Communication (UNH Durham)

Google Scholar (GS) is useful for specific kinds of searching

• When you don't know the right terms to search, GS uses natural language searching which can help you fish around for useful search terms. 
• When you find one great article, you can use GS - type in the article title, then in the listing click "cited by" to see who has cited that article in their more recent one.
• When you want to look for unpublished articles or other grey literature.

Please note: you can search it like and advanced search in a database, using AND, OR, or NOT to search.

Use GS settings to choose UNH Library!

• That will show you what you have access to via UNH Library in the right column.

Some specialized databases allow you to limit your search in other useful ways age, population group, research methodology, language, etc.

Limiter options vary by database:

• check the advanced search screen
• view the limiters to the left or right on the search results page

Make connections through ideas and concepts rather than specific words

Look at the reference list at the end of a relevant scholarly article you found. This may lead you to earlier articles related to your topic. Search the UNH Library catalog by the name of the journal to see if we have the article online or in print.

Check "Times CIted" links, if available, in databases such as Communication & Mass Media Complete to identify some newer articles citing the article in the database record. This may lead to related relevant articles.

Google Scholar results include "Cited By" links to articles, books, presentations, and more. Note that not all links go to peer-reviewed publications.

Searching by the subjects assigned to articles helps

• identify articles in which the subject is a main focus and not just not just a passing reference
• pull together results on same concept even if author uses different terms in title or abstract
  • the subject "capital punishment" will retrieve articles using the term "death penalty" as well as those using "capital punishment"
• when a keyword may have multiple meanings or a more general meaning
  • the subject "flow (conscious state)" will get more relevant results than just searching the keyword "flow"

Look at the subject terms in records for articles that fit your topic closely and search those subjects for more articles

Use the thesaurus available in some databases to see if your keywords are subjects or if alternative terms are used

• Communication & Mass Media Complete uses "Conversation" as a subject but not "Talking"

What else have the author(s) published on this topic? Search their names in the relevant database or look online for their CV (curriculum vitae) or list of publications.

Records in many library databases include fields containing specific pieces of information describing the article, book, chapter, etc. Common fields include:

• author
• title (often article or chapter)
• source (publication such as journal or book title)
• abstract
• publisher
• publication date/year
• publication type (article, book, dissertation, etc.)
• subject (sometimes called descriptor)

Using one or more of fields in your search will produce more precise results than keyword searching will. For example, when looking for books by Sigmund Freud rather than books about him, it's more efficient to use the author field.

Look for drop down boxes or menus to select the fields you want to search (Example)