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Database Research Tutorial
Below is a
task analysis that will take you through the process step-by-step.
Dr. Joan E. Aitken |
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Use Only
Recent, Peer-reviewed, Scholarly Journal Articles |
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You will want to use high quality
sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles in communication,
from the Park library's online scholarly
databases. These articles are often
primary sources, so they are considered more valid than
secondary sources. Avoid articles more than ten years old in behavioral sciences.
Park University has
excellent online scholarly databases appropriate for academic research and
study. Please use scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles for your work
in this course. For this course, use the library's
EBSCO Communication and Mass Media
Complete here:
http://www.park.edu/library/
For research papers, projects, and theses, your sources must be peer-reviewed,
scholarly journal articles or relevant
graduate theses or dissertations
from the field communication studies.
Do NOT use psychology, business, education, or other fields outside
of communication.
A scholarly journal is a periodical, where the editor asks three
expert to read each article to determine whether the quality is high
enough for publication. Here are examples of
appropriate journals in
communication studies:
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Argumentation
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Argumentation & Advocacy
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Communication Education
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Communication Monographs
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Communication Quarterly
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Communication Research
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Communication Studies
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Communication Teacher
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Communication Theory
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Critical Studies of Media Communication
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European Journal of Communication
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Health Communication
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Human Communication Research
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Journal of Applied Communication Research
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Journal of Communication
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Journal of Family Communication
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Journal
of Health Communication
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Journal of Media Economics
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Journalism and Mass Communication
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Media Studies Journal
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Philosophy and Rhetoric
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Political Communication
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Quarterly Journal of Speech
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Rhetoric and Public Affairs
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Rhetoric Society Quarterly
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Rhetorica
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Science Communication
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Southern Communication Journal
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Telecommunication Policy
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Text and Performance Quarterly
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Western Journal of Communication
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Women’s Studies and Communication
| Use Ebsco
Host's Communication and Mass Media
Complete |
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The scholarly journal article is the best quality source you can
use.
Some conference papers and
government reports may be acceptable, but check with your instructor
or advisor
first.
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No magazines.
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No books.
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No newspapers.
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No Internet sites.
 No
Websites |
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Sometimes students want to use Internet sites
for research, but websites are generally inappropriate or suspect
for college-level research. For this assignment, please do not
use Internet webpages. Never use Wikipedia,
for example, which is a wiki where anyone can write the material.
Avoid websites for research projects, theses, and in courses such as Experimental Research, Conflict
Management, and Measuring Leadership. Some Universities
prohibit the use of websites in any thesis or dissertation.
There are some
peer-reviewed research sites on the Internet, but they typically require a fee to
access. Talk to your advisor or professor if there is a particular online journal you want to
use, otherwise, assume no websites will be permitted in your survey
of literature. Some librarians put together a site to show how easy it is to be
fooled by a website:
http://www.sree.net/stories/feline.html In looking for this site,
you can find Blogs with students who thought it was real. Ouch, it's a total
fake!
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Review
of Literature |
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In this case, literature is another term for the
current body of scholarly research articles and theory development
on the communication topic. Summarize the articles you read into about
three key concepts or themes you found in the literature.
If you are unfamiliar with the nature of a review
of literature, read scholarly journal articles and see how they do
their reviews. You may find the following university sources
useful.
wisc.edu/writing
utoronto.ca/writing
umn.edu
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STEP 3:
Select "EBSCO," then Psychology and
Communication Databases, which contains the
Communication and Media Complete database. There are other
databases, which you may find useful, IF your professor allows you to
use them for the assignment.
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STEP 3:
Select "EBSCO," then Psychology and
Communication Databases, which contains the
Communication and Media Complete database. There are other
databases, which you may find useful, IF your professor allows you to
use them for the assignment.
On the next screen, scroll down
and select "Communication & Mass Media Complete."
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STEP 4: Conduct Search
Select "Advanced Search,"
which gives you more options.
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Enter key terms.
Select
"Boolean" search, "Full
Text" and "Scholarly" and other options you desire. PDF files
have an advantage because
they are exact reproductions of the article and citing page numbers is
easy.
Use "AND" function unless you
desire a broader search.
Using the Boolean Search Operators
The
Boolean Search
Operators Boolean logic defines relationships between search
terms. The Boolean search operators, AND, OR and NOT, allow
you to broaden or focus your search results. When executing a
search, AND takes precedence over OR. •
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STEP 5: Examine the articles, then select relevant article.
Select the articles you want to
read. You can use the "Add" option, which will put them in folders.
Then you
can click on the "Folder has items" link to see them all.
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Click the
links so you can examine the abstracts. Select "Add to Folder" if you
want to use the the article.
You may need to refine
your research and run additional searches.
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Click the
"Folder" link to examine the articles you selected.
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Click the
"Folder" link to examine the articles you selected. PDF
files will show you the article exactly as it appears.
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Check the box of all the ones
you want to use.
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STEP 6: Send
or save the articles.
Once you have articles
selected in your folder, click the icon of what you want to print, email, save, or export.
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Unclick
the box so your articles aren't deleted because you may have a problem
and don't. APA style and print, then I just copy the references so
they are close to correct style.
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?!?!?!What if you cannot find enough relevant sources?!?!?!
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STEP 7: Revise your search.
There are many effective strategies you can use!
You only need one really good article, then you can look
at that one and select options that will lead you to other
good choices.
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A.
You can click "Cited
References" number to look at the reference list of an article you
like. Then select the articles you want from that list.
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B.
You can use system keywords or the author's keywords.
Carefully examine the terms because you may need to use
the specialized jargon of the reseach. You can click on those
terms and use them in other searches.
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C. Skim other articles
from that journal.
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D. Skim other articles
by that author. |
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E. Find articles about your method or research design.
Add that information to the search subjects.
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F. Set the
system to alert you when additional articles are available.
Talk to your librarian about how to set up an account.
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G. Broaden your topic. If there are too many
articles about research in other countries, for example, you can
focus on the US and broaden one of the key words.
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The search can be broadened like this.
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Step 8. When you have selected "Add" to
folder for all the articles you want. Look at your
selections.
Click "Folder has items" near upper
right corner.
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You can
print, email it to yourself, or save to disk when you have your
selections.
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Make sure to uncheck the "Remove these items from
folder after e-mailing." In case I make a mistake, I still have
the search.
If you want to read the articles online, make sure send them to
yourself first because if you're not actively
clicking--and quietly reading--the system will think you've finished and
bump you off the database. Then your search would be lost.
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PDF is an exact reproduction of the article so I will see exact page
numbers for correct citations.
You will probably want to select full text options of
PDF and APA citation style. Remember, you have to tell it FULL
TEXT in the original search options to be able to select PDF. |
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FINAL STEP:
The articles should arrive in a
few minutes, then you are ready to work.
Read the articles and write your review of literature.
Cite all articles you use in your work and put all cited works in your
list of references at the end.
Here is the APA format. Follow it exactly.
Journal:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year).
Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue
number), pages.
Book:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication).
Title of work: Capital letter also begins subtitle. Location:
Publisher.
Webpage:
Author,
A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication).
Title of document.
Place of Publication: Publisher. Retrieved from
http://Web address.
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