Information Services and Systems
Michele Davies
Subject librarian for School of
Management
Information Services and Systems
Today , we will cover...
Searching for
information for my
business
assignments
Citing publications in
my assignments and
preparing a
reference list
Information Services and Systems
Did you attend your library
induction in Freshers’ Week?
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B. Yes
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Information Services and Systems
Importance of trustworthy information for
good decision making
“Real world”
Your “student world”
Business managers and
economists need to have
information which is:
Accurate
Independent
Up to date
Specific
Relevant
Bad information = bad
decisions = loss of profits &
market share
Students need to have
information which is:
Accurate
Independent
Up to date
Specific
Relevant
BUT ALSO
Scholarly & Theoretical
Bad information = loss of
marks for your assignments
Information Services and Systems
Your module assignment: key
marking criteria
Your module handbook says:
• Suitability of literature
• Quality of literature review
• Understanding of established knowledge
This means
Choose academic information sources (books
and journals) and it will improve the quality of
your literature review assignment.
Information Services and Systems
How do I find this type of
information?
Information Services and Systems
Key library tools
• The library catalogue
• Use it to locate books
(online and print)
• Find out to which journals
we subscribe
• Renew items on loan
• Request items
• Catalogue tells you how
many copies, where
shelved, loan status
• A gateway
• Provides links to specialist
information sources
• A research tool to find
online scholarly articles and
to identify key resources for
further research.
• Links to database guides.
Information Services and Systems
How to find information for your
next assignment.
Different types of publication
=
different types of information.
Information Services and Systems
Textbooks, dictionaries and
encyclopaedias
• Getting started
• Get an overview of
the topic
• Definitions of key
terms
• Understanding the
essay question
Information Services and Systems
Journal articles
• The most important
source of
information
• In-depth
• Latest international
research
• Scholarly
• Theories
Information Services and Systems
How many journals do you think the
Library subscribes to for business, finance,
economics and management? GUESS!
A. 100
B. 1,100
C. 11,000
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Information Services and Systems
Reports
•
•
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Facts and figures
Industries
Market research
Countries
Economies
Companies
Commodities
Information Services and Systems
Company profiles
• Mostly found on EBSCO
Business Source
Complete.
• Good for an
independent overview
of a company
• History, products,
services, key personnel,
location, forecasts,
SWOT analysis
Information Services and Systems
News
• Current events
• Latest economic crises
• Latest mergers and
take-overs
• Stock prices
• Use quality news
sources, e.g The
Economist, Financial
Times
Information Services and Systems
Data
•
•
•
•
•
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Finance
Economics
Banking
Labour
Markets
Employment
Information Services and Systems
Market Research from Mintel
Mintel Oxygen – reports
• Analysis and commentary
• Consumer behaviour: ownership, purchasing, usage
• Brands: leading companies and products
Mintel Global Markets Navigator – data
• Market size; market segmentation; market
share; forecast data; country data
Information Services and Systems
You may not need all these types of publication
for your literature review assignment, but you
will need reports, data and newspapers in
other future assignments.
For your first assignment focus on information in
books and journal articles.
Information Services and Systems
Journals
What is a journal exactly?
• A publication which is published at regular
intervals such as weekly, monthly, quarterly,
bimonthly.
• Contains articles (research papers) on a
related theme e.g marketing or management.
• Examples include The Economist, Journal of
Financial Economics, Harvard Business Review
Information Services and Systems
What do you think a peer-reviewed
journal is? GUESS!
A. A research diary
B. A weekly magazine
like PC World or the
Economist
C. A regular
publication
containing research
articles
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Information Services and Systems
What is a peer-reviewed journal?
• The best quality information.
• Also known as “scholarly
journals”
• Articles written by researchers
are scrutinized before they are
published.
• Experts examine the
methodology, the analysis, the
data and the conclusions
before the paper can be
published.
Information Services and Systems
How do I know which journals are
peer-reviewed and which are not?
• Magazines articles are
written by journalists.
• Peer-reviewed journal
articles are written by
academic researchers.
