Research Help from the Communication Librarian

Welcome to the 2008-2009 Academic Year! Many of you know me from years past, but whether we've met or not, I'm here to help with papers, projects, coursework, and making the most of the incredible -- and sometimes bewildering -- array of research resources available to you as a communication student at Boston College.

Here are some of the ways I can help:

• Classroom Sessions: I'll be visiting many of your classes (16 lined up so far) for research instruction sessions specific to the needs of the course.
  
• Individual Consultations: I'm available for customized help on research questions large and small. E-mail, call, use the Live Help box on this or other pages, or drop by my office.
  
• Books & Bytes in Major Mail: Watch Major Mail each week for news, tips, suggestions, and ideas about communication information resources available to you. [Books & Bytes infotips will be archived here on CommTopics.]
  
• CommTopics: The BC Communication Studies Blog: CommTopics highlights and reviews important, useful, or just plain interesting databases, books, Web sites, journal issues, and communication-related stories in the news.
  
• My Home Page: Visit my home page for links to key databases, course support pages, research guides, an RSS feed of new items from CommTopics, and more.

I look forward to working with you. Let me know how I can help.

- Ken

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Discourse & Society
  
• Gender & Society
• Journal of Language & Social Psychology
• Journal of Popular Culture
• Personal Relationships
  
• Simulation & Gaming
  

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

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Cultural Studies<=>Critical Methodologies
• European Journal of Cultural Studies
  
• International Communication Gazette
• Journalism
  
• Management Communication Quarterly
  
• Space & Culture
• Visual Communication
  

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

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• International Journal of Press/Politics
• Journal of Nonverbal Behavior
  
• Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
• Journal of Visual Culture
• New Media & Society
  
• Television & New Media
• Theory, Culture & Society
  

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

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
  
• Discourse Processes
• Journal of Popular Culture
• Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
  
• Visual Communication
  

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

Journals in the Library: Where Are They?

Finding the hard copy of a journal or other periodical in the library is not always as straightforward as it would seem. Hard copies of journals, including many that are not available online, can be in one of several places depending on the title, the date, and a variety of other factors.

Here are a few things to keep in mind to simplify the task of finding the journal you need.

1. “Current” periodicals are generally shelved on Level 3 (the main level) in O’Neill Library. Turn right just past the Reference Desk and cross the atrium to the first set of shelves. These periodicals are arranged by call number, not by title, so you’ll need to get the call number of the journal you’re looking for. (More on that in a minute.) Keep in mind that “current” means the most recent issues of a publication, but that can vary from a few weeks for daily newspapers to two or three years or more for less frequently published journals.

2. Older editions of many journals are bound into books and then mixed in with regular books on shelves throughout the library. You’ll find them under the same call number – but in a different location – as those in the Current Periodicals section. Past issues of some periodicals are only available on microfilm or microfiche on Level 1 of the library. These, too, are arranged by call number.

3. To find out exactly where a particular issue of a journal or periodical is located, look up the title in Quest, the BC Libraries Catalog. (You can restrict your search to journals by choosing “Journal Titles Catalog” from the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.) Once you find the title you are looking for, click on the link that says “Availability.” You'll be taken to a page telling you what we have, by date, and where to find it. If you’re having trouble finding something, ask for help at the Reference Desk.

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Argumentation
• International Journal on Media Management
• Journal of Media & Religion
  
• New Media & Society
• Women's Studies in Communication
  

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

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies
  
• Discourse & Society
• European Journal of Cultural Studies
  
• Health Promotion Practice
  
• International Communication Gazette
• Journal of Nonverbal Behavior
  
• Journal of Social & Personal Relationships
  
• Media, Culture & Society
  
• Telecommunications Policy
  

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

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.)

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.

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Discourse & Society
• Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics
• Journal of Media Economics
  
• Journal of Popular Culture
• Men & Masculinities
• Personal Relationships
• Public Opinion Quarterly
• Theory, Culture & Society
  
• Visual Communication
• Written Communication
  

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

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Communication Booknotes Quarterly
  
• Communication Research
• European Journal of Communication
  
• International Communication Gazette
  
• Journal of Communication Inquiry
• Journalism
  

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

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• European Journal of Cultural Studies
  
• International Journal of Cultural Studies
• Journal of Language and Social Psychology
  
• Journal of Media and Religion
• Media Culture & Society
• Simulation & Gaming
  
• Space and Culture
  

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

We've Launched! LibGuides @ BC

LibGuides @ BC, a new generation of research guides from your Boston College Librarians, launched today. Check us out at http://libguides.bc.edu.

Update: More about the LibGuides @ BC project on my tracking changes/changing tracks blog.

New Communication Books @ BC

See what's been added to the collections over the summer. New Communication Books @ BC
presents a categorized list of titles in all areas of communication that have come in since the end of the past academic year. Click on a category to see a list of titles, then click on a title for more information. (A link in the "Review" box will bring you to the Quest Library Catalog record for the book.)

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

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

• Health Communication
  
• Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
  
• Journal of Visual Culture
• New Media and Society
• Public Relations Review
• Science Communication
  

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

Communication Abstracts Update

The August update of the Communication Abstracts database is now complete, with 640 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

New Journal: Communication Methods and Measures

The first two issues (issue 1; issue 2) of Communication Methods and Measures, a new journal from the publisher Erlbaum, is now available electronically via the BC Libraries.

Here's the publisher's description of the journal:

The aims of Communication Methods and Measures are to bring developments in methodology, both qualitative and quantitative, to the attention of communication scholars, to provide an outlet for discussion and dissemination of methodological tools and approaches to researchers across the field, to comment on practices with suggestions for improvement in both research design and analysis, and to introduce new methods of measurement useful to communication scientists or improvements on existing methods. Submissions focusing on methods for improving research design and theory testing using quantitative and/or qualitative approaches are encouraged. Articles devoted to epistemological issues of relevance to communication research methodologies are also appropriate. This journal welcomes well-written manuscripts on the use of methods as well as articles illustrating the advantages of newer or less widely known methods over those traditionally used in communication.

Communication Abstracts Update

The June update of the Communication Abstracts database is now complete, with 639 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