Can You Say "BOO!" in APA Format?

Care to mix a little academic research with your trick-or-treating tonight?

As a Halloween treat -- and a break from the usual research tips -- here's a look at some of the ways scholars have looked at All Hallow's Eve. (All citations have been verified and most are available from the BC Libraries -- if you dare.)

• * "Reactions of zoo animals to 'disturbing' Halloween masks" (Master's Thesis, University of South Alabama, 2003)
• * "Size of Halloween witch drawings prior to, on, and after Halloween" (Perceptual Motor Skills, February 1963)
• * "Assembling processes in a periodic gathering: Halloween in Athens, Ohio" (Sociological Focus, May 1992)
• * "The pink dragon is female: Halloween costumes and gender markers" (Psychology of Women Quarterly, June 2000)
• * "Jack O'Lanterns and integrating spheres: Halloween physics" (American Journal of Physics, June 2006)
• * "Dressing in costume and the use of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs by college students" (Adolescence, Spring 1993)
• * "The Halloween Effect and Japanese equity prices: myth or exploitable anomaly?" (Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, December 2003)

So have a good time tonight, but be careful: there may be a scholar lurking behind that bush.

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

New issues of the following journals are available online this week:

• Discourse Studies
  
• Health Communication
• Journalism & Communication Monographs
• New Media & Society
  
• Presidential Studies Quarterly (Special Issue: Shadows of Democracy in Presidential Rhetoric)
• Television & New Media
  

Click on a title to access the issue. (Login with your BC username and password is required for off-campus access.)

Red Sox Win World Series!

Find all of these original articles and more in Boston Globe, 1872-1924, one of several historic newspaper databases available from the Boston College Libraries.

(And, yes, I know they won the Series in 2004, too [and now 2007]. It's not included for two reasons: 1) It's outside the dates covered by the database; and 2) I'm a Yankee fan.)

“Ask-A-Librarian” in Communication & Mass Media Complete

Having trouble finding information you need in Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC)? Send a message directly from the database, and I'll get back to you with help.

Here's how it works: at the top right of every page in CMMC, there's a link called Ask-A-Librarian.
Click on that link and you'll get a form to enter your name, your e-mail address, and your question. Hit the Send button and your question will get e-mailed to me along with details of any searches you've tried. (You can uncheck a box if you don't want me to see your searches.)

I can only e-mail you back, so it might not be instantaneous, but at least you can ask the question at the point it comes up.

Of course, you can contact me outside CMMC at anytime, by e-mail, phone (617-552-2183), Facebook, or live chat from my home page.

Communication Abstracts: October Update

The October update of the Communication Abstracts database is now complete, with 340 new journal articles, book chapters, and books. Use the links below to view all of the new entries or to browse them by major topic area: All New Abstracts

New Abstracts by Topic Area

1. Communication Processes
2. Interpersonal Communication and Relations
3. Economics and Communication
4. Communication, Culture, and Society
5. Education and Communication
6. Health Communication
7. Political Communication
8. Communication, Regulation, and the Law
9. Organizational Communication
10. Public Relations
11. Advertising, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior
12. Mass Media
13. Journalism and News Media
14. Communication and Information Technology
15. Telecommunications
16. Communication Theory and Research

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

New issues of the following journals are available online this week:

• American Journalism
  
• Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
  
• Discourse Processes
  
• International Journal of Listening
  
• Journal of Consumer Culture
• Journal of Family Communication
• Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
  
• Media Psychology
  

Click on a title to access the issue. (Login with your BC username and password is required for off-campus access.)

E-Journals and Online Databases: What's the Difference?

Are "E-Journals" the same as "Online Databases"? No, they're not, and students often click on one of these from the library's home page when they should use the other.

The "E-Journals" link lets you look up a particular journal to see if BC offers electronic access to the publication. This is useful if you have identified a specific article and know where it appeared. You can also use Electronic Journals to browse a particular publication online or to search for articles in that publication -- and that publication only.

The "Online Databases" link, on the other hand, will take you to a list of databases (Communication Abstracts, PsycINFO, Business Source Complete, etc.), that allow you to search hundreds or even thousands of publications all at once.

Use the "E-Journals" link, then, when you know an article appeared in a particular journal and want to see if we have it electronically. (If not, check Quest to see if we have it in print.) Use "Online Databases" to find the right database or databases to search for articles from many publications that will be useful in your research. And, as always, let me or one of the librarians at the Reference Desk know if you need help.

Learn to Use RefWorks: Hands-On Workshops

Are you having trouble keeping track of journal articles, books, Web sites, and other resources you've found while doing research for a paper? Get to know RefWorks, a Web-based personal database provided by the BC Libraries that lets you collect and organize citations and access them from any computer with a Web connection.

You can save references directly from Communication Abstracts, Communication & Mass Media Complete and other databases. RefWorks will even generate a bibliography of references, using APA, MLA, or another format that you select.

I'll be offering hands-on workshops on RefWorks several times this semester, beginning with three sessions this week and next. Here are the dates and times. (All sessions are in O'Neill 105):

Thursday, October 4th - 10 am
Thursday, October 11th - 4 pm
Friday, October 12th - 10 am

Space is limited to 10 per session. I don't expect to fill them all up, but let me know if you're planning to attend at one of these times.

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