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COMM 297 Bown: Find articles

Big 3 research approach

  1. Use library tools first. If we don't have it, go to step
  2. Try Google Scholar as a fallback plan. If that doesn't work (like, you hit a paywall)...
  3. Use SU Libraries' Interlibrary Loan service when all else fails. If you have citation info for a source you can't get, request it through ILL.

Interlibrary Loan

Keyword search to browse articles

Communication & Mass Media Complete and other Ebsco databases can be searched simulatneously. 

Select the Choose Databases link above the search box. Select the check box at Select All to select all Ebsco databases.

Keywords and synonyms: protests, journalism, news, public perception

  1. Search: protests. This yields over 500k articles.
  2. Get even more by selecting the OR suggestions for protests as you type. Doing this produces 1,436,277 articles.
  3. Add journalism OR journalists OR reporting etc. = 124,001 articles
  4. Add public perceptions or attitudes or opinion = 13,867 articles.
  5. Limit to: Peer Reviewed and Publication Date (use 2013-2023) = 5,025 articles.
  6. Add a row. Try climate change OR global warming = 143 articles.
  7. If you do not see a Full Text link, use the Find It button to locate the full text article in other SU Library databases. 

Time for you to search using your own topic keywords.

  • Each article result contains an Abstract. In just a few seconds, you can determine if the article is a good fit or not.

  • Which of these are original research studies? Tip: find the Method section.

  • If you find an article, use the citation generator to create your APA 7 citation. 

  • Keep your article by downloading it or by using the permalink.

Find databases by Subject: Library databases: A-Z and by subject

For practice, apply this citation to the steps below: 

Brown, D. K., & Mourão, R. R. (2022). No Reckoning for the Right: How Political Ideology, Protest Tolerance and News Consumption Affect Support Black Lives Matter Protests. Political Communication, 39(6), 737–754. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2121346

  1. Search SURF by the title of the article. The title of the article above is: No Reckoning for the Right: How Political Ideology, Protest Tolerance and News Consumption Affect Support Black Lives Matter Protests.
  2. If the article didn't show up in SURF, try pasting the title or DOI of the citation into Google Scholar (example). 

    You can also add SU Libraries databases for Google Scholar to check. If the article is in full text in any of our databses, it will indicate it. This is described in detail below.

  3. If you tried SURF and Google Scholar and could not find the Full Text of the article, request it from SU Libraries Interlibrary Loan. This is a free service for students. Article requests are usually fulfilled on the same day as requested.

Google Scholar

A lot of articles are paywalled, but you can increase your chances to find full text articles by making Google Scholar display articles that are available in full text through SU Libraries! Here's how:

1.). Navigate your way to Google Scholar and look for the three-bar "stack" in the upper left hand corner.  This is where you will find the Settings option.  

google scholar home page with arrow pointing towards settings link       google scholar settings option

2.  Under Settings, choose the Library links option.  This will open up a new window with an empty box in it.  In that box, type in Salisbury University, and then hit the 'search' button.  

 

all salisbury checkboxes selected for library links option in google scholar

3.  Once you have done that, two additional checkbox options will appear below the search box - both listing options for Salisbury University.  Check them both off, then hit Save.  

Now you are good to go!  You can start searching for whatever it is that you are looking for, and your search results will be displayed in a "regular" Google-like way.  But this time, you will see any full-text links that are available through SU Libraries linked to the right of the article title, and clicking on that right-hand link will take you to the SU login/SU-provided full text access!

google scholar search results with full-text library links on right side of screen circled