Graduate Studies in Leadership Communication
Library Research Guide
Databases
Databases:
To get to databases, go to the Libraries’ home page and click on databases below the Search It box. Databases will find journal, magazine, and newspaper articles (and in some cases other materials like book chapters, dissertations, conference presentations, pamphlets, etc.)
Because this program is interdisciplinary, your topic might fall in a subject area that would be best covered by a database focused on agriculture, education, political science, management, or many others. Use the dropdown "All Subjects" box on our databases page to see the subject listings, or ask a librarian for help picking one that would be good for your topic.
Recommended databases for this program include:
- Communication & Mass Media CompleteOur main communications database with indexes and abstracts of more than 600 journals. CMMC contains a Communication Thesaurus and comprehensive reference browsing as well as over 3,000 author biographies.
- ABI/INFORM CollectionCovers scholarly, trade, and general publications as well as regional and national newspapers on topics such as management, business trends, theory and practices, corporate strategy in industries from telecommunications to construction. More than half of the titles indexed in this database provide access to the full text of the articles.
- ProQuest Research LibraryA broad, general database, but one that includes many communications journals. Try limiting your search by putting "communication*" in the publication title as part of your search.
Other useful databases:
- PsycInfo (APA)Search psychology topics. Provides many useful search limits and a thesaurus that allows you to search for synonyms and related terms, as well as a limit for type of research methodology.
- ScopusA broad database that covers many topics. It is also a great resource for cited reference searching.
- SAGE Research MethodsA reference resource that will help you understand methods and create research projects.
- ProQuest Dissertations and Theses GlobalFind full-text copies of most dissertations written after 1996, and many earlier.
- K-State Research Exchange (K-REx)K-State's institutional repository provides access to scholarly materials created by K-State faculty and students, including journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, white papers, electronic thesis/dissertation/reports (ETDR) and other digital resources.
- HeinOnlineHeinOnline is a premier online database containing more than 160 million pages and 200,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline bridges an important research gap by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 2,600 law-related periodicals. In addition to its vast collection of academic journals, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and much more.
Search Strategies
Most databases, although they look different, search in similar ways. You can search the databases in many ways to find relevant research, including:
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If the database has a thesaurus, use it to help you find appropriate subject terms.
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Use a keyword search for the specific subject you are interested in (race, postmodernism, leadership, etc...).
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Use OR when you want to find either of the search terms, AND when you want both.
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Keep each concept on its own line with OR between keywords
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Try truncating keywords using asterisks: ethnograph* to get ethnography or ethnographic.
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Put phrases in quotes: “case study” “feminist theory”
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Use limits to help find the specific kind of article you want. Most databases allow you to limit to scholarly or peer-reviewed articles.
Here is an example of a search using Communications & Mass Media Complete. The first line searches for "feminist theory" or "feminist critique". The quotation marks mean that it will search for the words together as a phrase, the OR means that the records you find will have either of those phrases. The second line searches for "politic*". The asterisk allows it to be a longer word, so we will get politics, political, politicians, etc.
Getting the Articles
Many of the articles you find will be available online.
If you don’t see the full text on the database you are searching, use the Get It button to see if the full text of the article is available through another source.
If you find a citation to something that we don’t own, most of the time we can borrow it from another library. Please allow yourself enough time to do this! Interlibrary Loan usually gets materials very quickly, but it can take 1-2 business days for articles and 3-10 business days for books (or longer if you are off campus).
Click on “Not Available? Request from Interlibrary Loan” from the Get It menu or “Interlibrary Loan” on the library home page. For more information, see our Interlibrary Services page.
Books
- WorldCatContains information about books, serials, videos, and other items cataloged by institutions including K-State. It contains more than 57 million records with bibliographic information and information regarding which libraries hold the item in question. You are usually searching in just citations (title, author, abstract, etc.), so you may not find a book if you search for something too specific. It works best for finding books on a particular topic. If the item you need is not available at K-State, use Get It to request it through Interlibrary Loan.
- Google Book SearchContains listings for a very large number of books. It will often give you a preview of the contents of the book, or even the full text (especially those in the public domain). It is often able to search within the text of books, so it works well for locating a book that discusses a specific concept or name.
Searching Google Through the Library
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar allows you to search across large amounts of research from many disciplines.
Benefits of Google Scholar include: it is a useful tool for searching through a very broad scope of articles, and it is a good place to look for citations to a particular article.
Drawbacks to Google Scholar include: its definition of scholarly is very broad, it does not provide tools like a thesaurus or subject searching, and the large volume of information can make it difficult to narrow your search.
By clicking on Google Scholar through the Libraries' databases list, you are searching while linked with our subscriptions through Get It. Look for the text “Get It @ KSU” instead of the usual Get It button to search for the full text of articles that don’t have an included PDF. It is sometimes found under the “more” link below the record.
