Research Guides: Communications: Databases & Articles

Database Search Tips

Log in: Most databases allow you to create a user login, which will enable you to save your searches.

Find It: If there does not appear to be full text provided for an article you need, click the "Find It" button to see if it can be found elsewhere online, or if the University of Maryland owns a print copy.

Advanced Search: Most databases have advanced search options that will allow refine your search to find relevant, scholarly sources for your paper.

Databases

Journal articles and other resources are best found by searching in one or more database. Databases are usually subscription resources that bring articles and other materials from a variety of sources (including professional journals) into one place with a sophisticated search engine. Use the databases below to find journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, conference proceedings, dissertations, and more related to your topic.

To search the available databases, go to the Library Home Page, and then click on Database in the search box.You may either type in the name of the database you want, or click on Browse Database by Type or Subject or Name. From here, you can either search by database type or by subject area. Be sure to read about the databases before beginning your searches. You will want to start your search in the best database for your topic that you can find. Beginning your research in a database only moderately related to your topic will make searching difficult.

Academic Search Ultimate
Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Provides full text and indexing for journals in communication, mass media
and other closely-related fields. Combines the resources formerly known as
CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index. CommSearch offered bibliographic and keyword references to 26 journals in communication studies, with coverage extending to the inaugural issue of each. It also included cover-to-cover indices of NCAs six journals, and abstracts from their earliest appearance in NCA journals. Mass Media Articles Index provided citation coverage of over 40,000 articles related to mass media and published in over 60 research journals, as well as major journalism reviews, recent encyclopedias, and handbooks in the area of communications studies. EBSCO has combined and expanded the extensive coverage of these two resources to create CMMC.
Dissertations & Theses Global
This database is the an authoritative source for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses. The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities. Full text is available from 1997 to the present. It also contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text. It offers access to more than 90 percent of the doctoral dissertations accepted each year in North America. The database also covers thousands of dissertations and theses from around the globe. Time Span: 1861 to present.
ERIC
Provides access to information from over 1000 education and education-related journals as well as a variety of non journal materials, or ERIC documents. All aspects and levels of education. 1966- present. Non-journal documents are available via microfiche; they are also online from 1993-present. The database includes an online thesaurus.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Full-text bilingual (English/Spanish) database of 200 publications of the ethnic, minority, and native press. 1990 to the present. Multidisciplinary - news, culture, and history.
Factiva
WARNING: Data mining and excessive downloading are prohibited and such activities cause the suspension of this service. NOTE: Use of Factiva requires login with University ID and is restricted to only current UMCP staff and students. Factiva recommends using Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher. Full-text access to over 8,000 business sources including the Wall
Street Journal and many other national and international newspapers, magazines, wire services, websites, and industry (trade) sources. Covers business news articles in a wide range of topic areas: companies, industries, markets, products, brands, and general financial articles.
Nexis Uni
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides fulltext to news, business and legal information. Newspapers date back to the 1970's. Please Note: The Washington Post is no longer included in Nexis Uni.The National Newspapers Core database includes the Washington Post.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
Indexes and summarizes journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, selected conference proceedings, and book reviews on linguistics and its sub-disciplines. Covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Complete coverage is also given to various fields of linguistics including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical linguistics.
PAIS Index
From 1915 - Covers the world's public affairs, public and social policies, international relations, and world politics. Includes the policy oriented literature such as economics, finance, law, education, the military, political science, public administration, international law and relations, the environment, demography, public health and science and technology.
SocIndex with Full Text
The index features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,600 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers. This product also contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data mined from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,390 "selective" coverage journals. Further, extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources is included. Contains full text for 242 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895, and 72 "priority" coverage journals. This database also includes full text for 547 books and monographs, and full text for 6,711 conference papers.
PsycINFO
PsycINFO is the most comprehensive index in psychology and related fields, with more than 1.7 million citations and abstracts of journal articles, book chapters and books, technical reports, and dissertations. Its holdings include material from 1,700 periodicals in over 30 languages. Covering the entire range of psychology disciplines, PsycINFO also includes information about the psychological aspects of related fields such as psychiatry, neuroscience, medicine, sociology, education, linguistics, anthropology, business and law. PsycINFO spans 1887 to the present. PsycINFO has links to the full-text articles in PsycARTICLES and the Psychology and in the Behavioral Sciences Collection (thus the user does not have to search each of these databases separately).