An excellent tool on social science research methods includes over 1000 methods books, 1100 case studies, reference works, journal articles, and instructional video tutorials by world-leading academics from across the social sciences. In addition, the full-text titles from the Sage’s Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series(“The Little Green Books”) and Qualitative Research Methods Series ("The Little Blue Books”) books are available.
Journal Articles
Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) offers full-text and cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for journals covering communication, mass media, linguistics, rhetoric, language, logic, and other closely related fields. Content includes more than 440 full-text journals, Cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for 670 journals, and 5,500 author profiles.
Newspaper Articles
Nexis Uni offers a simple, intuitive research experience with flexible search options and tools to help guide students through common research tasks. Nexis Uni offers the same trusted content collection of more than 15,000 news, legal and business sources that students and librarians alike have come to expect from LexisNexis, while also providing a better research experience.
Find current and archived state, national, and international full-text articles on issues, events, people, government and more with over 4,500 newspapers and other news sources including the Miami Herald (5/19/82–Current), Orlando Sentinel (4/1/85–Current), and USA Today (7/1/87–Current). Also includes: Access Business News, Access International News, Access Military, Government, and Defense, Access Newswires & Transcripts, and Acceda Noticias.
Market Research Reports
Mintel Reports offers product and industry market research reports covering US and International marketplaces. Each report combines data and analysis of the competitive landscape, supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profiles. Complex demographic issues are broken into easy-to-understand sections, explaining consumer behavior and demonstrating the structure of the market.
Evaluating the sources you find on a topic is an important part of your research activity. Not all information you find is valid, useful, or accurate. Some questions you need to ask while searching for and reading an information source are:
Most article databases and the FSU OneSearch have a filter for peer-reviewed journal articles.
1. OneSearch
2. Database Search
Use the Boolean Operators and Modifiers to connect your search terms.
Quick video tutorials (from McMaster University):
To find research articles that used quantitative research method(s), add the following to your search query and add the keywords of your research.
quantitative OR statistic* OR experiment* OR test* OR measure* OR survey* OR questionnaire* OR scale* OR inventor* OR checklist* OR instrument* OR pretest* OR posttest* OR interview*
Example:
Quantitative research articles about college students and depression:
To find research articles that used qualitative research method(s), add the following to your search query and add the keywords of your research.
qualitative OR interviews OR narratives OR "focus group" OR "content analysis" OR "discourse analysis" OR ethnology OR ethnography OR "field study" OR "participant observation" OR hermeneutics OR phenomenology OR "lived experience" OR "theoretical sample" OR "thematic analysis" OR "unstructured category" OR "structured category" OR "unstructured interviews" OR "semi-structured interview" OR "action research" OR "mixed methods"
Example:
Qualitative or mixed-methods research articles about social media and celebrities or influencers.
Library Databases
Public Opinions
IPOLL, from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, is a full-text database of 500,000 questions from national public opinion surveys since 1935 and updated daily. iPOLL includes survey results data from academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as Gallup, Harris Interactive, Pew Research Associates, ABC, CBS, Wall Street Journal and many more. Many data sets are available for download in ASCII or SPSS format.
Health Statistics
Census
FSU Student Statistics
Statistics on College Students
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