LibGuides: COM 265 (Intro to Empirical Research): Smart Searching Online

Useful Websites

These sites may help support your work for COM 265:

Com Theories from the University of Twente
This website offers a browsable list of communication theory topics. Theories are organized in clusters--general categories of information.
International Association for Relationship Research
"IARR is a scientific and professional organization including hundreds of scholars and practitioners focused on stimulating and supporting the scientific study of personal and social relationships."
International Personality Item Pool (IPIP)
Use this alphabetical list of constructs to find existing scales that may be relevant to your research question.
National Communication Association
Explore the website of the NCA to find news and other resources, including NCA's blog, Communication Matters.

Try one of these options:

Google Advanced Search - provides more options for your search strategy.
Google Advanced Scholar Search - search for scholarly articles.
Google Advanced Book Search - search for books on your topic.
Zuula - meta-search engine that searches more than one search engine at a time. Note the advanced search link.

"Is this site the BEST source for the information I need?"

The following guidance for web site evalution is drawn from Diana Hacker's tips:

Authorship

Does the site or document have an author? Can you tell whether the author is knowledgeable and credible?

Sponsorship

Purpose and audience

Why was the site created: To argue a position? To sell a product? To inform readers? Which readers?

Currency

How current is the information? If the document or site is too dated to provide relevant information, find a more timely source.

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