(This is a compendium of guides to research and becoming a researcher that I will add to on a regular basis. – Dr. R
On Research
Begin by reading research by others. For example, this research paper As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War is a good example of a research paper – in this case on media framing. It is the sort of paper you could use as a template for writing your own paper.
Some sources:
AEJMC archives 1994-2006 (These are papers presented at the annual conference. Later papers are behind a membership pay wall.)
Acquaint yourself with previous Ph.D. Dissertations (These should be available through the library.)
Also, begin learning how to use Google Scholar – you can access many of these research papers linked here for free through your UF account.
Also, read all around your subject. Here is why this is important: “To be perfectly original one should think much and read little, and this is impossible, for one must have read before one has learnt to think.” I suggest you first read this: The Art of Scientific Investigation (1957), Part I: The Role of Chance-Opportunism and Openness in Creativity and Discovery
On Being a Grad Student
Dr. R’s Delicious Links on Grad Students
Prohacker’s Open Letter to New Graduate Students
The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.
Advice for new university instructors
Sit down with your advisor and start putting together your Degree Plan Document (pdf)
Bookmark the Ph.D. Handbook 2010-2011 and obtain a hard copy of same for your records.
Dr. R’s Delicious Links on Being a Grad Student (This is a collection of readings that might be helpful.)
Use Doodle to set up meetings with multiple participants: http://doodle.com/
Begin learning how the library works. Both the Journalism Library http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/jour/default.html (Introduce yourself to our journalism librarian Lisa Chinn) and the main library system http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ For example, here are several resources you will find helpful in doing research – especially your literature review. Here are two articles on lit reviews: The Literature Review & What Is a Lit Review?
- Find Databases by Subject at UF Library
- Project Starters at UF Library
- JSTOR
- ComAbstracts
- ComAbstracts – Theories related to communication theories and models, etc.
- Subject guides & specialists at UF Library
- Mass Comm (Graduates) Subject Guide
- Advertising Subject Guide
- Broadcasting/Telecom Subject Guide
- Journalism Subject Guide
If you have not done so already, set up a free Zotero account http://www.zotero.org/ . This is a research tool that you can sync between computers.
If you have not done so already, set up a Google Reader and begin linking RSS feeds regarding your research interests to it. I would also suggest adding several scholarly job boards so you can keep track of what universities are looking for. For example: AEJMC Job Ads: http://www.aejmc.com/jobads & The Chronicle of Higher Ed http://chronicle.com/jobs/100/600/2000/ & HigherEd.Jobs.com http://www.higheredjobs.com/search/advanced_action.cfm?JobCat=132 & JournalismJobs.com http://www.journalismjobs.com/
The Dissertation
Guidelines for Writing a Thesis of Dissertation
Style
Start learning Chicago Manual of Style: The Chicago Manual of Style Online: Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide
Start learning APA style: APA Formatting and Style Guide: Footnotes and Endnotes – The OWL at Purdue & More on APA http://www.delicious.com/TripleR/apa
The End Matter: The nightmare of citation by Louis Menand http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/06/031006crbo_books1#ixzz201fbJnFU
Academic Associations
Join the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)
(See AEJMC TODAY pdf) or whatever relevant communication organization that fits your interests. The other two major associations that faculty and grad students at CJC belong to are the National Communication Association (NCA) and International Communication Association (ICA). There are certainly others. For example, Dr. Armstrong each year attends the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR)
Here are some other communication-related academic associations that hold one or more conferences each year where faculty and students can present their research.
- The International Environmental Communication Association (IECA)
- Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE)
- Western States Communication Association (WSCA)
- Society for Applied Anthropology (SFAA)
- American Public Health Association (APHA)
- Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR)
- Broadcast Education Association (BEA)
- Conference on Communication and the Environment
Research Tools
This is my No. 1 tool. Evernote stores all your research material in whatever format it comes in be they images, PDF journals, PowerPoint files, hand-written notes, Web pages and even audio files – it can handle the lot and makes it all searchable. The desktop software is free it unless you store huge amounts of material each month.
This is my No. 2 tool. Store your files in the cloud and access from anywhere and share links to documents. Similar to Google Drive linked below, but I have had fewer problems with Dropbox.
Citation Analysis: Measuring the Influence and Impact of Research Citation analysis is the study of the quantitative data derived from the use of citations (e.g. bibliographies, works cited, reference pages in books, articles or other publications) as a means of determining the scholarly impact or influence and assumed quality of a journal, an indvidual article, and an individual author/researcher.
