Business Basics 

Articles are good sources for:

• Most recent research or information on a topic
• coverage of a very narrow topic
• coverage of current events
• contemporary accounts of past events and research

The boxes to the right provide information about which databases are best for different types of articles (scholarly, trade, news).  For a complete list of busines databases, click here.

Write down research questions for your topic and underline key concepts and keywords.  Think of broader or narrower terms depending on what search results you retrieve from those concepts and keywords.

Think of synonyms and alternative terms to search and refer to a Thesaurus for more ideas.

Remember that most databases have a list of suggested subject terms.  By choosing these, you can focus your search on articles most closely related to what you are searching for.

VPN, proxy server ... So how do you get into library resources when you're off-campus?!? For complete information, please go here.

Thanks to xkcd!

If you just want to see what's available in business databases, try the Quick Search box below. It will show you results from three of our biggest business databases.

The following databases provide the strongest coverage of scholarly journals in business. However, they include more than just scholarly articles: you'll also find articles from some trade, news, and popular magazines.

Use these databases especially when you're researching business issues or theories.

Scholarly articles usually ...

• provide analysis of a topic / issue, exploring it in greater depth
• are considered the most authoritative
• can be very narrow in scope, technical or theoretical

Some of these databases also contain more than just trade journal articles, some scholarly, some popular, even some newswires. But their strength is in their coverage of the trades.

Use these databases when you're researching specific companies or industries.

Trade journal articles usually ...

• are written by people who work in or specialize in a particular industry / profession, but are not scholars
  
• provide current news and information about the industry and the companies in it
  

Use these databases when you're researching specific companies, especially if the company is small or private. Use them also if you're researching business conditions at a local level, not regional or national.

Searching in newspaper databases is not always as easy as in other article databases: they do not usually have any subject terms, so often you must put more thought into finding alternate search terms. I suggest starting with the large "Newspapers in ..." databases.

First, please understand that even if there's no full-text in one database, there may be full-text for that same journal in another database.

Second, the Libraries may subscribe to that journal in print only ... Sorry.

What to do: 

1. :  If there's a Find It @ MU graphic / link in the database record, click on that.  This is a piece of software that tries to link up full-text in one database to records in other databases. 

   BEWARE: It can time-out though, and give you incorrect information about whether or not we have access to the journal, either online or in print ...

2. MARQCAT:  the online catalog is the most reliable way to find out what we have or do not have, online or in print. Be sure to search for the journal title ...

   To walk through the complete process for finding out what is available in print or online, here's a short online demo ...

3. Interlibrary Loan (aka ILL):  this is a service for getting things that the Libraries just do not own or have access to. For more about the service, click here.