GSU Library Research Guides: SCOM 3050 Research Methods: Finding Articles

What's a scholarly source?

Scholarly sources (journal articles and often book chapters):

Are written by scholars/experts in the field, for an audience of other scholars/experts
Include an abstract, a literature review, a discussion of research methods, and a bibliography
Are peer-reviewed by other scholars before publication

Many article databases have an Advanced Search that will give you an option to limit your search to peer-reviewed articles.

Using Find It @GSU

Many databases give you only a citation telling you where to find the article, not the article itself.

Click the Find It @ GSU button to open a window with links to the article you need.

If the article is available through another database, the Find It @ GSU button will take you to links to the article through the other database(s) that have it.
If the article isn't available through any of our databases, the Find It @ GSU button will take you to a link that says Request item through ILLiad. Clicking that link will get you started with placing an Interlibrary Loan request for the article (which will likely be available to you within 24 hours). (Click here to learn more about Interlibrary Loan)

Lost? Stuck? Too many options? Ask a Librarian for help!

Where to start: recommended databases

Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
This is a good first stop for nearly any "new media"-related topic. Search articles from communication journals here.
APA PsycInfo® This link opens in a new window
This is our main psychology database. It's useful if your topic covers how people react with new media on a personal level: relationships, perceptions and reactions.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
If your topic has to do with rhetoric, language, or related topics, the MLA database may also have some useful sources.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Provides complete, full-text content in digital humanities and social science from over 120 publishers. Scholarly journals from leading university presses and scholarly societies are indexed and peer-reviewed, and full-text access includes current content from over 400 titles.

I can't find anything on my topic!

Don't Panic!

Try a few different things:

Try some different terms for your topic. "Online social networks" may be a useful synonym, for example.
Try some other databases! CMMC and PsycInfo are not the only possibilities.
If all else fails, try the Discover search on the library home page, or Academic Search Complete.

Contact Jill or the Research Support desk if you need help or advice.

Did You Know? Finding Resources in Specific Subject Areas

The library offers you a helpful tool for finding databases by subject area!

On the library's homepage, just below the "Advanced Discover Search," you'll see "Go to Databases by Subject." All of the subject areas taught at GSU are listed in the dropdown menu. Selecting a subject will bring up a list of databases that relate to that subject -- often with several marked as "Best Bets" for getting started finding resources for that topic.

Selecting "African American Studies" here

gets you to this:

Communication Librarian

Jill Anderson

Email Me

Subjects: Africana Studies, Communication, Journalism, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Speech Communication, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Interdisciplinary Article Databases available @ GSU

These article databases cover a broad range of topics. Academic Search Complete is a good starting point for current events and related topics.

To see all of our databases, use our A-Z list. To see a list of databases recommended for Communication, click here!

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete provides complete coverage of multidisciplinary academic journals. The collection includes peer-reviewed journals, full-text periodicals, reports, and books, for STM research, the Social Sciences, Humanities, and other areas of academic studies. PDF content dates back as far as 1887.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Provides in-depth coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy dating back to 1991.
Research Library This link opens in a new window
This database provides one-stop access to more than 4,000 periodicals from one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer. Search from a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications and magazines covering over 150 academic disciplines.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides seamless access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index as well as Book Citation Index and Conference Proceedings Citation Index.
Dissertations & Theses A&I This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I provides a comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day. Thousands of new dissertations and theses are added each year. For dissertations done in 1997 and later, PDFs of some titles are available.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. It offers an interdisciplinary journal archive across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The archive offers an interlinked aggregation of scholarly works as well as long-term preservation.