Crimson Hexagon: Social Media Monitoring, Analysis and Analytics: Crimson Hexagon says it empowers you to overcome the limits of traditional market research by delivering a real-time view of how engaged online consumers truly think and feel about a brand or issue. Here is some research from PEW that used this tool: Facebook IPO Not Selling on Social Media – How Twitter, Blogs and Facebook Reacted to the Facebook IPO
Managing Research: Your Personal Library, Online
citeulike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references
Text Analysis
Yoshikoder, a free content analysis software: http://www.yoshikoder.org/
There are Mac and PC versions, but the PC version works better, and has more functionality than, the Mac version:
And here’s a quick YouTube video put together by Dr. Ken Blake at MTSU showing research students how to use Yoshikoder and Excel in tandem to do (very) basic content analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE-LGFFa6CI
On Research and Research Sources
How to find a DOI: http://bit.ly/5Ub2Ix and how to get from a DOI to an article: http://bit.ly/1w1RDi
Researching Twitter archives: Topsy Labs, a San Francisco firm that provides a database of tweets with links and those that have been retweeted going back to about May of 2008. Using its advanced-search options, you can limit your query to updates by a specific user and within any two dates.
ArchiveGrid is an important destination for searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world.
Google Books (Begin learning how to use this. Note, just about anything before 1923 is out of copyright and full text is available – and it is searchable. Still, many books are limited view to one degree or another but are still searchable. You may find what you need on the view – or at least through search you can learn what pages what you seek are on and then check the book out of the library. Saves a lot of time. Also, many magazines fairly up to date are available full view – and are also searchable.)
Internet Archive is another resource that includes all kinds of texts, videos, etc.
The Seven Steps of the Research Process (Cornell U.)
Dr. R’s Research Links on Delicious
Tips on Publishing: This is a nice compact explainer regarding the research-writing process.
Copyright and the Historian: How CUP v. Becker Affects You
A Historian’s Guide to Copyright
Finding Sources with The Full Wiki
How Dictation Tools Can Help Speed Up Your Workflow
History Sites
Making of America is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
Research Society for American Periodicals: http://www.periodicalresearch.org/
Plagiarism
Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism
Prof. Mindy McAdam’s plagiarism guide: http://www.macloo.com/cheat/index.htm
Indian University’s oft-cited website: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
On Presenting Papers
Everything You Need to Know about Presenting a Scholarly Paper in Public
On Publishing
Tips on publishing in academic research journals
Blog on Predatory Publishers: Jeffrey Beall, an academic librarian at Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver, maintains a blog on predatory scholarly publishers in which he offers a critical analysis of scholarly open-access publishing. Yes, yes — even in scholarly publishing there are vulture capitalists who want to rip you off and screw with your tenure. BE WARNED!
Here is a link to Beall’s Criteria for Determining Predatory Open-Access Publishers. You can learn a lot about evaluating journals from his metrics.
Regularly updated list of Predatory Journals
“Predatory, open-access publishers are those that unprofessionally exploit the author-pays model of open-access publishing (Gold OA) for their own profit. Typically, these publishers spam professional email lists, broadly soliciting article submissions for the clear purpose of gaining additional income. Operating essentially as vanity presses, these publishers typically have a low article acceptance threshold, with a false-front or non-existent peer review process. Unlike professional publishing operations, whether subscription-based or ethically-sound open access, these predatory publishers add little value to scholarship, pay little attention to digital preservation, and operate using fly-by-night, unsustainable business models.”
Beall’s List of Predatory Publishers on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/POA.Publishers
Publications
Here are some academic journals with a communication specialty
Communication Monographs
Communication Quarterly
Communication Reports
Communication Research Reports
Communication Studies
Communication Theory
Critical Studies in Mass Communication
Cultural Studies
Discourse & Communication
Discourse & Society
Discourse Studies
Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture
Howard Journal of Communication
Human Communication Research
Journal of Advertising
Journal of Applied Communication Research
Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
Journal of Communication
Journal of Consumer Research
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Journal of Health Communication
Journal of Intercultural Communication
Journal of Mass Media Ethics
Journalism History
Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs
Management Communication Quarterly
Mass Communication & Society
Media Psychology
Psychophysiology
Quarterly Journal of Speech
Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Southern Journal of Communication
Telematics & Informatics
MMC 6660 Mass Comm & Society 