General Searching Techniques
When using scholarly databases, you should apply the following general search techniques for locating relevant and high-quality academic literature.
Use Keywords Effectively
Identify Key Terms: Start by identifying key terms relevant to your research topic. Consider alternative terms or synonyms.
Truncate Keywords: Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words to search for all variations (e.g., comput* will search for computer, computation, etc.). Other symbols are also used and information about what symbol is used can be found in the help text of the respective database.
Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)
AND: Narrows the search by including all specified terms (e.g., artificial intelligence AND machine learning retrieves documents with both terms).
OR: Broadens the search by including either term (e.g., AI OR artificial intelligence retrieves documents with either term).
NOT: Excludes specific terms from your search (e.g., machine learning NOT neural networks).
Use Phrase Searching
Enclose a phrase in quotation marks to search for the exact phrase (e.g., “deep learning algorithms”).
Limit by Date: Many databases allow you to limit your search to articles published within a specific date range, helping you focus on the most recent research.
Filter by Document Type: Narrow your search by limiting it to specific types of documents, such as peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, theses, or reviews.
Use Wildcards: Use wildcard symbols like the question mark (?) to replace one character in a word. This helps find variations in spelling (e.g., “wom?n” will find both “woman” and “women”).
Subject-Specific Databases
Use databases specific to your field of study for more targeted results (e.g., PubMed for biomedical sciences, IEEE Xplore for engineering, and ACM Digital Library for computer science).
Use Citations for Further Research
Once you find a relevant article, explore its references to discover more related studies. Tools like Google Scholar provide a “Cited By” feature that lists all papers citing the article you’re viewing.
Advanced Search: Use the advanced search options available in many databases to combine various search terms, filter by authors, journals, and other criteria.
SSRN offers open-access papers in business, management, finance, entrepreneurship, and related fields. It includes preprints and working papers from global scholars.
Academia.edu is a platform where researchers share their papers. You can find numerous free papers and reports in business, management, and entrepreneurship.
EconBiz is a research portal that offers free access to a wide range of business and economics resources, including papers, articles, and data sets.
Alongwith other information resources, Proquest provide free access to thesis and dissertation
An open-access resource that provides study materials, articles, and definitions related to management topics such as leadership, business ethics, and organizational behavior.
