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UO COMM 1076: Public relations theory and practice

What you need to do?

This page will help you find scholarly references for your essay.

Remember, always read the assessment details in your course website and Course Outline to know what you need to do.

What is an academic source?

For this assignment you need to find academic (scholarly) sources which includes peer reviewed journal articles. Peer reviewed (refereed) journals are high quality as articles are evaluated by experts in the field before being published.

Academic sources can also include other types of information like books.

Check out this video and the PDF below for more:

Developing a search plan

Always refer to the task instructions of the assessment in your course website.

Once you have chosen a campaign for your essay, follow these steps to develop your search plan for finding relevant information.

Start by breaking down the question:

  • First, identify the keywords (main concepts) in your campaign and essay question
  • Next, think of any synonyms or alternative terms for your keywords, including other spellings and plurals
  • Lastly identify any parameters, e.g. you must look at public relations management in a particular campaign. You might want to add some of the following terms in your search: behaviour change campaigns, organisational reputation, excellence theory, systems theory, public relations.

A mind map or table can be useful to record your keywords and plan your search, for example:

Main concepts

Concept 1

Public relations

Concept 2

Excellence Theory

Concept 3

Fiji's Welcome Back campaign
Synonyms (similar concepts)

PR

public relations management

excellence

theory of excellence

Grunig's excellence theory

Open for Happiness campaign

Where Happiness Finds You campaign

Tourism Fiji

Tips:

  • Thinking of synonyms or similar phrases that can be used for each concept is important as ideas may be referred to differently by different authors
  • You can add more concepts as you come across them when searching

Check these out to learn more:

Have a play

Try creating a mindmap below using your assignment question. 

Tip: When you're finished, go across to slide 2 and export or print your mindmap.

Start your search

The Library Collection or Google Scholar can be useful places to start locating scholarly references.

Library Collection example:

  • Add your concepts into the search box
    Tip: use double quotes (" ") for phrases. This keeps the keywords together as one concept

Screenshot of search in Library Collection: ("public relations" OR PR) AND "excellence theory"

  • The more concepts you add, the narrower your search will become (fewer results)
  • Use connector words:
    • AND to connected different concepts
    • OR to connect synonyms for the same concept – Note: Use brackets to enclose all the synonyms as in the example above.
  • Use the Refine my results menu to limit your results. You may want to try limiting by:
    • Peer-reviewed Journal publications 
    • Publication date e.g. 2017 to 2022

Try the  Google Scholar tab of the Library Collection search box to find scholarly information. Google Scholar provides access to the full text of many UniSA scholarly (academic) articles if you connect via the link above.

The Advanced Google Scholar search option gives more flexibility when you search. To access it, select the hamburger menu (three lines) in the top left corner of Google Scholar. This menu will appear once you do an initial search in Google Scholar.

Here is an example:

Searching databases

You should also try searching Library databases for relevant scholarly references.

Databases are search tools for finding articles, papers, reports and more. Find databases by browsing the database list by subject.

Three useful databases you should become familiar with are:

Business Source Ultimate example

1. Type each different concept (keyword) on a new line. Notice these are connected with AND.
  • Using the asterisk (*) symbol will help you find alternative endings to a word. For example: ethic* finds ethics, ethical, etc.

screenshot of Business Source Ultimate search: public relations AND excellence theory AND ethic*


2. You may want to consider putting some synonyms (similar concepts) into your search. These are connected with OR.

  • For example: ethic* OR integrity.

screenshot of Business Source Ultimate search: public relations AND excellence theory AND ethic* OR integrity


To look for recent scholarly articles, you can apply these limits:

  • Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals
  • Publication Date range

ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection example

1. Select the Advanced Search option (top). Add a different concept (keyword) in each new line using the connector AND.

Screenshot of search: public relations AND excellence theory AND ethic*


2. Add any synonyms (similar concepts) to each line using the connector OR. This will broaden your search.

screenshot of search: ethic* OR integrity


3. Focus your search further by using the options to the left of the results:

  • Scholarly Journals
  • Publication date

If you are not finding what you want:

Study Support

Need advice on writing or presenting? Not sure how to organise your ideas? The Study help: online resources hub has tools to help you with your Assignments and succeed at university!

Want someone to check over a draft of your assignment? Studiosity offers an online classroom where you can chat with a learning adviser. The associated "Check Mate" service helps with English, writing and referencing.

  • Referencing hub
    Discuss referencing, exchange advice and post questions and answers about referencing (facilitated by Student Engagement Unit).
  • EndNote
    What do you do with all those references you have found? Use a bibliographic management software to store, organise and cite your references. The Library supports the bibliographic management tool, EndNote. There are also many free systems available.

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