you can search the whole of the library's collection on this page, you cannot search for food or drink items. I know I'm disappointed too.
Please watch the video below to learn how to use WestSearch
This video shows how to identify keywords/ key terms. Consider it a new super power. YOU'RE WELCOME.
It is important to identify the main concepts of your research question. Why, you ask? Great question. (Pardon the not so lengthy answer)...
Databases, while smart, do not have the fancy computing power (also known as algorithms) that Google has. Google can understand the context of a question because they have boatloads of $$ to pay programmers to identify search trends and develop algorithms. Database companies, do not have boatloads of $$. So, they have designed databases to search for EVERY WORD that is typed into the search box, without considering context.
You, the researcher, need to identify the MOST IMPORTANT words in your research question so that YOU can control the context of your search.
My favorite example:
If you search "How high do cats jump" in Google, you get articles on LITERALLY how high a cat can jump.
If you perform this same search in an academic database, you will get articles about cats (domestic and wild), jumping (anything that jumps), and height. OH, AND ALSO illicit drug use because "high" is a term that is used to describe the mental state of someone (or cat - they do love the nip) who is using drugs.
These are the databases recommended by me and your professor. We do not recommend using other databases, as they may cause your computer to implode.
Just kidding! In all seriousness though, if you want to use other databases, talk to your professor.
Communication Source offers abstracts and indexing as well as full-text content from publications worldwide pertaining to Communication, Linguistics, Rhetoric and Discourse, Speech-Language Pathology, Media Studies and other fields relevant to the discipline.
This multi-disciplinary database has records for nearly 18,000 periodicals - journals, magazines, and newspapers - of which nearly 16,000 are peer reviewed. It provides full text for more than 5,000 journals, and you can use Journal Finder to locate articles that do not have a PDF readily available.
Contains a comprehensive backfile (current issues not available) of scholarly journals, current open access articles, and select current scholarly journal subscriptions spanning more than 20 disciplines including business & economics, education, science, history, and language & literature - all in full text
Original, comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues shaping our world.
Nexis Uni (formerly called LexisNexis Academic) provides full-text access to over 15,000 national and international news sources, business news, the Company Dossier, legal news and law review articles, It contains legal sources including Federal and State court cases, federal and state laws and regulations and access to Shepard's Citations service.
WHAT ARE CITATIONS
Any idea or quote from other people or resources that you use in writing your paper needs to be cited. Citations give credit to those people/resources and provide your reader with the information needed to identify your sources.
A citation of a book generally includes author(s), title, publisher and date. A citation of an article generally includes author(s), article title, journal title, volume, pages, and date. Citations for web documents and articles from databases also include a URL and may need the date the information was accessed.
There are many different formats used in writing papers. The American Psychological Association (APA), and Modern Language Association (MLA), University of Chicago (Chicago) and the American Sociological Association (ASA) are some of the most popular. Always check with your professor to know which format or style should be used.
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
Any idea or quote from other people or resources that you use in writing your paper needs to be cited. Citations give credit to those people/resources and provide your reader with the information needed to identify your sources.
A citation of a book generally includes author(s), title, publisher and date. A citation of an article generally includes author(s), article title, journal title, volume, pages, and date. Citations for web documents and articles from databases also include a URL and may need the date the information was accessed.
There are many different formats used in writing papers. The American Psychological Association (APA), and Modern Language Association (MLA), University of Chicago (Chicago) and the American Sociological Association (ASA) are some of the most popular. Always check with your professor to know which format or style should be used.
