CMJ 402: Communication Research Methods

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources you have consulted on your topic, with an annotation accompanying each source citation.  This annotation can include many things, depending on the specifics of an assignment or need, but generally contains:

• A brief summary of the content
• A brief assessment of the authority/quality of the source
• A reflection on how the source adds to your research

A literature review is part of the text of a paper or report, and provides the context on how the sources work together to answer the research question. It should do the following:

• explore compelling questions, problems, concepts, or issues that you would like to address
• identifiy major trends/paths of scholarship on your topic
• highlight relationships between ideas
• demonstrate your ability to critique and synthesize various strands of the conversation taking place around your topic
• indicate your capacity to identify research gaps, areas for further consideration, and/or disagreements in the literature

Helpful Guides:

Use the Fogler database list to identify online databases where you might find research that addresses your topic. Listed below are several suggested databases.  All should use Communication & Mass Media Complete; use of the others depends on your individual topics.

If you find a journal article that is not available online, use URSUS to determine whether or not the print journal is housed in the library. If we don't have the journal article you need in print or electronically, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan.

Another Possible Search Tool:

Here are the formats for APA 7th edition journal article citations:

Reference list format:

Author last name, First name initial. Middle initial. (Year). Title of article: Subtitle of article. Journal Title, volume(issue), pages. doi

Example:

Francis, D. B., Zelaya, C. M., Fortune, D. A., & Noar, S. M. (2021). Black college women’s interpersonal communication in response to a sexual health intervention: A mixed methods study. Health Communication, 36(2), 217–225. https://doi-org/10.1080/10410236.2019.1673949

Warning:

You are often able to grab pre-made citations through the databases and Google Scholar.  Be aware that there are often errors in these citations.  For example, I grabbed the above citation from Google Scholar, and then had to fix both the title and the doi to make the citation correct.