COMS 254 Qualatative Methods in Communication Studies (Lawless)

Communication Source features full text for more than 800 titles, including over 600 active full-text titles.

Indexing and abstracting is included for more than 1000 Core titles. Also featured is backfile coverage of top titles in Communication, reaching deep into the 20th century. Content is derived from academic journals, conference papers, conference proceedings, trade publications, magazines and periodicals. Content development for Communication Source is guided by expert advisors who are academic librarians and Communication bibliographers from leading international institutions.

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The database is unique in its comprehensive coverage of scholarly books in communication and journalism. The full text of the ComAbstracts database can be searched; that is, records may be searched by word, phrase, or author. The search system supports full Boolean search logic (AND, OR, NOT, XOR), proximity searching, wildcard searching, and word conflation (which finds alternative forms of words based on common linguistic roots).

Synonyms are available for many clusters of terms and are included automatically in searches unless they are explicitly overriden in the search specification (for example, a search for 'YOUTH' will also match 'TEEN' and 'ADOLESCENT'). The database may also be searched using (1) a keyword system consisting of menus of prepared subject terms and search specifications or (2) using the Visual Communication Concept Explorer a next-generation visual interface build on statistical analysis of word relationships unique to the academic communication literature.

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Included is information on the psychological aspects of related fields such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, technology, linguistics, anthropology, business, law and others. Journal coverage, which spans from the 1800s to the present, includes international material selected from around 2,500 periodicals in dozens of languages. APA PsycInfo is indexed with controlled vocabulary from APA's Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.

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SocINDEX with Full Text contains full text for more than 860 journals dating back to 1908. This database also includes full text for more than 830 books and monographs, and full text for over 16,800 conference papers.

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Questions and Answers:

Does Fusion include everything the library has?
No, but it includes so much of what the library has that it will almost always be a good place to start a search.

When would Fusion not make sense as the first place to search?
Some examples:

• If you’re interested in finding only books, or a specific book title, then our library catalog Ignacio might be a more appropriate place to begin.
• If you’re looking specifically for statistical data, or encyclopedia/dictionary entries, or images, it would be better to use databases devoted to those specific types of information.
• If you're looking for a specific Journal title, you should use our Journal Finder.
• I’m very proficient using the subject-specific databases in my field. Is there any reason I should use Fusion?
• Because Fusion will have such broad coverage, it may locate relevant materials published in other fields that you wouldn’t otherwise find in a subject-specific database.

So then why would I want to choose a subject-specific database anymore—can I just use Fusion instead?
Fusion is not replacing any of our subject-specific databases. These databases offer valuable advanced searching capabilities tailored to their subject areas.

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Customize Google Scholar to provide full-text links to journal articles available through Gleeson Library subscriptions:

If you are on campus, Google Scholar should recognize you as a USF user and link you to the full text.

If you are working from an off-campus location, you will need to manually activate USF's Full Text Finder in Google Scholar Library Links:

1. Go to the Google Scholar search page.
2. In the upper left corner of the page, press the button made of three horizontal lines to open a new menu.
3. Click "Settings."
4. Select "Library links" and search for "University of San Francisco."
5. Check "University of San Francisco – Full Text Finder" in the search results, then click Save.

When you search Google Scholar, you should now see "Full Text Finder" links to the right of your results. Click on these links to check if USF has access to your article.

Since 1995 the MUSE journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE is the trusted source of complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies, with over 120 publishers currently participating.

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