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Communication Research Guide

Lists of resources for research in the field of communication

Research Honeycomb

The Research Honeycomb is a research source model to bring awareness to research sources outside of typical academic books, journal articles, conference presentations, etc. It can be used for:

  • Finding sources on topics that are too recent to have academic sources about it
  • Including voices from communities and their ways of knowing which have been historically excluded from academic sources
  • Creating a comprehensive bibliography from a variety of sources

Created by Jackie Stapleton, Liaison Librarian, University of Waterloo; Adapted by Aneta Kwak, Mikayla Redden, Jeff Newman, Liaison Librarians, University of Toronto; Modified by Dylan Juhl, Humanities Librarian, Western Michigan University

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Research Honeycomb Model

Model of a honeycomb

Research Honeycomb Model

In academic research, we tend to only emphasize academic voices while there are many other voices in different formats that can be used in a scholarly context.

Research Honeycomb with LGBTQ+ topics

Example Research Honeycomb

Here is an example of a Research Honeycomb for LGBTQIA2S+ topics.

Parts of the Research Honeycomb

Topic: What is being researched.

Academic Voices: What we typically think of in academic research. Books, journal articles, conference presentations, etc.

News Media: International, national, local, regional, or topic-based news sources.

Community Voices: The voices of those who are being researched. Social media, blogs, YouTube, etc.

Association and Organization Reports: Information created by non-government organizations.

Government Reports: Information created by government organizations/agencies.

Stakeholders and Allies: Information by those who are not directly related to your topic but may be indirectly related socially, financially, regionally, etc.

Handouts

  • Last Updated: Nov 29, 2023 10:59 AM
  • URL: https://libguides.wmich.edu/communication
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Subjects: Communication