Welcome
This guide is intended to help you do research for your Communication Studies class. If you need additional assistance ask us at (508) 531-1394.
Additional Help
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Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery ServiceBSU faculty, librarians, administrators, students and staff may use Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Services (ILL/DDS) to request materials not found in the Maxwell Library collections.
Online Databases
Some tips for searching these databases:
- Some, but not all, of the records will have the full-text of the article attached. Click "Full Text Finder" to find out if we have the article available in another database.
- These databases require a BSU login.
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Communications and Mass Media CollectionBrings together information found in more than 400 journals. Nearly 3 million articles on all aspects of the communications field, including advertising, public relations, linguistics, and literature.
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Communication & Mass Media CompleteIncorporates the content of CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index. More than 440 full-text journals, cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for 670 journals, and 5,500 author profiles.
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Academic Search PremierFull text for more than 8,500 journals, including full text for more than 4,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
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Business Source PremierFull text for nearly 1,200 journals and magazines, including nearly 700 peer-reviewed journals, covering a variety of business disciplines.
How do I obtain an article if I have the citation?
Enter the title of the article in the Google Scholar box to find out if it is available at Maxwell Library.
Find Books
Library Hours
Mon - Fri: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sat. and Sun.: closed
What is a Peer Reviewed Journal?
Scholarly, or peer-reviewed journals contain articles that are written for scholars by scholars. Articles are generally based on original research conducted by the authors, and which go through the process of peer review - other scholars in the same field read and comment on the article and determine if it is worthy of publication. It is a lengthy process which can take up to several years. Some articles are never published. To identify a scholarly article in the Social Sciences look for these clues:
- Is there an abstract?
- Can you find an author affiliation?
- Does the body of the article have headings such as "Introduction", "Methods", "Results", "Discussion", and "Conclusions" ?
- Are there References at the end?
- Do you see charts, graphs, and tables, but few (if any) illustrations?