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Related Research Guides

About this guide

This guide was written for Dr. Pokrywczynski's COMM 2500 course in spring 2021.

There are two major assignments addressed:

Article critiques.
Research project proposal and annotated bibliography.

Getting started:

Not sure what to do your research on? Beyond a very broad topic, maybe your major?

Start with some of the subject encyclopedias below!

During the library workshop, we will also do some concept-mapping. Here's the PowerPoint file we'll look at ...

Concept-mapping examples

Online reference collections

Start with one of these online collections of reference books. each contains multiple reference books covering diverse topics.

Gale eBooks from Gale
Full-text access to 400+ resources covering a broad selection of topics.

Covers arts, business, communication, drama, history, medicine, religion, social science and more.
Oxford Reference Online Premium from Oxford Reference
Search over 300 reference sources covering all subject areas. Ranges from quick fact and summary information to in depth explanations. Title list.

Sample encyclopedia articles

Here are sample encyclopedia articles which may be relevant to the topics assigned.

Ethics of Public Relations
Bowen, S. A. (2013). Ethics of Public Relations. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Public Relations (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 304-306). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference.
Issue Management
Stokes, A. Q. (2008). Issue Management. In L. L. Kaid & C. Holtz-Bacha (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Political Communication (Vol. 1, pp. 353-354). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Journalism Ethics
Journalism Ethics. (2009). In W. F. Eadie (Ed.), 21st Century Communication: A Reference Handbook (Vol. 2, pp. 661-669). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Media Ethics Theories
Plaisance, P. L. (2009). Media Ethics Theories. In S. W. Littlejohn & K. A. Foss (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Communication Theory (Vol. 2, pp. 637-641). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference.
Multicultural work teams
Bell, S. T. (2013). Multicultural Work Teams. In E. H. Kessler (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Management Theory (Vol. 1, pp. 493-495). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference.
Politics and Television Entertainment
Cogan, B., & Kelso, T. (2009). Politics and Television Entertainment. In Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture (pp. 72-111). Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.
Social Media Marketing
Serazio, M., & Duffy, B. E. (2017). Social Media Marketing. In J. Burgess, A. Marwick, & T. Poell (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media (pp. 481-496). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Reference.
Theater and Performance
Werry, M. (2005). Theater and Performance In M. C. Horowitz, (Ed.), Dictionary of the History of Ideas. (Vol. 6.) Detroit, MI: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Crisis Management, Emerging Trends in
James, E. H. (2013). In K. B. Penuel, M. Statler, & R. Hagen (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Crisis Management (Vol. 1, pp. 196-200). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference.

Secondary research sources

Please notice that there are limits on the number of users in both databases below.

– Click here for more sources on polling data.

– Click here for more information about consumer survey datasets (MRI-Simmons Insight is one example).

Polling the Nations from Infobase
- This link opens in a new window
VPN Required for Off Campus Access.
If above link does not work when on campus on wireless, use this link
Access limited to 1 user at a time.
Dataset of public opinion polls. Worldwide. 1986-present.

Polls conducted by 700 polling organizations in the US and 80 other countries. 4,500+ topics; searchable by topic, question text, universer, polling organization and response categories.
Roper Center iPoll from Roper Center
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, located at Cornell University, is one of the world’s leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from public opinion surveys.

General Social Survey - Key Trends
Quick and dirty data extraction tool for the General Social Survey. Use this to see how attitudes in the US have changed through time.

MRI-Simmons Insights from MRI Simmons
- This link opens in a new window
VPN Required for Off Campus Access.
If link above does not work when on campus and on wifi, use this link instead.
Access limited to 10 users at a time.
Consumer survey data from the spring Simmons National Consumer Studies (2 years delayed).
Modules included are: Crosstab and Brand Catalyst.
Provides demographics, media usage, product usage, brand preferences, and lifestyle psychographics for a sample of ~30,000 US consumers. Covers ~ 8,000 brands.