Selecting & Evaluating Communication-Related Databases

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Introduction

The collection development process for communication studies presents unique challenges including limited collection budgets, an interdisciplinary subject area, the rapid progression of the disciplines within communication studies, and the increasing significance of additional media formats. Librarians today face a new challenge that librarians of yesteryear only wish they had – which Communication-related database(s) should a library subscribe to?

These resources may help you to answer this complex question.

Journal Coverage

[Communication Abstracts, ComAbstracts, and Communication & Mass Media Complete] I. This Excel spreadsheet, posted to ALA Connect, is based on an analysis completed in December 2006. II. Also posted to ALA Connect as a Word document is an assessment of Tables of Contents completed in July 2009. In order to further assess and compare journal coverage, in 2008 the committee extracted selected tables of contents (TOCs) from 34 communication studies journals, and searched all content of the selected TOCs (including reviews) in ComAbstracts, Communication Abstracts, and Communication & Mass Media Complete (the 34 titles are indexed by all three databases). The committee reviewed TOCs from the first issues of the 34 journals for the years of 1978, 1988, 1998 and 2005. The additional research reinforces the findings of the initial overlap survey, which indicates that Communication & Mass Media Complete has the most extensive coverage (especially since it indexes book reviews), while Communication Abstracts (CSA) has the least extensive coverage. Data collected for the additional journal coverage assessment is included in the attached MSWord document.

Evaluation Criteria

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Created: November 2007

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