Journalism Library Guide to Doing a Literature Review

Introduction

A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and

researchers. 

Where to Begin:
Choosing Your Search Words

1. Write down your topic.
2. Choose and write down the main concepts.
3. The concepts you choose should get to the heart of your topic.
4. Write down synonyms for your search terms.
5. Avoid articles, etc.

Example: You want to find information about journalists who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder or secondary trauma from stress related to journalists covering war or violence.

Make a List of Main Concepts and Additional Terms To Describe Your Topic
Concept 1	AND	Concept 2	AND	Concept 3
Journalist OR Reporter OR Photographer OR Correspondent		Post Traumatic Stress OR PSTD OR Trauma		War OR Violence

In any database you would formulate your search like this and use truncation for word stem endings:

(journalist* or reporter* or photographer* or correspondent*) and (post traumatic stress or pstd or trauma) and (war or violence)

Boolean Connectors

• The Or Connector Tells The Computer To Retrieve Items With Either Term. 
  Ex:  (journalist or reporter or photographer or correspondent)

Gets articles with Journalist or reporter or photographer or correspondent.

• The And Connector Tells The Computer To Retrieve Items With Both Terms. 
  Ex. journalist and post traumatic stress
• 

Gets articles with Both journalist and post traumatic stress.

Truncation 
Truncation is used to retrieve singular and plural versions of a word as well as word stems.  Example:  “Censor*” will retrieve censor, censored, censorship, censoring.

However, do not truncate fewer than 3 letters.  Ex: “ad*” will get you “advertise,” “adjunct,” “addict,” “adhoc,” etc.

Each database has its own symbol for truncation. For example:

• American Humanities Index uses the *
• Cambridge Scientific Abstracts uses the *
• Current Research uses the *
• Communication Abstracts uses the *
• Communication and Mass Media Complete uses the *
• EbscoHost uses the *
• Factiva uses the *
• Firstsearch uses the *
• Lexis/Nexis uses the !
• Ovid uses the $
• Proquest uses the ?
• Web of Science uses the  *
• SilverPlatter uses the *

Steps to Running a Search

The basic steps to going online and running a search are:

• Choosing an appropriate database.
• Choosing search words.
• Signing on.
• Entering a search.
• Displaying the search results.
• Reviewing the search results.

Check Merlin’s Library Catalog or Mobius Library Catalog for books on your topic. You can do a keyword search to search title, subject and table of contents of books.

The following types of resources are available for your use:

Print

• The Iowa guide: scholarly journals in mass communication and related fields.  Ana C. Garner and Carolyn Stewart Dyer. MU JOUR READY REF   PN4071 .D8

• Ulrich's international periodicals directory.  Vol. 5 lists refereed serials. MU ELLIS Z6941 .U5  LATEST ED. BIBLIO(Room 202)

  Online

• The Iowa Guide - Access through the Journalism Library webpage under Databases Available. http://iowaguide.uiowa.edu/
• Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory. Access through the Journalism Library webpage http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/index.html under Databases Available.

Printed Indexes

Located in the Reference Room in the Journalism Library

• Communication Abstracts - 1978-present. (also online from 1998 - present via J-library database page)

Books recommended for graduate students

Research methods in mass communication.  Edited by Guido H. Stempel III and Bruce H. Westley.

Handbook of qualitative research. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, editors.

A Handbook of qualitative methodologies for mass communication research.  Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Nicholas W. Jankowski, editors.

Reasoning with statistics: how to read quantitative research.  Frederick Williams.

Mass communication theory: an introduction.  Denis McQuail.

Mass media research: an introduction. Roger D. Wimmer and Joseph R. Dominick.

Newsroom guide to polls & surveys.  G. Cleveland Wilhoit and David H. Weaver; introduction by John B. Mauro and Robert Schweitz.

Reference books - Bibliographies by subject. 

Previous Masters Projects

Located in the Journalism Library Stacks to the left as you enter the stacks.

Shelved by year then alphabetical by author.

Guidebook at Circulation Desk or go to http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/holdings.htm

Check out - 1 month.

Journalism Theses/Dissertations (all listed in Merlin) go to http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/holdings.htm   Kept at the Depository.  Can be requested through Merlin.

Also full text 1995- present is available through the Journalism Library Database Page under Current Research.

Accessing Electronic Sources through Library Web Pages

Off campus users
Long-distance users and those connecting from a private Internet Service Provider (e.g., Socket or America Online), you can access many of the electronic resources via the MU Libraries proxy server.
Using the Proxy Server
to use the proxy server, you will need your MU email username and password. If you forgot your email password, go to the DoIT pawprint page: http://doit.missouri.edu/pawprint.html to change, establish, or re-establish your email password. Also your browser needs to accept cookies.

Options through the University of Missouri

·         Journalism Library - If you access the Journalism Library’s website at http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/index.html, you can search for sources by clicking on Databases Available on the left hand column. 

·         Ellis Library - If you access Ellis Library’s website at http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/, you can search the databases by clicking on Books Articles and More...

The following electronic resources are available to you through these two sites:

• Merlin Library Catalog (Missouri Education and Research Libraries Information Network)
• You can access Merlin via the web at http://laurel.lso.missouri.edu
• Databases which contain both scholarly information and general information on journalism topics:

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts  - these are the most used databases within Cambridge Scientific Abstracts for journalism students. Truncation is the *.

·        Communication Abstracts 1977-Current

·        ERIC 1966-Current (ERIC indexes Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Educator and Newspaper Research Journal and AEJMC conference papers) - for full text of AEJMC papers 1994 - present go Here Any paper before 1994 will be on microfiche in Ellis library. At the top of your citation from Eric will be an ED# that is the Eric document number you will need to find the microfiche.

