Academic Search Elite, Premier, Complete, & Ultimate (fee-based)
A multi-disciplinary full-text database, offered at 4 levels. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 11,900 journals and a total of more than 12,600 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc
ComAbstracts (CIOS) (fee-based)
Produced by CIOS, ComAbstracts is a database of article abstracts, books, bibliographic records, and other sources of relevance to researchers, scholars, and students interested in fields related to communication studies. Expanded and updated throughout the year, with some coverage back to early 1970’s.
Communication Abstracts (fee-based)
Containing more than 320,000 records, Communication Abstracts indexes and abstracts communication-related publications. Updated bi-monthly and including materials published since 1977, the database covers articles, reports, papers, and books. Coverage includes not only communication literature but also literature in interpersonal organization, risk communication, crisis communication, marketing, and advertising. Available from EBSCO.
Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) (fee-based)
Commination and Media database offered in 2 levels Indexing for some 1,000 periodicals, including full text for over 500 titles, in areas related to communication and mass media. 1920-present.
Communication Source (fee-based)
Full-text research database for communication studies. It offers 734 active full-text communication journals, including 460 OA journals, and magazines valued at $153,544.26 and covers all related disciplines, including media studies, linguistics, speech pathology, rhetoric and discourse.
Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints
Pro and con arguments with contextual information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues drawn from news articles, journals, primary source documents, statistics, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (fee-based)
Bibliographic citations and subject indexing for the international journal article and book literature in anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology. Produced by British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, with the support and assistance of International Committee for Social Science Information and Documentation and UNESCO.
JSTOR (fee-based)
Full text of 100+ core research journals in many subject areas. Coverage starts at the beginning year of publication and includes all but the most recent years (as required by the publisher). Each year an additional year of currently published titles is made available. More subject areas and additional titles are being added regularly.
Omnifile Full Text Mega (fee-based)
OmniFile Full Text Mega covers applied sciences, art, education, humanities, law, social sciences, and technology, featuring full-text articles from nearly 3,000 publications, many of which are peer-reviewed. Additional content includes indexing and abstracting for thousands of publications and retrospective coverage.
PAIS Index (fee-based)
Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) Index indexes journal articles, books, statistics, yearbooks, directories, conference proceedings, pamphlets, reports, government documents, and microfiche covering the full range of political, social, and public policy issues. Includes research in economics, political and social issues, business, finance, law, international trade and relations, public administration, government, political science, and potential legislation. Coverage is 1972-present.
Project Muse (fee-based)
Provider of authoritative humanities and social science books and journals from some 400 of the world’s most distinguished university presses and scholarly societies.
ProQuest Social Science Database (fee-based)
Includes the full text scholarly journals providing extensive coverage across a wide range of social science disciplines including anthropology, criminology, economics, education, political science, social work, and sociology.
APA PsycINFO (fee-based)
APA PsycINFO contains more than one million citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations and technical reports, all in the field of psychology. Journal coverage, which spans from 1887 to present, includes international material selected from more than 1,700 periodicals in over 35 languages.
Social Sciences Full Text (fee-based)
Social Sciences Full Text from EBSCO covers a wide array of areas, including addiction studies, ethics, public welfare, urban studies, and much more.
Social Sciences Abstracts (fee-based)
From EBSCO, Social Sciences Abstracts produced by the H.W. Wilson Company, indexes and abstracts some 620 publications on a wide range of interdisciplinary fields, such as addiction studies, anthropology, corrections, economics, gender studies, gerontology, minority studies, political sciences, psychology, sociology, and more. Coverage: Indexing goes back to 1983 and abstracts back to 1994.
SocINDEX with Full Text (fee-based)
A full-text research database from EBSCO covering sociology, gender studies, criminal justice, social psychology, religion, racial studies and social work. It includes hundreds of full-text journals, abstracts for core coverage journals dating as far back as 1895, as well as extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers and other non-periodical content sources. It also includes searchable cited references.
Sociological Abstracts (fee-based)
Sociological Abstracts from ProQuest abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Coverage: 1963-present.
Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN)
Social Sciences are the primary focus of this network, but resources may also be relevant to those in the communications field.
Journals & Trade Publications
* indicates the National Communication Association (NCA) journals
Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies*
A peer-reviewed journal founded in 2004 that publishes scholarship for an international readership on communication as a theory, practice, technology, and discipline of power
Communication and Democracy*
Formerly known as First Amendment Studies (2013-2021) and Free Speech Yearbook (1970 - 2012). Publishes research on the methodologies and aspects of free speech within culture, media, and legal contexts
Communication Education*
Formerly known as: The Speech Teacher. Publishes high-quality international scholarship that is committed to the advancement of communication and learning broadly defined as instructional communication and communication education.
Communication Monographs*
Formerly known as: Speech Monographs (1934 - 1975). Provides original scholarship that ask questions about the diverse and complex issues that interest Communication scholars, including areas such as media studies, interpersonal and relational communication, organizational and group communication, health and family communication, rhetoric, language and social interaction, intercultural communication and cultural studies, and others.
Communication Teacher*
Publishes instructional activities that can be conducted in either the K-12 or college classroom; manuscripts focused on communication education assessment of student learning, classroom practices (K-12 or college), or program development; and original teaching activities with links to assessment articles.
Critical Studies in Media Communication*
Formerly known as: Critical Studies in Mass Communication (1984 - 1999). Provides a home for scholarship in media and mass communication from a cultural studies and critical perspective. It particularly welcomes cross-disciplinary works that enrich debates among various disciplines, critical traditions, methodological and analytical approaches, and theoretical standpoints.
