In Class
1. Warmup: https://forms.office.com/r/SBSK6sdkWK
2. Question sort: https://forms.office.com/r/NBakV7isJP
- Topic to Search to QuestionWord document version of the print organizer in class.
Scholarly Journal Articles
Communication Studies
These are a selection of possible databases for your research. See the full A-Z database list for additional recommendations.
- Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal and trade magazine articles on all aspects of communication, rhetoric, journalism, film and television studies.
Tip: Use the subjects/tags
Not sure what words to use when searching? Look at the subjects and author-supplied keywords in Communication & Mass Media Complete. Clicking on a subject term/tag will retrieve everything that shares that tag. Or, try some of the terms in your keyword searches.
These terms give you insight into the scholarly conversation around your topic and possible jargon or technical terms to use when searching (see example record).
Multidisciplinary
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowScholarly journal archive for the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences; current issues (usually the last 2-5 years) are not digitized by JSTOR and may be obtained elsewhere.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary - good for nearly all subjects. Scholarly and trade journals, popular magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, book reviews, and more.
Potentially Related Disciplines
- Film & Television Literature Index This link opens in a new window
Index to journals, magazines, and selected books covering all aspects of film and television research, including film theory, preservation, restoration, screenwriting, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
- PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
Indexes scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences; covers journals, books, reviews, and dissertations. Dates of coverage: 1880s–present.
- SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowProvides full text of some journal articles, and indexing and abstracts for journals, books and conference papers. Covers all sub-fields of sociology, including criminology, gender, marriage & family studies, social work, social psychology, addictions, violence, and more. Covers scholarly publications in sociology, social work, and related fields. Contains 2.3 million articles and other materials (64% in full text) with deep coverage from 1960 and some back to 1882.
Google Scholar - Off-campus Library Links
If you use Google Scholar while off-campus, you can avoid hitting publisher paywalls by adding Oberlin to your library links list.
With Google Scholar, you'll find articles from all disciplines, so be careful and evaluate if the journal is in Communication Studies or another discipline.
- Click the three-line menu.
- Go to settings > library links
- Type in Oberlin College. Mark all the options.
Communication Studies Scholarly Journals
You'll want to select articles published in Communication Studies journals. Your professor has shared a starting list of some journal titles as a guide.
Use the Journal Finder if you want to search within a specific journal. Most of the titles, though, will be covered by a disciplinary database like Communication & Mass Media Complete.
Interlibrary Loan
Can't find what you need at Oberlin? For books, try OhioLINK. For books not available through OhioLINK and for other types of materials, use Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
ILL lets you borrow materials from non-OhioLINK libraries, including print books, scanned journal articles, musical scores, videos, theses/dissertations, and more.
Ask a Librarian
Reading Scholarly Articles
How To Read A Scholarly Article
Read The Abstract
The abstract will give you a general understanding of the article. Also, pay attention to the authors and their titles.
Read The Conclusion
The conclusion will summarize the author's findings including ways of improving the research.
Read The Introduction
The introduction will set up the layout of the article and the main argument of the article.
Tip #1: Highlight important ideas.
Read The First And Last Sentence Of Each Paragraph
The first and last sentence of each paragraph will give you a brief understanding of the discussion.
Tip #2: Take notes on the margins.
Read The Rest Of The Article
After getting a general idea of the article, read the entire article to get a full picture of the author's argument.
Tip #3: Repeat steps one and two.