·        PAIS International 1972-Current

·        Sociological Abstracts 1963-Current

·        Worldwide Political Science Abstracts 1975-Current

EbscoHostWeb

This database contains MasterfileElite, Academic Search Elite, Communication and Mass Media Complete and other databases. Truncation is the *. 

·        Communication & Mass Media Complete – this is comprised of two databases, CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index. It indexes journals, encyclopedias and handbooks in the area of communication studies. Full-text is available for over 200 titles.

Current Research - This database indexes MU dissertations and provides full-text access to current MU dissertations (from 1995-present). Truncation is the *.

Ovid

Truncation is the $ symbol. No password is needed unless you are connecting from off campus or using an internet provider besides MU's tigerlink to connect , then you will use your pawprint login and password to verify that you are a University of Missouri student.

Databases within Ovid useful for Journalism topics:

• Dissertation Abstracts - 1861-present.
• Thesis and Dissertations from other Universities can be requested through interlibrary loan but check Merlin library catalog first to see we hold the title.
• PsychInfo - 1967-present.  Covers professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines. .

Web of Science

Truncation is the * symbol for the following indexes:

• Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)--1990-present
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI)--1990-present

Use General Search to search for articles by subject term, author name, journal title, or author affiliation.

Use Cited Ref Search to search for articles that cite an author or article that you specify.

Lexis/Nexis Academic

Truncation is the ! symbol.

• Lexis - Legal news, State and Federal Court Cases, Political Information.
• Nexis - Newspaper, Magazine and Newsletter articles, transcripts from NPR, CNN, ABC, etc.

Remember to use the following search basics when using this site:

• Choose appropriate search words to define what you’re looking for.
• Simplify the search words - use the main concepts
• Connect the search words - use AND or OR to connect search words.
• Restrict your search to a part of the document (segment searching) - HEADLINE (search words) or HLEAD (search words) or BYLINE (Erik Petersen).
• Confine your search results to a particular time frame (date searching)

FirstSearch

The following are databases within FirstSearch. Truncation is the *.    

Available databases:

Arts & Humanities	BookReview	LegalPeriodical
AltPressIndex	BooksInPrint	PapersFirst*
AltPressIndexArchive	BusinessOrgs	Proceedings*
ArticleFirst	ConsumerIndex	WorldAlmanac
BiographyInd	Ebooks ECO	WorldCat

You can also choose to search all databases.

J STOR

The J STOR database is unique because the complete backfiles of these core scholarly journals have been digitized, starting with the very first issues, many of which date from the 1800s. Over 2 million pages are now available. New titles and fields are being added constantly.  

Journal Titles Currently Available 

http://www.jstor.org/about/content.html

You can also check Ellis Library's database page (http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/search/databases/all.asp)  to see all available databases and read through the descriptions to find a suitable database for your topic.

Some of these databases contain both scholarly articles and trade publications. You can check a box to limit to peer reviewed or refereed journals only. Also, don't limit searching to full text articles only. Most scholarly databases only give you a citation or an abstract of the article. You can find the full text by either searching TDNet or searching Merlin and seeing if a campus library holds the journal you are looking for. Both TDNet and Merlin are available on the Journalism Library Database page. If you cannot find the bound journal or full text of an article using either of these methods then you can submit an Interlibrary Loan (http://www.missouri.edu/~jourss/ill.htm) and request the article from another library. Interlibrary Loan usually takes one to two weeks for articles. Interlibrary Loan will send you an email with a web address and a pin to access the full text of the article. You can also request books, thesis/dissertations and newspapers on microfilm if Merlin or Mobius does not hold. And last, you should keep all citations of the articles that you are using for your literature review. That way if you have a citation in your bibliography that isn't a full citation you can go back through your research and find the full citation.

How to identify scholarly articles:

The name, focus, institutional affiliation and readership information should help the writer or researcher determine whether a journal is academic or scholarly. 

Many scholarly articles have extensive footnotes.

Check print and online resources (Iowa Guide or Ulrich's to determine whether an article is a scholarly publication or not.

Definition or process of:

"Peer' review" - evaluation of a person's work or performance by a group of people in the same occupation, profession, or industry.

"Blind refereed" - an article that contains no information identifying the author is sent to a number of reviewers who are asked whether the article is suitable for publication in the journal and what revisions should be suggested to the writer. The editor typically uses the recommendations of the reviewers in making a decision to accept or reject an article or to request revisions. The editor, who makes the final decision and may critically review the article as well, generally knows who the author is, and some reviewers may recognize the writer's work. A few journals conduct "double blind" reviews in which the editor, too, remains unaware of the author's identity through the review process.

Further information on the literature review may be found in:

Fink, Arlene.
Conducting research literature reviews: from paper to the Internet / Published Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, c1998.
LOC CALL #
MU ELLIS Q180.55.M4 F56 1998
MU JOUR Q180.55.M4 F56 1998
MU JOUR RESERVE Q180.55.M4 F56 1998

Galvan, Jose L.
Title Writing literature reviews: a guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences / Jose L. Galvan.
Published Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak, 1999.
LOC CALL #
MU ELLIS REF TABLE 11 H61.8 .G348 1999 LIB USE ONLY
SLU Pius H61.8 .G3 1999 (can be requested through Merlin)
UMK Dental H61.8 .G348 1999 (can be requested through Merlin)
UMR Lower Level H61.8 .G3 1999 (can be requested through Merlin)

Macauley, P. (2001). The Literature Review.
Geelong, Victoria, Australia: Deakin University.
Retrieved 15th October 2001 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/findout/research/litrev.html

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center. (2001). Writer's Handbook: Academic Writing: Reviews of Literature. Madison, Wisconsin: Author. Retrieved 15th October 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html

Updated August 2005