Subject Guides: * Business: Home

Key Resources in Business

These resources contain basic overview information that can be useful when you're just beginning your research.

Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Many entries from Oxford reference books in all subject areas.

You can also use LibrarySearch for business-specific encyclopedias and handbooks, many of which are accessible online! A few examples are below, but there are many more.

Encyclopedia of Business and Finance by Burton S. Kaliski (Editor)
Call Number: USM POR Reference HF1001 .E467 2001
ISBN: 0028650654
Publication Date: 2001

Once you have a good understanding of your topic and have selected a few keywords, LibrarySearch is a great place to start your research! LibrarySearch is a convenient way to search almost all of the library’s resources using a single search box.

Below are a few of the "top" journals in business by the number of times their articles have been cited. To see many more journals in business, such as Bloomberg Businessweek, see our Journals by Title page and select "Business & Economics" from the subject drop-down. On the results page a variety of Business sub-disciplines are listed.

Academy of Management Journal
American Economic Review
Journal of Finance
This journal has a 1-year "embargo," meaning that any articles published within the past 12 months cannot be accessed.
Journal of Marketing
Strategic Management Journal
Most recent six years are not available.

Below are just a few of our databases useful for business research. For more databases with business content, check out our Databases A-Z page and select "Business" from the drop-down.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Multi- and inter-disciplinary database with academic journals, newspapers, and other periodicals. Can be a good starting point if you're not sure what direction you want to take your research yet.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive business database. EBSCO’s Business Source Complete has full text coverage of over 3,700 journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more, plus an additional 3,000 journals that are indexed and abstracted. They also have SWOT analysis. BSC also provides full text access to the Harvard Business Review and the top five business magazines.
Emerald Insight This link opens in a new window
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Emerald Insight includes access to all of Emerald's currently published journals as well as selected backfiles. Topics covered include management research, engineering, computing & technology, education, and more.
IBISWorld Industry Research Reports & Business Environment Profiles This link opens in a new window
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IBISWorld’s Industry Research Reports are powerful business tools that provide strategic insight and analysis on over 700 U.S. industries and over 70 global industries.

Business Environment Profiles provide insight into these key drivers, which include exchange rates, commodity prices, interest rates, weather conditions, consumer attitudes, demographics and many more.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
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Despite its name this database includes full text journals on Business, Management and Accounting, Decision Sciences, Economics, Econometrics and Finance, Psychology, and Social Sciences.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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JSTOR is a full text digital archive of scholarly journals. Coverage generally begins with the first issues running to within 3 years of present. Current issues of journals are often available from other USM databases.

Under Advanced Search select Business under the Disciplines
Fed In Print: An Index to Federal Reserve Economic Research This link opens in a new window
The FED IN PRINT is an on-line index to the publications of the Federal Reserve Research Departments. Publications include: periodical articles, working papers, annual reports, proceedings and monographs. Some of these resources are available in full text.

You can search for books in our library and other libraries using the links below. If you're not sure how to find what you're looking for, ask us!

LibrarySearch (Library Catalog)
Catalog for the University of Maine system, including USM. You can choose to limit your search to USM, or search all libraries. You can also search for journal articles here too.
MaineCat
If LibrarySearch doesn't have what you're looking for, use MaineCat to widen your search to all Maine libraries. You can request any book you find and it will be delivered to the USM library location of your choosing.

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
You can widen your search to libraries worldwide using WorldCat. If you find a book you need, request it using the "Order through Illiad" link.

Fortune Rankings
Annual rankings of the top companies and executives.
Hoovers Online
Only some content is free, but a good guide to major US companies.
MarketWatch
Real time, interactive financial and general news.
Small Business Administration
Programs and services to help small businesses start, grow and succeed.
TrendWatching
Numerous free publications on whats "in" available on the TrendWatching site
Reuters Business
An international news organization
UN Economic & Social Development Statistics
US Economic Census
Data collected every 5 years for every industry.
EDGAR
The EDGAR database from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions, provides free public access to corporate information, allowing you to research a public company’s financial information and operations by reviewing the filings the company makes with the SEC. You can also research information provided by mutual funds (including money market funds), exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and variable annuities.
CIA World Fact Book
NASDAQ
Get the latest stock market news, stock information & quotes, data analysis reports, as well as a general overview of the market landscape from Nasdaq.

Basics of APA Style
Tutorial from the APA. The entire tutorial is 22 minutes but you can jump around to just the sections you want.
Citing Online Sources
A guide to some of the more uncommon source types from the APA.
Purdue OWL APA section

Searching Tips and Tricks

Most databases allow for searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
- Use AND to focus your search and combine different aspects of your topic
- Use OR to broaden your search and find sources that use different words for the same concept.
- Use NOT to omit certain terms from your results.
Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words if you want to search for all words with that root. For example, “environment*” would search for environment, environmental, environmentalism, etc.
Put quotes around a phrase that you want the database to search as a phrase, rather than as individual words.
Group synonyms inside parentheses using OR between each one

Example:

LibrarySearch is the combined library catalog for the entire University of Maine system. You can search the entire system, or select University of Southern Maine Libraries in the drop-down.

Other helpful tips:

If you find a book that is relevant to your needs, look at the "Subject" area of the book's record. Click on a few of the subjects to find other similar books.
If the UMaine System doesn't have a book you want, we can get it for you through Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad).

Most databases, as well as L ibrarySearch and MaineCat, assign subjects to books and articles. A subject is a designated word or phrase that describes an idea or concept and groups all articles or books about that concept together.

Subjects are also variously called descriptors, controlled vocabulary, headings, or index terms.
To search by subject you have to know the exact subject term. Most databases that use subjects have a Thesaurus that you can use to look up subject terms. You can also do a keyword search, find a book or article that is relevant to your research, and look at the subject terms assigned to it.
LibrarySearch and MaineCat use Library of Congress Subject Headings and each database has their own list of subject headings, so you have to look up subjects in each database independently.

There are many ways you can get research materials from other libraries. In the vast majority of cases, there is no charge to you for this service!

From LibrarySearch, use the button in the middle of an item's page.
From MaineCat, use the button in the middle of an item's page.
From a database:
- Select the item you want and find and click the or "Article Linker" button (the placement on the page will vary by database).
- If the library does not have access to the item, find and click the "Submit an Interlibrary Loan Request" link under Step 3 in the right panel.