Content Analysis Research Starters Ebsco Research

Leo Migdal

-Nov 29, 2025, 3:30 AM

content analysis research starters ebsco research

Content analysis is a systematic research method used to evaluate various forms of media to understand both the content and its contextual significance. This technique can be applied to a wide range of sources, including written works, television programs, social media posts, and advertisements. It has its roots in ancient practices of interpreting sacred texts, but as a formal discipline, it has evolved significantly, especially with advancements in technology since the mid-20th century. There are two primary approaches to content analysis: conceptual and relational. Conceptual analysis focuses on identifying and quantifying specific ideas, while relational analysis examines the relationships and connections between those ideas. This method allows researchers to uncover patterns and trends, providing valuable insights into cultural and social dynamics.

Although content analysis offers concrete data and a nonintrusive way to study media interactions, it can be time-consuming and prone to bias if not conducted with rigor. Overall, it serves as a powerful tool for understanding the nuances of communication across various platforms. Content analysis is the process of reviewing any type of media to evaluate what it says and how it says it. While it is often thought of in the context of literary content analysis—examining written works to understand the author's meaning—the term has broader implications. It can be applied to the analysis of such diverse sources as books, newspapers, television programs, movies, survey results, social media posts, and advertising. The practice of content analysis has existed for centuries.

Ancient people began the practice of hermeneutics, the study of wisdom books and sacred writings such as the Bible and Quran to discern their meaning. Works of literature, including plays, have also been studied for meaning and symbolism. However, the practice of content analysis as a systematic activity by researchers is a relatively new discipline. This change was largely due to the improvement in ways to conduct content analysis. Prior to the middle of the twentieth century, content analysis required laborious study and effort. The document or source would have to be reviewed, and notes taken.

These notes would then need to be reviewed and compared to find areas of similarity, repeated words and concepts, etc. New notes would then be made of these similarities. The work would be re-examined to see if there were other instances that fit into the categories developed by the earlier reviews and any new material would be noted and compiled into the categories. After this was repeated several more times, the categories would be compared, analysis would be done, conclusions would be drawn, and the information would be prepared in a way that could be shared, such... Corresponding author. christen.erlingsson@lnu.se

Received 2017 Feb 21; Revised 2017 May 6; Accepted 2017 Aug 4; Issue date 2017 Sep. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). There is a growing recognition for the important role played by qualitative research and its usefulness in many fields, including the emergency care context in Africa. Novice qualitative researchers are often daunted by the prospect of qualitative data analysis and thus may experience much difficulty in the data analysis process. Our objective with this manuscript is to provide a practical hands-on example of qualitative content analysis to aid novice qualitative researchers in their task. Keywords: Qualitative research, Qualitative data analysis, Content analysis

Sociological Content Analysis is a systematic research method used in the social sciences to examine the content of various artifacts of human society, such as diaries, newspapers, television shows, and more. This technique allows researchers to gather and analyze data when direct observation or self-reporting is impractical, often due to the sensitive nature of the topics involved. By categorizing and quantifying large volumes of information, content analysis helps uncover patterns and trends related to social and cultural phenomena, including attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Two primary approaches for developing coding schemes in content analysis are the a priori method, where categories are predefined, and the emergent method, where categories develop from a high-level analysis of the data. Ensuring high inter-rater reliability and content validity is crucial for the credibility of the findings, as the interpretations can be influenced by individual biases. While content analysis offers benefits such as unobtrusiveness and the ability to analyze historical data, it does have limitations, including potential biases from researchers and reliance on available communication forms.

Overall, this method provides valuable insights into societal trends and the underlying constructs shaping human behavior. In the social sciences, it is often impossible to gather data through direct observation or experimental manipulation. Frequently, however, usable data can be collected for analysis in such situations through content analysis. This systematic analysis examines the content of artifacts of human society and parses them into explicit, distinct categories. Content analysis enables researchers to relatively quickly and easily reduce large amounts of information into quantifiable data that can be meaningfully analyzed. Two basic approaches are used for developing coding schemes for content analysis: The a priori method and the emergent method.

