Comm205: Research Methods in Communication 2022: Finding Articles

CMMC offers cover-to-cover (“core”) indexing and abstracts for more than 550 journals, and selected (“priority”) coverage of nearly 200 more, for a combined coverage of 737 titles. Furthermore, this database includes full text for over 440 journals.

• Scholarly Journals: Journal of Advertising; Journal of Communication; Media History; Journal of Peace Research
• Trade Journals: Advertising Age; MediaWeek; Broadcasting & Cable
• Conference Papers from the International Communication Association meetings
• Chapters of Books: Profiles in Journalistic Courage; Media Studies

Dates of coverage: Some journals have full text available back to their first issue (as early as 1915)

Full text? PARTIAL.

You will want to build the bulk of your bibliography from communication databases. However, if you are exploring a topic that touches on other issues (women's studies, organizations, etc), you may wish to see if there are useful articles to you in other subject databases. A few suggestions are below:

Going backward in time? Look at the bibliography/reference list of the article. In communication and Mass Media, some of the articles have a separate link for the "Cited References."

Going forward in time? Look to see who has cited your article. Communication & Mass Media sometimes has "Cited By" links, but Google Scholar is much more comprehensive in identifying citations of your article.

• Keywords = Terms important to your topic, NOT words such as of, then, where, etc.
• Think about your topic. What other words are used to represent your topic?
• Pay attention to the words used in your results (particularly in the subject heading). What other words are used?
• Combine separate concepts with AND. 
• Combine synonyms with OR. Example: (journalism or reporting) and war.

• Sort by date or relevance.
• E-mail or print articles you are interested in.
• Get a formatted ciation for an article.
• Too many results?
  • You can immediately refine/narrow your results on the results screen by Full Text Availability; Year of Publication; Souce Type; and Subject.