COM 4001 & 4002 Library Workshop Spring 2016

Session Overview  Library website review (library.villanova.edu)  Getting started with a topic  Finding and using the Communication Subject Guide  Literature Review  Finding articles with Communication databases  Communication & Mass Media Complete  How to retrieve, scan and mine an article  Project help

library.villanova.edu

Communication Handbooks Click gear icon, then drop-down menu, click on “Tags,” search “COM handbooks”

COM Subject Guide For more topics to browse

Preparing to Search  Investigate your topic  What do you?  What don’t you know?  Think about your topic in terms of key concepts  Jot down a list of keywords (2-3 similar words for each key concept) to develop into search terms  Think about it differently = synonyms  Develop a search strategy for finding scholarly articles related to your topic  Choose a database to search

What makes a scholarly article “scholarly”?  Scholarly articles have undergone a peer review process prior to being published in a reputable journal.  According to the Encyclopedia of Evaluation, peer review is:Encyclopedia of Evaluation  Peer review refers generally to the evaluation of professional performance or products by other professionals and, more specifically, to a set of procedures for evaluating grant proposals and manuscripts submitted for publication. For peer-reviewed journals, content-matter specialists are asked to judge a manuscript, often using specified criteria and blinded to the author's identity. The journal editor considers reviewers' comments and decides whether the paper should be published, rejected, or revised and resubmitted. Similar procedures are used to review grant applications. Critiques of the peer review process focus on the low reliability of reviewers' recommendations, but the goal of peer review is to make good and defensible judgments rather than to have high reliability. Peer review is an example of an expertise-oriented approach to evaluation.

Parts of a Scholarly Article  Author name and affiliation  Abstract  Introduction & literature review  Data Collection Method  Analysis Procedure  Results  Discussion  Limitations  Future Considerations  References  Example Citation: Author, A.B., & Writer, C.D. (YEAR). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, Volume#, begin page – end page. doi: 1053/

What is a database?  From the Encyclopedia of Health Care ManagementEncyclopedia of Health Care Management  A database is an organized collection of data that can be manipulated to produce information specific to a user's needs. Conceptually, a database is an electronic filing system with an indexing structure linking to specific data elements. …The basic element of a database is a field, or variable. Each field in a database is specified as a fixed (maximum) number of characters, each equivalent to a byte of data. The data elements may be text, such as a patient name, or numeric, such as a birth date…A group of related fields is called a record.

Fields Fields in a Sample Article Record

First page of an article

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research You will need to read the abstracts when searching for articles to determine if they are quantitative or qualitative research. Sometimes the abstract may not tell you directly, so you probably will have to access the article and read from the introduction to determine if it is appropriate for your projects.  Quantitative Research: - Survey, experiment, and content analysis - 10 year census data - Sampling: cluster, simple random, quota, purposive - questionnaires and surveys with data analysis and significance  Qualitative Research: - More theoretical than quantitative research - Studying a small sample & interviewing – discourse based - Participant observation - Textual analysis of open-ended questions

Methods Resources Library Homepage < Guides < Communication < Research Methods E-Reference

Searching Com. & Mass Media Complete

Check course guides for CMMC tutorial

Searching Com. & Mass Media Complete

Look to the left of the search results screen. Narrow by other subject terms, geography, source types, and more. You may also want to add another subject term from the thesaurus to narrow results or add a new keyword.

Retrieving an Article

Mining resources  Once you have found a relevant article, review the bibliography carefully. The resources used to write that paper will also be relevant to your research.  This is looking into the past research.  We can look forward and see what subsequent studies have used your articles (i.e. – Your article A was written in In 2007, article B was written and used article A as a reference.). Use the Times Cited tool.

Research Process Image from Ohio Dominican Library, retrieved 8/29/10 from Edwards, Sylvia and Bruce, C.

Course Guides Library Homepage < Guides < Course Guides

Example of APA citation style Eunji, C., & Seung-Chul, Y. (2014). Effects of violent television programmes on advertising effectiveness among young children: Findings from a field experiment of kindergarten samples in South Korea. International Journal Of Advertising, 33(3), doi: /IJA

Project Help?    Ask a Librarian: Live Chat – at the bottom of every library webpage if someone is available.  Stop by: Librarians’ offices are located on the 2 nd floor of Falvey, in addition to the Writing Center.  Make an appointment.  Questions are welcome at any stage of the research process.