COMM 3580: Health Campaigns: Suggested Library Databases

How can I do research, especially with a topic I'm interested in, that fulfills my professor's requirements?  Here's one recipe that may help!  Follow each section, taking notes (and gathering article quotes) along the way -and you should end up with a lovely literature review!

If you're coming to this cold and would like more help, just contact me for an appointment -I'll even entertain a group of you- at dale.larsen@utah.edu.

1. Trends and Ideas
What are people out in the "real world" talking about?  What specific words/rhetoric do they share in common to describe problems, potential solutions, etc.?  As you use the open web (see previous tab), use a note-taking software (OneNote is my fav) to capture those key words.  Below are a couple databases from the library to also try (non-scholarly)

CQ Researcher (What is important to U.S. voters right now)

US Newsstream (most U.S. newspapers -including today)
Here's some starter keywords: 

Health AND campaign OR communication OR messages OR statistics OR promotion OR activism OR marketing

(for example a search might be: Statistics AND (smoking OR vaping)

Health reform

2. Scholarship in the social sciences
What are people in specific fields of scholarship talking about?  Most of these articles are based strictly on evidence gathered to support points -that are supported by other scholarly articles (citations).  Still look for trends on your topic and see what major points are being made.  There's no right way of doing this, just keep trying searches, and go through headlines -and save the articles that resonate with you.

Library Catalog: USearch (multi-disciplinary -highly recommended)

   Communication & Mass Media Complete (Communication)
   Sociological Abstracts (Sociology & Social Work)
   PAIS (Public Policy)
   Education Full Text & ERIC (Education)
   APA PsycINFO (Psychology, Counseling, Psychiatry, etc.!)
OR
Academic Search Ultimate (A big mash of many disciplines)


3. IMPACT! 
Ok, I have 8 articles that all say the same thing -how to I pick the best one? OR how can I look for who and what is having the greatest impact in a field of study today?  (if you miss this in class, ask for help! :-)

Scopus  -Amazing/Awesome database, all scholarly:
            tip 1: select "social sciences & humanities" at the search page (unchecking the others).
            tip 2: Do a search and in the results, click "cited by" as the sorting option (right-hand side).  The most cited, most influential articles will now appear at the top.

Web of Science (humanities, social sciences appear here too)

NOTE: THESE ARE ALL LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES -LOG IN TO 'OFF CAMPUS ACCESS' FIRST

IBISWorld
Industry Reports: the 'supply chain' graphic is all clickable reports (really neat) -look at "key economic drivers" for things relevant to your particular topic.  Industry Outlook is important information provided by expert analysts about where this industry is headed -look for keywords to search with in further databases (and lots more here, dig around, neat database).
SAMPLE SEARCH: drinking water, psychologists, health

Business Source Premier
Analysis, reports, news & scholarship: Millions of articles ranging from light-weight product reviews all the way up to a scholarly discourse on the economic aspects of millennial consumers propensity to volunteer. There's a lot of paths to follow so try out different iterations of the same keywords before giving up on a search; (i.e. water, hydration, thirsty, gatorade, etc.).  The advanced search is helpful -and the search facets (links down left-hand side in a search results page) are extremely useful.  Social and non-profit articles will show up here (like health campaigns).  Note: if you find something compelling on the web and want to read further -try finding the original article here, or others on topic.
SAMPLE SEARCH: green, mdma, "body image", "texting and driving", behavior and X?, attitudes, stigma, "public health" (then go through the subjects facet), motivation, incentiv*, messages, audience, evaluation