• Peer-reviewed journals
do not contain
advertisements, job
vacancies or glossy
pictures
Information Services and Systems
How do I know which journals are
peer-reviewed?
Peer-reviewed journals...
• Look serious and academic
• Most of the journals in our Library
• Most of the journals in EBSCO & ProQuest
– use filters in a database to eliminate the
non-peer-reviewed
Information Services and Systems
But how will I find these sources?
Publication type
Search tool
• Books (including e.books)
• Scholarly articles and
Reports
• News
• Data
• Company information
• iFindDiscover
• iFind Research, especially
EBSCO & ProQuest
• ProQuest & Nexis
• FAME & Mintel GMN
• EBSCO company profiles
Always access via iFindDiscover OR
iFindResearch
Information Services and Systems
I need information on consumer behaviour
and mobile phones. Where should I
search?
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A. iFind Discover (the
library catalogue)
B. Google
C. Mintel Oxygen
D. A newspaper
E. EBSCO Business
Source
F. Mintel Global Market
Navigator
Information Services and Systems
I don’t understand the Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs - I want a simple explanation. Where
should I search?
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A. A textbook on work
psychology
B. A dictionary
C. A scholarly article
D. A business report
Information Services and Systems
I need a SWOT analysis of a big company
like Amazon. Where should I search?
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A. A newspaper
B. Mintel Oxygen
C. EBSCO Business
Source
D. Amazon’s website
E. iFind Discover
Information Services and Systems
Searching and locating information
Information Services and Systems
Effective search tips for searching
for journal articles
• Don’t just dive into a database and type in the
first words which come into your head.
• Plan.
• Break down your complicated research topic
into concepts.
• Think of other search terms which mean the
same thing
Information Services and Systems
Planning
• Consider types of
information needed
• Choose a database
• Make a search
strategy
Information Services and Systems
A Search Strategy
Topic: Team working? Co-operation or competition?
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Team working
Co-operation
Competition
Team building
cooperation
competitiveness
Teams in the
workplace
Intergroup relations
Employee competitive
behavior
Teams AND work
psychology
Information Services and Systems
A Search Strategy
Topic: Time management - meeting deadlines
and keeping a work/life balance
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Time management
Deadlines
Work/life balance
scheduling
speed vs. accuracy
work-life balance
prioritising
job stress
burnout
time allocation
quality of life
Information Services and Systems
Boolean Operators
Aim
To narrow
your search results
Boolean Operator
AND
Search Examples
Time management AND
deadlines
Retrieval Formula
Only retrieves records
containing all terms
Team building AND
company loyalty
To broaden your search
results
OR
competition OR
competitiveness
Retrieves records
containing either one or
more terms
workforce OR employees
OR staff
To exclude a term from
your search
NOT
Job stress NOT bullying
Excludes records
containing the second
term
Information Services and Systems
Phrase searching: use “quotation marks”
“teams in the workplace”
“time management”
“work-life balance”
Information Services and Systems
Save time by using truncation – add an
* onto the root of a word to pick up
singulars & plurals.
Competit*
Competition
Competitiveness
Competitor
Information Services and Systems
Wildcard: use ? in the middle of a
word to replace one or more letters
Examples
Finds
Wom?n
woman, women
Organi?ation
organisation, organization
Behavio?r
behavior, behaviour
Information Services and Systems
DEMO
Information Services and Systems
Which search will find most
results?
A. Wine OR beer OR
juice
B. Wine AND beer AND
juice
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Information Services and Systems
I’ve searched on globalisation and found a
lot of irrelevant results – which of these
searches will work best?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
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Globalisation
Globali*ation
Globali?ation
Globalization
Globali?ation AND
business
F. Globali*ation AND
business
Information Services and Systems
What have you learnt today about
searching for business information?
•
•
•
•
•
Always use good quality sources.
Choose a search tool through iFindResearch.
Some advanced search techniques .
Not everything is available full-text (use filters)
How to find books, scholarly articles, company
profiles and reports.
