Journals, articles and research for Business

Library Essentials: Getting Started

Our Library Essentials Guide will assist you in using our libraries and with finding different types of resources to include in your assignments and projects.

Use the guide to:                                                                                                                                      

• Find out how to use the Library.
• Discover Library Guides as your one-stop introduction to library resources and services.
• Find information for your coursework and assignments.          
• Find out about citing and referencing.                                                  
• Consider how to plan for your dissertation and projects.
• Develop your transferable skills for your future academic and work life.

Advanced Literature Searching

For a comprehensive guide to literature searching and research check out the Research Skills Library Guide. It takes you through the entire research process step by step.

Scope

To get the most out of your search, begin with a research question. A research question takes a broad topic and narrows the scope of it to fit within the limits of your project. It is from the research question that you can begin to derive keywords to search databases. For more on scoping your search please see the Literature Searching Guide. 

Keywords

Your initial list of keywords will grow as you learn more about your topic. You might consider building a Mind Map to manage these ideas. Use options in the side menus to filter your results after you have searched. Common narrowing options include:

• The date of publication
• Peer-reviewed or scholarly articles only
• Subject
• See only a particular type of document, e.g. trade magazine article

Boolean searching

Boolean searching saves you time by allowing you to search for multiple ideas in a single step. 

You can either type Boolean terms in capital letters using a basic search box or use advanced search options (e.g. multiple line searches and drop-down menus) to select them:

• AND narrows a search down: Tesco AND Sainsbury’s finds documents mentioning both supermarkets
• OR widens the search: Tesco OR Sainsbury’s OR Waitrose finds any of those supermarkets
• NOT excludes words: Waitrose NOT Lidl will not return any documents mentioning Lidl. (Careful: this can exclude helpful information!)

Tips and tricks

• Search options in drop-down menus: search only in specific parts of a document rather than the whole thing. You can be very precise and search only for an author’s name, a company name, or search only in the title or abstract of a document.
• Phrase Searching: using “quotation marks” searches for documents with those two words together, not all the words you used in any order. 
  • Example: “climate change” will only find that exact phrase, rather than just mentions of change and climate
• Truncation: find different word endings based on the root of a word.
  • Example: Manag* will find management, manager, managing
• Wildcard: replaces a single letter.
  • Example: Organi?ation will find 'organization' and organisation'
• As you find relevant articles, use the abstract, title and any keywords to add useful words, phrases and concepts back into your mind map or list of keywords.

SAGE Research Methods

SAGE Research Methods online provides information on research methods in social sciences. It includes research methods e-books and is designed to address questions that arise during the various steps of the research process.

• Plan your project from start to finish
• Choose the appropriate stats tool
• Discover relevant readings
• Understand research methods

Workshops and Training for Business postgraduate students

Join your librarian and selected external presenters to find out more about our resources, how to cite and reference, and more. Use the calendar below to find a session and book your place. 

Visit the Library Services Training Calendar to see all the training available at all of our campuses and book a session online.