Information, Communication and Society
ISSN 1369-118X (Academic/Scholarly. Routledge. 1998 – current) An academic journal that explores a diverse range of issues relating to the development and application of information and communications technologies.
Internet Research
This wide-ranging interdisciplinary journal looks at the social, ethical, economic and political implications of the internet. Recent issues have focused on online and mobile gaming, the sharing economy, and the dark side of social media.
Journal of Applied Communication Research*
Publishes original peer-reviewed scholarship that addresses or challenges the relation between theory and practice in understanding communication in applied contexts.
Quarterly Journal of Speech*
Formerly known as: Quarterly Journal of Public Speaking and Quarterly Journal of Speech Education. Publishes peer-reviewed articles and book reviews of interest to those who take a rhetorical perspective on the texts, discourses, and cultural practices by which public beliefs and identities are constituted, empowered, and enacted
Review of Communication*
Publishes scholarship that advances the discipline of communication through the study of major themes that cross the disciplinary sub-fields, and essays that build theory, advance our understanding of a method, extend or challenge a current paradigm, bridge a divide, clarify a term or concept, or demonstrate a pragmatic function.
Text and Performance Quarterly*
Formerly known as: Literature in Performance. Publishes scholarship that explores and advances the study of performance as a social, communicative practice; as a technology of representation and expression; and as a hermeneutic. Articles address performance and the performative from a wide range of perspectives and methodologies, and they investigate all sites of performance from the classical stage to popular culture to the practices of everyday life.
Scopus Communication & Organizational Behavior Journals
Lists publications that might be relevant to general and organizational communication. Provides Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), Impact per Publication (IPP), and SCImago Journal Rank (SJR).
ComAnalytics (fee-based)
ComAnalytics provides data about the relative publication performance of individual scholars and of departments of communication (journalism, mass communication, speech, communication studies, media studies, rhetoric, etc.) It is the only national system that covers the communication field comprehensively, that properly classifies the field's programs, and that uses metrics validated against relevant external benchmarks (ISI journal impact ratings and rankings from the NCA study of doctoral program reputation). It is the only system that allows individual scholars to benchmark their own performance.
Reference Materials
Communication Research Methods III: A Sourcebook
Part I: Measurement Trends and Issues 1. Measurement in Interpersonal CommunicationCarolyn K. Shue and Glen H. Stamp2. Measurement in Family CommunicationJeffrey T. Child and Shawn C. Starcher3. Measurement in Health CommunicationNichole Egbert and Catherine E. Goodall4. Measurement in Instructional CommunicationJoseph P. Mazer and Elizabeth E. Graham5. Measurement in Intergroup CommunicationAngela M. Hosek and Valerie Rubinsky6. Measurement in Organizational CommunicationHeather L. Walther and Andrea L. Meluch7. Measurement in Sports CommunicationBryan E. Denham8. Measurement in Public RelationsKathleen Stansberry9. Measurement in Computer-Mediated CommunicationNicholas David Bowman and Cathlin V. Clark-Gordon10. Measurement in Intercultural and Cross-Cultural CommunicationStephen M. Croucher and Stephanie Kelly11. Measurement in Mass CommunicationTang Tang and L. Meghan MahoneyPart II: Measure Profiles
ComVista
Interactive directory of scholars and degree programs in communication and the best guide to leading graduate programs from Communication Institute for Online Scholarship (CIOS).
The International Encyclopedia of Communication
Published by the International Communication Association. Spans the breadth of communication studies, including coverage of theories, media and communication phenomena, research methods, problems, concepts, and geographical areas
Sage Research Methods
SAGE Research Methods supports research at all levels by providing material to guide users through every step of the research process. Nearly everyone at a university is involved in research, from students learning how to conduct research to faculty conducting research for publication to librarians delivering research skills training and doing research on the efficacy of library services. SAGE Research Methods has the answer for each of these user groups, from a quick dictionary definition, a case study example from a researcher in the field, a downloadable teaching dataset, a full-text title from the Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series, or a video tutorial showing research in action.
Open Educational Resources (OERs)
Communication Open Textbooks Collection (from MERLOT)
The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections, all intended to enhance the teaching experience of using a learning material.
Communication In Practice: An Introductory Communication Textbook
(2025). This approachable and conversational textbook is intended for undergraduate communication courses. Dr. Jeremy Rose draws from an accomplished lecturing career to explore the fundamentals of communication with media examples and real world scenarios.
Mass Communication, Media, and Culture - An Introduction to Mass Communication
(2016) Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication was written to squarely emphasize media technology. The author believes that an introduction to mass communication text should be a compelling, historical narrative sketching the *ongoing evolution* of media technology and how that technology shapes and is shaped by culture — and that is what he set out to deliver with his new textbook.
Survey of Communication Study
(2014) This text offers the opportunity to introduce people to Communication as an academic field of study. We have broken the book into two parts. First, we lay the foundation by covering the scope of communication study, its history, as well as a brief introduction to theories and research methods. Second, we provide chapters that survey many of the areas of specialization practiced in the field of Communication today.'
A Primer on Communication Studies
(2014) This book overviews the time-tested conceptual foundations of the field, while incorporating the latest research and cutting-edge applications of these basics. Each chapter will include timely, concrete, and real-life examples of communication concepts in action. A key feature of this book is the integration of content regarding diversity and organizational communication in each chapter through examples and/or discrete sub-sections. Discussions of diversity are not relegated to feature boxes. Also integrated into the content are examples that are inclusive in terms of race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, marital status, religion, and other diverse identity characteristics.
