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Business

This guide is an introduction for conducting research on business topics.

Finding Articles


The term articles is broad. Articles can come from a range of sources, including:

  • Magazines (examples: Wired, Entrepreneur, Forbes)
  • Newspapers (examples: The Wall Street Journal, Union Tribune)
  • Trade journals (examples: Advertising Age, Chain Store Age, Supply Chain Dive)
  • Academic journals (examples: Journal of Social Marketing, Journal of Strategy and Management)
  • Websites: (examples articles from: BusinessInsider.com, sba.gov/business-guide, etc.)

 

Tips Examples

Use keywords, not long search phrases

 


Create a list of terms to "try" in your searches

Instead of searching for "How is artificial intelligence impacting the environment?" break down your search into the main keywords:

Artificial intelligence, impacting, environment

From your terms take a moment to write down:

  • Related terms, broader terms, narrower terms.
  • Alternate spellings

To get more focused results:

Use quotation marks (" ") to keep phrases together

Use AND to combine different keywords

 "artificial intelligence" AND "environmental impact"

To get broader results:

Use OR to combine similar/associated keywords

("artificial intelligence" OR AI) AND "Environmental Impact"

 
Truncate words that have a variety of endings with a * (Shift + 8)
Note: not all databases have this feature

("artificial intelligence" OR AI) AND "Environmental Impact*"

impact* includes impact, impacts, impacting, impacted
Look for ways to limit your search in the database You can often limit by type of article (scholarly and peer-reviewed) & year of publication

 

Evaluate your articles

  • Evaluate the articles that you find before you use them. This is particularly important if the articles you have located were found on the Internet or through an AI tool.

Steps to follow

  • Credibility and authority of the work to ensure it is an article appropriate for your information need. 

Image shows processes of article evaluation Stop, Investigate, find better or alternative coverage, trace claims to their source

STOP:

Who is the author (name or organization)?

What do you know already about the organization?

Skim through the article (online on your computer)

Do you think the article can be trusted? Why or Why not?

Next: Investigate the Source and Author [This is the I part of S.I.F.T] 

  • Try the Wikipedia trick. Open a new tab or browse window. Remove the infor from the URL to get to the root URL for your source and add the word Wikipedia. 

For example: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/student-loans-default-referred-debt-200132438.html. 
Removed URL: https://finance.yahoo.com Wikipedia [read and learn more about the source]

  • Alternatively, look-up the source in Google to learn more about the source.
     
  • Who is the author? You should be able to locate information on the author - do they have experience in the field, expertise, advanced degrees? Look them up on LinkedIn, or other platform to learn their credentials. 
Subjects: Business
Tags: business