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Communication Subject Guide — Finding Articles

Guide to finding communication resources.

Finding sources for your paper

To write your research paper you need to find "sources": academic/scholarly/peer-review articles, books and book chapters, videos, all of these are types of "sources" of information that you need to write about a topic.

Tips for searching for communication studies research:

 Searching for articles in communication studies is not hard but it needs some planning before starting:

  • Create a list of synonyms on your topic
    • You can use your syllabus or textbook to find some preliminaries keywords
    • Pay attention what phrases scholars used to describe the topic you are interested in. Research terminology change through time.
  • When searching a general and/or multidisciplinary database maximize your results add the keywords, "communication studies" or "interpersonal communication" or the type of communication style you want to study as additional keywords
    • E.g. "interpersonal communication" AND bias AND race

Other keywords terms to use:

  • nonverbal communication
  • body language
  • models of communication
  • communication theory
  • interpersonal relations

When searching a communication database or journal, you don't need to use the words "communication studies". Search using the keywords that best describe your research topic.

This technique works too when searching Google Scholar. Be aware also that current topics (less than two years old) will have less academic, scholarly articles than older topics.

Databases: Best Bets

These following databases are good places to start looking for peer-reviewed, scholarly and/or academic journal articles (all these terms refer to the same type of article). To find only articles from scholarly journals select the option Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals in the Limit your Search option.

Looking for Advertising or Marketing Resources?

When you're looking for marketing or advertising research, you'll need to go a little further afield! Here are some databases to get you started.

Subjects: Communication

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