However, no matter which method is used, it is important that the resultant coding scheme have both high inter-rater reliability and content validity in order for the data to be of use for research... When properly used, content analysis can be an invaluable tool for social science researchers analyzing social and cultural phenomena. Keywords Content Analysis; Criterion; Experimenter Error; Inter-Rater Reliability; Operational Definition; Qualitative Research; Quantitative Research; Reliability; Secondary Analysis; Statistical Significance; Unobtrusive Research; Validity; Variable Social science research is concerned with collecting data about a broad array of factors that influence society and the behavior of individuals within society. However, it is not always possible to gather data by directly observing human behavior. In some situations it is not possible to directly measure a dependent variable at all because individuals may feel reluctant or unable to articulate certain feelings or emotions due to their personal sensitivity (e.g.,...

This situation is compounded when trying to gain and analyze data about larger segments of society rather than about individuals. Sometimes, a researcher may be interested in measuring and analyzing a broad concept for all of society. It is virtually impossible to directly gather information about the opinions and beliefs of society in general. Further, such concepts tend to be nebulous, and frequently cannot be operationally defined in terms of behaviors. Therefore, more unobtrusive measures must be used. For situations such as these, it is often helpful for the researcher to examine available data in artifacts of human thought and behavior and to extrapolate back to the underlying construct.

Research Starters is a feature in EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) that provides links to citable, authoritative summary articles for thousands of popular topics. Designed to assist users with their research, this feature was developed based on extensive studies with undergraduate and graduate students. When a user conducts a search in EDS, a Research Starter (outlined below in red) may appear at the top of the Result List. For those topics identified as most popular, Research Starters will retrieve relevant articles that link the user to related information and detailed bibliographies. Research Starters content is curated from a variety of high quality sources, both proprietary and encyclopedic, including: EBSCO has rolled out Research Starters, a new feature for EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) that presents student researchers with short, citable summaries on frequently searched topics.

Drawn from sources such as Salem Press, Encyclopedia Britannica, and American National Biography, more than 62,000 of these 500- to 1,500-word summaries are accessible, offering students an authoritative overview of their chosen subject, as... For example, an unfiltered keyword search for “global warming” will return a link for a Research Starters summary on that topic—drawn from the Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science 2013—at the top of the results... (The Research Starters link is followed by a standard list of results for content available in the library’s collections, and libraries can opt out of the new feature if they choose). Clicking on the Research Starters link brings up the citable overview, along with a text-to-speech tool, and links to related information, ranging from other general topics like “Atmospheric Properties” to more focused subjects, such... The development of Research Starters was driven by largely by the research habits of undergraduate college students, many of whom use Google or Wikipedia as a starting point for papers or research projects. “The area that [students] need the most help and guidance in is getting the big picture and getting started.

That’s the biggest pain point,” Mike Laddin, vice president of product management for EBSCO Information Services, told LJ. “Many [college] students know that Wikipedia isn’t considered an authoritative source and they can’t cite it, but that’s their habit. What if we gave them overview of the most popular things that are being searched in EDS? Give them authoritative content.” The feature helps students become more comfortable navigating the academic databases that their instructors are expecting them to use, said Emily O’Connor, Dean of Library and Learning Services for Rasmussen College, one of the... A 'Research Starter' is a feature within the Library's EBSCOhost Discovery Service (EDS) database, also known as ONEsearch.

This feature appears at the top of the result list after a user has conducted a search. Research Starters provide authoritative summary articles for popular topics. The content is curated from a variety of authoritative, high-quality, scholarly resources such as, Salem Press and H.W. Wilson reference books. The content is continuously evaluated for currency, accuracy, and relevancy. Research Starters are a great place to begin research and learn more about a broad topic.

A research starter is a brief, introductory resource provided through the Library's OneSearch tool. When you do a search using OneSearch, the research starter will often be the first link at the top of your results page. One easy way to think about research starters is that they are very similar to Wikipedia articles. Both resources are easy-to-read and include general information on a topic. Below are just a few examples of some research starters related to past English 100 assignments. 714.992.7000 321 E.

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Content Analysis Research Starters Ebsco Research

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Received 2017 Feb 21; Revised 2017 May 6; Accepted 2017