COMS 206

The follow are resources for students in COMS 206

Your Librarian

Jessica Hagman

• email:hagman@ohio.edu
• IM (AIM/Yahoo!) at jhagmanohio
• phone: 740.593.2697

Or...Ask an OU Librarian: IM/Chat | Email | Phone (593-2699) | In Person (Learning Commons - 2nd floor) | Skype

Getting Started

If you don't know a lot about your topic, or you need help choosing a topic, take a look at the International Encyclopedia of Communication which has extensive entries on all aspects of communication. Many entries will include some of the theoretical history and references on the topic. For example, see this article on small talk or this entry on listening.

Search Strategies

When you search in Google, you can usually just type a bunch of words into the search box and get thousands, if not millions of hits. When you are searching for research sources, however, you'll need to give the database a little more information. For example, if your topic is improvement of listening techniques and you typed that whole phrase into the database into Communication and Mass Media Complete, it would look for those words in that order, and you might not find anything. Here are some steps to help you develop an effective search strategy.

1. Brainstorm all the words that relate to your topic. If you wanted to find information on whether women are better at listening, you could search for women and alistening, but that would leave out all the articles that focus on gender, not just women.
2. Use Boolean connectors instead of a long phrase: Most databases can't handle a long phrase like 'women better at listening since they'll take you for your word and look for that phrase. Instead, pick out the main concepts (women and listening).
   1. Use AND to combine terms that should both appear in your article: women AND listening
   2. If you have two words that are similiar or mean the same thing, combine them with OR, putting parentheses around those words: (women OR gender) AND listening
   3. Use truncation to search for words that might have multiple endings, such as verbs like listening, which could appear as listen, listening, listened, listens, etc: (women OR gender) AND listen*
3. Once you start searching in a database, look for subject headings that corrlate to your topic. Subject headings are like tags that let you find all the other items in that database that have that same topic. It's a little like using a tag of a friend in Facebook to find their profile and see all their pictures. Subject headings aren't always obvious though so that they can have a standard language. For example, when you search for lying you'll see the suggested subject heading Truthfulness & falsehood in Communication and Mass Media Complete (see image below).

For more help with searching, check out the search terminology handout from the OU Libraries or use the Ask a Librarian services.

Where to Search

• Articles: To find research articles on communication you will need to use a communication focused databases. The following are the major communication databases that you have access to as an OU student:
  • Communication and Mass Media Complete: This EBSCO database is the easiest to use. For more information on searching this database, see the Communication and Mass Media Complete Comm Wiki page for more information on using this database.
  • Communication Abstracts: This CSA database also provides articles from core research journals in communication. See the Communication Abstracts page for more information about using this database.
  • Language and Linguistics Behavior Abstracts: Another CSA database that focuses more on lanuage and the technical aspects of communication. The directions on using this database on the Communication Abstracts page apply here as well.
• Books: Use ALICE to search for books on your topic. In the keyword search field, you can use the search strategies described above, only in ALICE you'll find Library of Congress subject headings, which may be different than the subject headings in article databases. Remember that ALICE contains books from other OU campus libraries and if you find a book at another capus, you'll have to have it sent here, which can take a few days. See the ALICE page for more information about finding books in ALICE.
  • If we don't have a book that you need, remember to check for a copy in Ohio Link, using the . Through Ohio Link you have access to the collections of more than 80 college and university libraries across the state of Ohio. For more informaiton on finding books through Ohio Link, see the Ohio Link.