Course Number: CS235Subject: Communication Studies Video tutorials from class presentation, March 6  Some helpful introductory videos:Developing a Research Question (video: 5:07)Creating a Search Strategy (video: 3:45)A) First steps for 235 assignmentFor your assignment, you need to find:At least 4 peer-reviewed journal articles relating to your proposal topic At least 2 books relating to your proposal topic Sources connected to Communication Studies or related disciplines (Sociology, Cultural Studies, Arts …) Sources relevant to research and proposalA) First StepsDo some preliminary research to see if your topic is covered in the research literature alreadyMore recent topics may not have much scholarly research conducted on themThe narrower you start, the less you will findPreliminary research helps to surface themes in the research literatureBuild out your searches around concepts, for example:Example topic: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Canadian national identityConcept 1: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation OR CBCConcept 2: national identityConduct preliminary searching to identify additional concepts, which you can construct searches around:"Canadian Broadcasting Corporation" OR CBCAND nation*AND character OR identity OR cultureB) To find scholarly, peer-reviewed articlesStart at the Communication Studies Subject GuideStart with Communication Studies @EBSCOhost database bundlemake sure you select the Scholarly or Peer-reviewed check box on the search page of the database to limit to scholarly articlesDon't limit yourself to only 1 database; if results are not what you are needing, try another e.g. ProQuestLearn about different resource types:Popular magazines vs scholarly journalsHow Can I Tell if my Source is Scholarly? (video: 4:21)Tips:Break your research question down into specific concepts and subject terms; don't enter a question directly into a databaseE.g., don't search for "Fake news" and the culture of politics on social mediaInstead, look for specific terms and link them together, e.g. "fake news" AND politic* AND "social media"Use " " to search an exact phraseUse a * at the end of a word to search for all letter combinations (wildcard)The “AND” operator indicates the term must be included in our searchScan the abstracts for related subject headings (e.g. Fake News = False News in EBSCO)Add related terms using “OR” e.g. "Fake news" OR "False news" - searches for both phrasesTo find articles published after a particular dateLook for the Limit area on the database's search page to limit to a particular month/year; often you can do this in the results listing as wellkeep track of where you look and the keywords you usestart early. (library staff can deliver items from other libraries)Additional Tips on Results:Change the default sort of results from "Newest" to "Relevance"Don't limit results only to "Full Text" in EBSCO; you'll miss a large set of full-text articles that can be accessedC) To find books or book chaptersUse Omni to identify books:Use the Omni advanced searchRun your search and limit results to either Books & eBooks and/or Book Chapters in the Resource Type facet at left side of the results pageLike searching for articles (above), break your search up into specific concepts, e.g. Media AND Convergence AND TelevisionWhen using operators to connect terms remember Omni is case sensitive; type AND instead of and; other databases are not case sensitiveIn your results list, click the book title to find additional subject terms for books to add to your searchAdditional book search tips (for print when applicable)Learn about call numbersFloor plans for locating books; shows call # ranges by floor (in the Waterloo campus library)Requesting books from other libraries (note videos)D) Finding sources connected to Communication Studies or related disciplines (Sociology, Cultural Studies, Arts …)You can add/remove databases to search depending on the discipline in which you are conducting researchFor example, in EBSCO, on the main search page, click the "Choose Databases" option and select additional databases that are appropriate, e.g. Communications and Mass Media Complete (ProQuest also has a similar feature)You may also need to search in other discipline specific databases, found on the Databases page, listed by disciplineCreate your own list of journals in Communication and search by Publication Name or Publication Title Lists of individual journals by professional organizations or database providers:National Communication Association list of journals publishing communication researchSCImago ranking of Communication Journals by journal rank indicatorWeb of Science Master List of JournalsFor Communication, use Filter at left and select Category, then type in "CommunicationHow do I keep out sources from adolescent or behavioural psychology or medicine or psychiatry?You can remove databases by following the step 1a. above, and then deselecting those that are not appropriate, e.g. Psychology databases such as PsycInfoCheck the results to see they are not coming from a journal outside the areas of interest:e.g. in your search results, look at the Publication title information at the left-side filter section in EBSCO and ProQuest; use to de-select journals in non-related fields Sidebar: What about using Google Scholar?The good:The biggest database in the world!Convenient, easyGood if you need to find a source quickly and you have a citationGood if using the “cited by” featureThe not so good:NOT only scholarly materials: Course syllabi, Academic blog articles, Discussion papers, "White papers," "think tank" papers – not all peer-reviewed - AND Predatory Journal contentNo way to get only peer-reviewed; typing "peer-reviewed" in search box won’t workWeird and wonky: you can’t really refine the results properly"Commercial" results?PREDATORY journal articlesIf you use Google scholar: if off-campus, follow the setup instructions here Â