Business Source Complete
What is Business Source Complete?
It is the world's largest resource of full text business publications. Another EBSCO
database, it offers full text journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing,
management, accounting, banking, and finance, some back as far as 1886.
How Do I Find What I Need?
How to Search: Basic
There are several ways to search this database. Let's start with Basic and do some
exploring. This will be the first screen that comes up. Treat the blank box that says
"Find" like a blank Google box and enter a keyword. Let's try "pizza".
Limiters
The first section underneath Limit your results is all about limiters. Limiters help you
focus your search. This lets you choose whether or not you want full text (the full article
instead of a citation, which only tells you where to find the full article); whether or not
you want peer-reviewed journals (these are journals whose articles are checked by
other experts before they're published); and the dates for your search. As an example
you might want to set "full text" and "Jan 2006-Apr 2007".
Now you have the opportunity to either enter the name of a specific publication or
choose a type of publication. These types include journals, periodicals, newspapers,
books, trade journals, or industry profiles. Try "trade publications".
Finally, you might find the articles that come up have graphics.
You have the opportunity to get these in PDF or regular text with
graphics. The regular text will allow you to grab and copy the
graphic if you like. Let's just leave it at "all". Hit "search". You'll still
have almost 500 articles returned.
So, what is it about pizza that interests you? Maybe you are
considering opening a pizza franchise and want to know more
about Domino's Pizza. Look in the left column and you will find
some subjects that might interest you. |
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Expanders
These are the options located at the bottom of the search page. Expanders will let you
broaden your search if you don't get enough returns. For example, you can check the
box to search for related words (think "pizza pie"), or the box that lets you search from
the text of the whole article instead of just the headlines. Then there's the box that
automatically adds "and" between any keyword terms. This will add all those terms
together but be careful to decide if you want "Domino's" OR "Pizza Hut", instead of
"Domino's" AND "Pizza Hut".
How to Search: Advanced
This is very much like Basic Search but with more categories. Some of these extras are
Cover Story, Product Name, Company Name, Company Ticker symbols, and the ability
to search multiple articles and companies at a time.
How to Search: Visual
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Visual search is a fabulous new way of finding
what you need. Go back to our pizza example.
Click on the visual search tab at the top of the
screen. Enter "pizza" in the keyword blank. After a
few seconds, the big circle in the window will fill
with smaller circles. Each of these represent
themes of "pizza" from cookery to restaurants;
some are distinguished by location, like US or
New York. Zoom in on the smaller circles, as
these often have others within them as well.
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Follow your interest on down to the
smallest level and you will be presented
with the name of the article, its date, and
where to find it. (This information also
shows up on the right hand side of the
screen so that you can easily copy and
paste it.) |
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What You Can Find
Business Source Complete offers an amazing range of information. If you find an article
you might be interested in, click on the title and you will get lots of information,
including: author, the name of the publication, subject terms (which make great
keywords for similar searches), NAICS codes, and a quick synopsis (the abstract).
You'll even get the author's employer, the number of words and pages in the article, and
a persistent URL (the article's permanent electronic address).
If you look up in the right hand corner, there will be a "Find More Like This" link. Click on
it and the computer will use the keywords from this article to find other ones that match.
Tabs
There are 6 tabs across the top. Each offers a different way of approaching all the
resources in Business Source Complete.
- Publications: You can browse all of the included publications, alphabetized by title.
- Thesaurus: Here's a good place to find synonyms and search terms for the
keywords you need.
- Author Profiles: This tab offers an alphabetized list of the thousands of authors in the
database. Click on a name and you'll find their academic qualifications, their contact
information, articles written, plus the subjects they address in their writings and
associated keywords.
- Cited References: If you know an author, title, publication, or year, this tab will help
you fill in the rest of the citation.
- Company Profiles: Datamonitor is a leading business information company
specializing in industry analysis. It provides top-level information, including market
analysis, competitors, and forecasting on 10,000 companies, 2,500 industries, and
50 countries. All these reports are alphabetized by company.
- Indexes: Browse the contents of the database from the viewpoint of 18 categories.
These include author, DUNS #, geographic terms, ISBNs, language, people, or
reviews and products.
How Can I Keep Track of What I Find?
Temporary Folders
On the Search Results page--the one that gives you the list of articles by titl--there is
a right hand column with an icon and an "Add" link. Click on the one next to the title you
like and it will be added to your own folder. When you do that, the folder icon on the top
right hand corner will say "Folder has items".
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If you click on the folder when it has something in it, it will show the articles inside.
On the left you will be able to see all the sorts of things you can save in this folder:
articles, images, videos, persistent URLs, even the string of searches that brought you to this point. |
Permanent Folders
If you want the items in your folder to be saved from one session to another (even when
the computer is turned on and off or if you leave the library one week and come back
the next), there is a link at the top of the folder that says "Sign in to my EBSCOhost". If
you click on this, it will take you to a page that will allow you to set up a personal
account with EBSCO with your own user name and password.
How Can I Share What I Find?
Sending, Printing, and Saving Information
- Email will let you enter someone's email address, give it a subject, add comments,
and send.
- Print will estimate the number of pages before it prints and there is an online help
link to deal with different printers.
- Save will give you full instructions as to how to save your document in a variety of
formats.
- Export will let you save information in three specialized formats.
This page was created by Lisa Charbonnet in Spring 2007.
INF 382S: Library Instruction and Information Literacy, taught by Dr. Loriene Roy
School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin
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