Getting Started with Journalism Research
From CommWiki
Contents |
Introduction
This section of the CommWiki will help students taking courses in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University get started with library research. This guide profiles different kids of useful basic journalism and mass media reference tools and suggests resources for books and journal articles.
Contact Your Librarians
For general assistance with Journalism research, visit the Reference Desk in 2nd floor Learning Commons of Alden Library or use the Ask a Librarian service via the link at the top of any library web page.
The subject librarian for Journalism is Diana Nichols, whom you may contact via the Appointment with a Librarian form.
Finding Books
This section will help you find books and other print material in Alden Library, as well as e-books and other electronic resources that might be of use for your research. There are three different avenues for finding books on a particular topic at the Ohio University Libraries, each with its own searching tool:
ALICE
ALICE is the Ohio University Libraries' online catalog. Search ALICE to find books, journals, DVDs, electronic resources and more in Alden Library, the Annex, or Branch Campuses.
OhioLINK
OhioLINK is a consortium of more than 80 academic libraries in Ohio - read this for tips on searching a shared catalog and requesting books you can't find at OU.
Interlibrary Loan
If ALICE or none of the OhioLINK member libraries can provide you with the book you need, you can request a copy for free online through InterLibrary Loan. Allow about 2 weeks for requested items to arrive. This service can also be used for journal articles you can't find in print or in a database at OU.
Call Numbers
Most books dealing with Journalism fall within the following general call number ranges. For more information about call numbers, see this page:
| HD59-59.6 | Public Relations |
| HF5801-6182.2 | Advertising |
| KF390.5-5753 | U.S. Law, with respect to Media |
| P87-96 | Communication via Mass Media |
| PN4699-5650 | Journalism |
| PN4775-4784 | Technique (Practical Journalism) |
| PN4832-4836 | Magazine Journalism |
| PN4840-5650 | Journalism by region or country |
| TR820-820.6 | Photojournalism and Documentary Photography |
Electronic Reference Books
The OU Libraries subscribe to many electronic refererence sources and e-books. You can access them online from anywhere, on or off campus, through the ALICE catalog. Some examples:
- ABC-Clio Electronic Reference Books (reference bks, currently 439 titles see Infotree record
- Gale Virtual Reference Library see Infotree
- International Encyclopedia of Communication
- Journalism : a Guide to the Reference Literature
- The Handbook of Political Communication Research
Electronic Book Collections
The library has access to several e-book collections, which can be accessed from either on or off campus through the ALICE catalog. A few are listed below.
- NetLibrary (currently 14,824 titles) see Infotree record
- Safari Tech Books Online (currently 2,654 titles) see Infotree
- History E-Book Project (also ACLS Humanities E-book, currently 124 titles) see Infotree record
- ebrary (business & economics, currently 4,695 titles) see Infotree record
- National Bureau of Economic Research (working papers, currently 8,034 titles) see InfoTree record
Finding Articles
This section will help you find articles on various journalism and mass communication topics using electronic article databases. OU Libraries subscribes to over 400 databases, of which some are general databases, covering many subjects and many publication types, while others are specialized databases, covering one subject area (business, law, medical, etc.) or containing just one type of publication (scholarly journals). For a full list of databases related to communication and mass media see the InfoTree section General>Communications or General>Communications>Journalism
- For databases containing newspapers, see the related commwiki article Newspapers
- To find articles from communication and mass media journals, the following are top recommendations:
Communication and Mass Media Complete
Cover-to-cover (core) indexing and abstracts for over 300 journals in the field of communications, and selected (priority) coverage of over 100 more, for a combined coverage of over 400 titles. Includes full text for nearly 200 journals.
Academic Search Complete
A multi-disciplinary, general databse that contains many Communication journals. Mostly full-text.
Communication Abstracts
Abstracts for articles, papers, reports and books from all communication fields.
ComAbstracts
Citations with abstracts from core communications journals, with coverage for some going back to the late 1970s.