Information Services and Systems
How to
reference
with APA6
style
Information Services and Systems
Have you ever had to provide a list
of references for an assignment?
A. Yes
B. No
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Information Services and Systems
Why is
referencing
important?
• Avoid accusations of plagiarism – reference all ideas
and sources that you use
• Traceability - ensure someone else can find your
sources
• Good referencing is a basic academic requisite
• Demonstrate that you have read widely
Information Services and Systems
APA 6th – what is it?
• An example of an
author-date referencing
style.
• Used by many subject
areas at Swansea
University including
School of Management.
Information Services and Systems
What do you find difficult about
referencing?
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Ev
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A. Punctuation
B. Formatting
C. Which bits of
information to
include
D. The in-text citations
E. Web pages
F. Everything!
Information Services and Systems
Three steps to successful
referencing
1. Keep track of the sources you’ve used
(the appropriate details + page numbers).
2. Follow the APA guidelines on Blackboard
and on the APA Style website.
3. Pay attention to detail (punctuation &
formatting).
Information Services and Systems
What does APA referencing
involve?
• Citations in your
assignment
(author and date)
• Reference list at
the end:
alphabetical order
by author
• E.g. (Jones, 2012)
Information Services and Systems
When is a reference NOT needed?
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When quoting directly
from a published
source
When using
information that is
freely available from a
publicly accessible
website
When summarizing
undisputed and
commonplace facts
about the world.
W
1.
Information Services and Systems
The reference list
A book reference (two authors)
Malhotra, N. K. & Birks, D. F. (2007). Marketing
research: An applied approach (3rd ed.).
Harlow: FT Prentice Hall.
Information Services and Systems
The reference list
A chapter in a book
Street, S. (2004). From Ealing comedy to the
British new wave. In E. Ezra (Ed.), European
cinema (pp. 176-193). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Information Services and Systems
The reference list
An article in a journal:
Palmer, A. & Koenig-Lewis, N. (2011). The effects of
pre-enrolment emotions and peer group interaction
on students’ satisfaction. Journal of Marketing
Management, 27, 1208-1213.
Information Services and Systems
The reference list
A document on the web:
Bank of England. (2013). Inflation report, August
2013. Retrieved from
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/D
ocuments/inflationreport/2013/ir13aug.pdf
Information Services and Systems
Which piece of information is NOT
needed in a book reference?
A. Author’s name
B. Library call number
C. Place of publication
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Information Services and Systems
In a reference list that is APA style how
should the list of references be ordered?
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A. Alphabetically by
title
B. Alphabetically by
author’s surname
C. By date
D. The order in which
they appear in the
text
Information Services and Systems
In-text citations
Basic rule is (Name, Year of publication)
e.g. (Davies, 2013)
But ask yourself:
How many author names should be included in
each citation?
Information Services and Systems
In-text citation – one author
Basic rule:
(Shakespeare, 1599)
Variations:
Shakespeare explored the life
of Henry V (1599).....
In 1599 a play was written
(Shakespeare)....
Information Services and Systems
In-text citation – two authors
Examples:
(Lennon & McCartney, 1967)
Lennon and McCartney
(1967) wrote A Day in the
Life...
Information Services and Systems
In-text citation (3-5 authors)
In-text citation
Full reference
First mention
(Parkin, Powell, &
Matthews, 2012)
Parkin, M., Powell, M., &
Matthews, K. (2012).
Economics, 8th.ed.
Subsequent mentions
(Parkin et al., 2012)
Harlow: Addison
Wesley.
Information Services and Systems
In-text citation (more than six authors)
If there are six authors or more only the first author is cited
followed by et al.
Example:
(Yamada et al., 2003)
NOTE: et al is Latin for “and others”.
Information Services and Systems
The Golden Rules
Be consistent.
Be complete.
Be correct.
Keep a record of
your references as
you use them.
Information Services and Systems
Need help? Just ask!
• Email: buslib@swansea.ac.uk
• This PPT on your BB module.
• Also see “Library Support for School of
Management” on Blackboard.