Communication -- Research
Communication -- Research -- Methodology
Communication -- Statistical methods
Communication in politics -- Research
Mass media -- Philosophy
Mass media -- Research
Mass media -- Research -- Methodology
Qualitative research
Qualitative research -- Methodology
Quantitative research
Quantitative research – Methodology
Social sciences -- Research
Social sciences -- Methodology
Suggested Tip for Finding a Theory Relevant to Your Research Topic
Books in red are eBooks.
For books on a particular method, such as the "grounded theory," search the library catalog with the method as a keyword.
Public Opinions
Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/ (explore Topics)
iPOLL Databank (Roper Center) https://lib.fsu.edu/get/ipoll
Census
U.S. Census Bureau http://census.gov
American FactFinder…provides community-level demographic information
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/data/
Statistical Databases (@FSU Libraries)
Statista
DemographicsNow https://lib.fsu.edu/get/demnow
Social Explorer
ProQuest Statistical Insights https://lib.fsu.edu/get/saus
Historical Statistics of the United States https://lib.fsu.edu/get/hsus
Health Statistics
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
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.
Others
CIA The World Factbook (for a country stats)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
Google Public Data https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory
Data.gov…a source for U.S. government’s open data
Company information
Company Website > About > Invest Relations (or Investors) > Annual Report
Business Source Complete database …Company profile. SWOT Analysis.
E.g., Microsoft
Industry information
For sales, audiences, revenue, the proportion of the market (market ratio)
IBISWorld Industry Market Research database…Industry report. Industry SWOT analysis
https://lib.fsu.edu/get/ibisworld
E.g., Beer (brewery) industry (for major players and the market share)
eMarketer Pro https://lib.fsu.edu/get/emarket
E.g., Internet of Things (under Media), college students (under Demographics)
Consumer and Market information
Mintel Academic
E.g., Movie theatres (see data book), luxury consumers.
Search the database with “college students” to pull off various market reports
on college students
Business Journal Articles
Business Source Complete database https://lib.fsu.edu/get/bscomp
ABI/INFORM Collection database https://lib.fsu.edu/get/abi-com
Statistics
Statista http://lib.fsu.edu/get/stati
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