GBA 3013: Introduction to Academic Research (Leung)

An overview of library resources for academic research in business disciplines.

Library Database vs Website

What is the difference?

From a user's perspective, the main difference between a library database and a website is access.

Library databases are available to users affiliated with UTSA, such as currently registered students, faculty, and staff through the library website. Most UTSA databases are available remotely with your abc123 login. Visitors can use most databases, but only onsite on library guest computers.
Websites (or certain sections of websites ) are accessible at any time to anyone and may be found through a web search. Some websites host open access databases which are available for free. Many kinds of websites are very important in business research, for example, government websites (SEC.gov, census.gov, etc.), company's investor pages, open access resources, news, some commercial sites, and many more.

More about library databases

A library database is a licensed online source of information and data that is organized, indexed, and searchable via an internal search engine. Library databases provide vetted, credible information which is typically not available for free on the Internet.

Databases may include different types of content, such as:

Full-text: articles from scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers; e-books; different types of reports; etc.
Specialized databases: statistics and data; mapping tools; standards; specialized business tools, including company, industry and market research reports; psychology tests; government regulations; and more.

Databases differ widely in terms of navigation and content and often get updated without a warning. The best way to learn how to use a database is to use it for research!

Why is it important?

Knowing how to navigate databases and relevant websites will save you a lot of time when you work on research projects for your classes! In addition, these research skills will translate well into your career as many future employers use commercial versions of the same resources.

Literature Searching

Library Quick Search
A discovery tool that searches across multiple databases. Works well for literature searching (journals, trade pubs, e-books, etc,). For business reports and data use specific databases.
Google Scholar
Use the power of Google to search for scholarly articles and book chapters and link to UTSA's full-text holdings (many results). Does not include trade press and business magazines and newspapers. For off-campus access first time users need to follow these easy steps to set-up their account.

Aggregated Full-Text Databases

Provide many types information in multiple formats from 3rd party providers. May include articles from peer-reviewed journals, trade publications, magazines, newspapers, reports, videos, etc.

ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains a wealth of business and financial information, both current and historical across three databases. Global offers full text of both scholarly and trade journals, market and industry reports, as well as dissertations and working papers. Trade & Industry is focused on specific companies, executives, products and trends. Dateline contains city, state, and regional company and market news. Coverage: 1984-present. Updated daily.
Business Source Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text coverage for over 9,400 general and scholarly business journals and other sources in marketing, management, economics, finance, accounting, and international business. Includes full-text business books; case studies; investment research, industry, market research, and country reports; and SWOT analyses. Includes the Harvard Business Review since 1922.

Publisher Platforms

SpringerLink This link opens in a new window
Provides electronic access to the full-text of thousands of journals and e-books published by Springer-Verlag in chemical sciences, economics, environmental sciences, life sciences, law, medicine, computer science, engineering, geosciences, mathematics, statistics, and physics.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to thousands of scholarly journals and e-books published by Elsevier. Indexes and abstracts articles from journals in the life, physical, medical, technical, and social sciences.
Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
Provides access to journal articles, e-books, book chapters and major reference works published by Wiley in science, technology, medicine, business, humanities and social sciences. Significant full text.
Oxford Journals This link opens in a new window
Access to hundreds of journals published by Oxford University Press and academic societies across a range of disciplines including science & mathematics, law, medicine & health, arts & humanities, and social sciences.
Emerald Insights This link opens in a new window
Provides access to books and journals in accounting and finance, economics, education, engineering, health care, HR and organizational behavior, LIS, management science, marketing, strategy, tourism and hospitality, and more.

Citation Managers

EndNote
by Emily Johnson Last Updated Oct 23, 2023 3495 views this year

Boolean vs Natural Language Searching

Originally, databases required the use of Boolean operators to run queries:

AND - requires all keywords to be present
OR - allows any of the keywords to be present
NOT - excludes the keywords from search

Advances in web searching led to natural language searching, even in some databases. Boolean operators may be implied or not required. Searching in databases is more structured, with fewer results and less "noise."

After you run your search, look out for filtering options to narrow down your search.

Advanced Google Search
by Natasha Arguello Last Updated Mar 31, 2024 3403 views this year