Communication Theories & Research Methods

Suggested Tip for Finding a Theory Relevant to Your Research Topic 

• Search article databases in Communication or other related fields as suggested below with the topic of your interest as a search term. Then read the Literature Review section of the articles to find the theories that guided the research. 
  • Communication & Mass Media Complete 
  • ERIC (Education)
  • PsycINFO (Psychology)
  • Business Source Complete or ABI/INFORM (Business)
  • CINAHL FullText (Nursing. Public Health)
  • Google Scholar
• Search Encyclopedias of Theories in Communication or in other related fields, and search the full text using the topic as a keyword. For example, if you are looking for theories in behavioral health, look up the Encyclopedia of Theories in Psychology for the entry of "Behavioral Health."  Under the entry, you will find common theories that have been used to research the topic.  
  • Encyclopedia of Communication Theory (eBook)
  • The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Psychology (eBook)
  • Marketing Theory: Foundations, Controversy, Strategy, and Resource-advantage Theory (eBook)

• Communication Methods and Measures 
• Communication Reports
• Communication Research Reports
• International Journal of Qualitative Methods
• International Journal of Social Research Methodology 
• International Review of Qualitative Research
• Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences  
• Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research
• Methodology: European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral & Social Sciences  
• Social Science Research
• Qualitative Inquiry
• Qualitative Research: QR

Video tutorials on the SAGE Research Methods Online database

• Population Statistics

  From the U.S. Census. Topics include Age and Sex, Ancestry, Children, Computer and Internet Use, Foreign Born, Hispanic Origin, International, Language Use, Migration/Geographic Mobility, Older Population and Aging, Population Estimates, Population Projections, Race, and Veterans

• Population Reference Bureau

  Check their Data Center for the US and international data indicators including Gini Index of Income Inequality, Net Migration Count, Percent of the Population Living in Poverty, etc. 2021 World Population Data Sheet is also available.

• U.S. Census International Database

  Population estimates and projections for 227 countries and areas. Includes Population Pyramids.

• United Nations Population Fund

  Search by country or region.

• World Population Prospects (from the United Nations

  Population estimates and projections that have been prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. The main results are presented in a series of Excel files displaying key demographic indicators for each UN development group, World Bank income group, geographic region, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) region, subregion and country or area for selected periods or dates within 1950-2100.

For more information, check our U.S. Census Data Guide

FSU Student Statistics
              FSU Office of Institutional Research https://ir.fsu.edu/students.aspx

Statistics on College Students
              Almanac of Higher Education (from The Chronicle of Higher Education)
                             https://www.chronicle.com/section/Almanac-of-Higher-Education/141
             
              Open Doors (for international students in the U.S. and American students studying abroad)
              https://www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Insights/Open-Doors

              Tip:
              Newspapers or journal articles might be an excellent source to look up the statistics on college    
              students.  Depending on your research topic, you might want to explore a Psychology database
              such as APA PsycINFO, an Education database such as ERIC, or even a Nursing database such as
              CINAHL.
                             PsychINFO   https://lib.fsu.edu/get/psycinfo
                             ERIC https://lib.fsu.edu/get/ericcsa
                             CINAHL  https://lib.fsu.edu/get/cinahlft

              At Google Scholar, try the following search statement:
                          ("college students" OR "university students") "mental health" survey
              à This will yield papers, blogs, etc. that are about survey research on mental health issues of
              college students.  Please note that I used quotes for a phrase searching, and used parentheses
              to group similar concepts together.  
                             Another example:
                         ("college students" OR "university students") ("video game" OR gaming) qualitative
              Not always, but highly likely, you may find the questionnaire that was used to conduct the
              research at the Appendix or Supporting Material section of a research paper.
 

See this Consumer Demographics page. 

   National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/
                            E.g., Smoking
              MedlinePlus Health Statistics https://medlineplus.gov/healthstatistics.html
              World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Health Observatory   
                             https://www.who.int/data/gho
                             E.g., Nigeria’s neonatal mortality rate 

For a comprehensive list of data sources on public health, see here.