There are 3 ways to search for HCOM-related articles:
(1) DATABASES. Databases are collections of articles & data that the library subscribes to. We have a database that specializes in communications articles (Communication Source). However, Human Communication Studies is very multidisciplinary, so you will want to consult related disciplines' databases too: Psychology (APA PsycInfo), Sociology (Sociological Abstracts), Business (ABI/Inform), and so on. To see the databases grouped in categories, click the "Choosing Databases" tab above. To get to the databases from the Library's homepage, click the "Databases" icon, then choose your database alphabetically (A-Z row) or grouped by your major (Subject pull-down menu).
(2) ONESEARCH. Although OneSearch is mainly used as the library's book catalog, it can also find articles. It has a search feature that group-searches many of the library's databases at once. This can be helpful if you are looking for breadth: articles in journals from all disciplines. However, the drawback to OneSearch is that it bombards you with a lot of irrelevant articles, and you have to spend time filtering the results to narrow it down. To get to OneSearch, go the library's homepage, click on OneSearch's "Advanced Search", and choose "Articles" to begin searching.
(3) GOOGLE SCHOLAR. Google Scholar is not a library database, but can still be a helpful tool. Google Scholar is Google's
search engine to find scholarly articles. Sometimes it finds the same articles as in our library databases. Sometimes it finds articles at educational (.edu) websites. Sometimes it finds articles at organization (.org) websites. And so on. The benefit of Google Scholar is its breadth: it searches millions of websites for articles. The drawback is: also its breadth. Many times your results are thousands of articles, with many obscure or irrelevant that aren't a match to what you want. To see a video demo/tutorial of searching Google Scholar, click here: 
Keywords: Type in keywords of what you want (for example: gender and body language). A list of articles will then come up. If you see the full-text (a PDF or HTML icon) next to any on the list, great! You can click and read the full-text immediately. If no full-text is displayed, then then click on the blue "Find it" button (
) and a pop-up window will appear referring you to where you can get the full-text.
Subjects: Although using keywords is convenient, keywords can often bring up unrelated articles, since they may appear anywhere in the article. A more precise way to search is to change your search box to a SUBJECT search, and type a word. This will look for articles entirely about that word, not just find that word randomly. For example, an article about corporate communication, not just an article that has the word "corporate" and "communication" somewhere randomly in it.
Video demos: to view 3 short video demos/tutorials--showing tips & strategies on choosing and searching databases--click here: Part1:Intro, Part2:Choosing, Part3:Searching.
