Finding resources for your dissertation

1. Finding High Quality Business
Information
Strategic Management/
Economics/Enterprise Dissertations

2. Today we will...
• Reflect on what a literature
review is
• Review structured approaches to
literature searching
• Plan a literature search
• Consider and evaluate different
types of information

3. What do we mean by “Literature”?
???

4. Key Sources of Information

5. What is a “Literature review”?
A literature review is a select analysis of existing research
which is relevant to your dissertation or assignment,
showing how it relates to your investigation.
A literature review is not a straightforward summary of
everything you have read on the topic and it is not a
chronological description of what was discovered in your
field.

6. What is included in my literature
review?

7. Literature search and practitioner
research
Identify published material relevant to your research
– Identify primary and secondary sources
– Provide academic basis for your research
– Clarify your ideas and findings
– Find research methods
– Communication process - demonstrate your
understanding and the work you have done in a
wider context

9. Keywords
• Choose your keywords carefully
• Think about:
– Singulars, plurals, phrases
– How terms are combined
– Alternative terminology and variation in language
– Major influence on search effectiveness

10. Search strategies
• Search effectiveness depends on WHERE you look
and HOW you search
– Where
– What discipline(s)
– What focus (academic, practitioner)
– Need to use a range because of dispersed nature of
business information
Think about how business
information is generated

11. The information cycle

12. Starting your research
1. Library home page
(www.library.dmu.ac.uk)
2. Subject Guides
3. Select your Subject
Guide
Databases are under the Journal Articles tab

13. Academic sources - books
• Books at DMU
– Library catalogue
• Outside DMU
– Local library catalogues
– Internet booksellers
– COPAC (for UK)
– Other academic or
specialist libraries
• Interlibrary loans

14. Key sources of Academic Research
Books
Journals

15. Introducing Journals
Three types: ‘general interest’,
‘trade’ journals and ‘peer-reviewed’
academic journals
Best Source: Depends if you have
a reference!
Published periodically in volumes and issues, and consist
of articles.
Can be in print or electronic/online format (E-Journals) or
both.

16. Finding specific Journal Articles
Do you have any references to follow up?
Yes? Use the 360 Link Resolver
Best Starting Point: Library Subject
Guides > Journal Articles tab > Is this
journal available online?
No References?
You need to use Library Search or a
subject specific database

17. Finding specific journals
• Pérez, A., & Rodríguez
del Bosque, I. (2012).
The Role of CSR in the
Corporate Identity of
Banking Service
Providers. Journal Of
Business Ethics, 108(2),
pp.145-166.

18. Finding specific journals
Select a link to a database with
appropriate coverage for your
journal article (highlighted in blue)
The journal opens in the
selected database – then find
the article using the search
features available (varies in each
database)

19. Finding a journal articles on a given
subject: Library Search
Library Search scans a wide range of the library’s
subscribed content to give you academic and
practitioner-orientated research.
Access from:
Subject Guides > Journal
Articles tab > Library Search
Or access from:
www.library.dmu.ac.uk

20. Use the refining options to get a suitable number of
results, limit the results by date, content type or subject
area.

21. Finding a journal articles on a given
subject: Subject Specific Databases
You may find the results in
Library Search overwhelming
in which case you should
consider subject specific
databases
Find subject specific databases in:
Subject Guides > Journal articles > Starting points
for research

22. Finding a journal articles on a given
subject: Subject Specific Databases
What is a subject specific database?
An online collection of abstracts, journal articles,
book chapters, conference proceedings, datasets on
a specific subject area. The content is indexed so
that it is easily searchable online. The content of the
databases varies which is why it is a good idea to
use the subject guide to point you towards the best
database for your topic.

23. Essential sources for business research
Core business databases
• ABI/Inform
• Business Source
Complete
Multidisciplinary sources
• Academic Source
Premier
• Science Direct
• LexisLibrary for
newspapers
• Web of Knowledge or
Scopus
Remember:
Library Search will explore all these databases for
you in one search!

25. Magazines: trade and professional
press
• readers are the general public or a knowledgeable
layperson with an interest in the area of
publication
• writers tend to be professional journalists with
knowledge of a specific subject area
• there will be emphasis on reporting facts but
usually with some analysis as the author has more
time to reflect on the events and conduct some
research.
• The articles may reflect the author’s or
publication’s bias
• Although articles in the professional press are
likely to be longer than newspaper article they
are very unlikely to be properly referenced with
no bibliography or list of sources

26. Peer Review
= High Quality Information

27. Scholarly journals
• These articles are aimed at scholars, specialists and
university students.
• They are written by scholars and specialists.
• The authors have had time to conduct their own
research and review the available literature. As a
result the article will be a detailed examination of
the subject with analysis and primary research.
• The articles tend to be quite long and written in
technical language.
• The article will be focussed on a particular aspect.
• The articles should have a full reference list.

28. Ways of searching
There are numerous ways of searching for resources
and a cited reference is just one of them.
• author
• keywords
• title (exact match)
• phrase
• database controlled vocabulary
• cited reference
Or any combination of these

29. Internet
• Google Scholar is an alternative to Google
Web giving better quality results

30. Planning your search
Four ways:
• Systematic – trying to find all relevant material
• Retrospective – finding the most recent material and
working backwards
• Citation – following leads from useful articles, books
and reading lists
• Targeted – restricting your topic and focus in on a
narrow area of the literature.

31. What is a cited reference search ?

32. Assessing the quality of an
information source
• Accuracy
• Authority
• Scope
• Currency

33. Support
Nathan Rush
Assistant Librarian: Business School
bal-library-enquiries@dmu.ac.uk
Quick enquiries:
justask@dmu.ac.uk 0116 257 7042

34. Piecing the story together
• Books
• Internet
• Trade and professional
press
• Newspapers
• Company information
• Academic journals

35. Summary
• Plan carefully how and
where you search
• Every project is different
• Start specific and then
review or broaden
• Get in touch if any queries