COMM 300 - Principles of Communication: Other Scholarly Sources
Professional Associations & Research Institutes
- Think Tank SearchThink Tank Search is a custom Google search of over 690 think tank websites.
- American Psychological Association ReportsAPA task force reports, other reports, and surveys
- Pew Research CenterPublic opinion research on domestic policy, economics, elections, foreign policy, the news media, computer technology, religion and social trends
- National Communication AssociationIncludes some reports and brief articles. Searching from the home page appears most effective.
- USA.govThe USA.gov website allows you to search multiple federal and state agency website and reports.
What is Gray Literature?
Sometimes other types of scholarly sources aside from journal articles and books will be helpful for your research. Gray literature is information that is not published through traditional means, but rather comes from organizations or individual scholars (e.g. theses and dissertations).
Common examples of gray literature include:
- Government documents
- Theses and dissertations
- Organizational reports
- Conference proceedings
- White papers
Like other materials you find on the web, it is important to evaluate the gray literature you find. These questions will help guide you to the quality and usefulness of a given source:
- Is this information still relevant, or is it out of date?
- Who produced this information? Do they have a stake in promoting the information in a certain way? For example, think tanks/research institutes often have a political leaning.
- Why does this information exist? Is it to aid professionals, inform the public, or promote a product?
(Content adapted from Thompson Rivers University Library Journalism, Communication, and New Media guide.)