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Selected Business Databases with Search Tips For:

	These are frequently used fee-based business databases available at the University of Maryland. See VBIC Databases for a more complete list.
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Name	Content	Strength/Weakness	Boolean	Proximity	Truncation
ABI/Inform (ProQuest) Focus on managerial issues in a work setting. Information on over 60,000 companies.	Over 75% full text. Covers magazines, journals, dissertations.	Strength: Academic, research , theoretical focusGood place to look for topics on leadership, glass ceiling, ethics, downsizing, etc. Weakness: Little coverage of the trade literature.	AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT	W/#, W/DOC, PRE/#, W/para, NOT W/#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.) Wildcard: ? Ex. Wom?n (women, woman)
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) Time covered varies by title, many go back to 1990. Very broad coverage, includes topics of interest to business researchers.	Index and abstracts for over 3000 general, humanities, social science and science journals. Full-text articles for over 1000 of these journals. Over 1700 journals are peer reviewed.	Strength: Broad coverage . 3000 sources; Foreign language resources;1700 Peer reviewed sources. Weakness: Broad subject coverage, no business focus .	AND, OR, NOT	N#, W#	Truncation: ? Ex. Manag? (manager,managing, management) Wildcard: * Ex. Wom*n
Academic Universe (LEXIS-NEXIS) Time covered varies by source. Covers the gamut of business and related topics.	Almost all full-text. Covers business topics from local, regional & national newspapers, some trade publications, business magazines, SEC filings, some reference sources and key accounting sources.	Strength: Updated hourly. Broad focus. Foreign language sources. Weakness: Broad focus. Little academic, research oriented coverage.	AND, OR, NOT	W/#, W/p, W/s, PRE/#	Truncation: ! Ex. Econom! (economy, economics, economical, etc.) Wildcard: * Ex. Wom*n (women, woman) Ex. Bank* (banking, banks)
Business & Company Resource Center (Gale) Time covered varies by source. Incorporates directories, handbooks & other major business reference sources published by Gale.	Full text data from the major Gale business sources. Ex. International Directory of Company Histories, Market Share Reporter, Wards Directory of Public and Private Companies, etc. Also includes Investext for brokerage house reports; Company ProFiles; SIC Descriptions.	Strength: Full text information from the Gale sources searchable electronically. Good place to go for: company news, company histories, market share tables and rankings, associations, industry overviews & statistics. Weakness: Covers only Gale sources.	AND, OR, NOT	W#, N#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.) Wildcard: ? Ex. Wom?n (women, woman) Wildcard: ! Ex. Analo!! (analog, analogs, but not analogous).
Business Source Complete (EBSCO). Indexing 1990- Present. Topics covered are: finance, management, marketing, economics, international business, etc.	Provides full-text for nearly 1400 scholarly business and academic journals.	Strength: Can be searched simultaneously with the other EBSCO multidisciplinary databases. Company Profiles heading provides detailed profiles on 10,000 companies, 600 companies contain a SWOT analysis. Weakness:Special features provided are not easy to find.	AND, OR, NOT	W#, N#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.) Wildcard: ? Ex. Wom?n (women, woman)
Digital Dissertation Multidisciplinary index to master thesis and dissertations. Date range: citations 1861-1979. Abstracts 1980-present. Full-text for UM dissertations 1997-present.	1.6 million citations and abstracts and some full-text for U.S. and international masters theses and doctoral dissertations.	Strength: Authoritative source of international and U.S. master thesis and dissertations. Weakness: Only UM dissertations from 1997 are full-text. It only covers thesis and dissertations.	AND, OR, NOT	W/n, PRE/n	Truncation: ? Ex. company? Retrieves all the words containing the same roots: companies, company, etc.
EIU Country Commerce (Economic Intelligence Unit) Good place to start when looking for information on doing business in other countries.	Provide access to full-text current reports on regulations, operating conditions and corporate practices in over 60 countries.	Strength: All full-text and current country reports on business information from a regulatory perspective. Weakness: Reports available only for 60 countries.	AND, OR, NOT	Near	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.)
EIU Country Finance (Economic Intelligence Unit) Good place to start when looking for information on doing business in other countries.	Provide access to a comprehensive guide to the world's main financial systems, covering banking and associated services, government policies and regulations for 47 countries.	Strength: All full-text and current country reports on business information from the financial perspective. Weakness: Reports available only for 47 countries.	AND, OR, NOT	Near	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.)
EIU ViewsWire (Economic Intelligence Unit) Latest daily country reports. Good place to start when looking for doing business in other countries.	Business intelligence on 195 countries, including reports on: industries, political, economic, financial and regulatory environment for each country.	Strength: All full-text and current country reports. Also included are: country risk rating and daily news analysis. Weakness: Reports available only for 195 countries.	AND, OR, NOT	Near	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.)
Factiva (Dow Jones & Reuters) Formerly known as Dow Jones Interactive. Time coverage varies by title. Good place to find news information on companies and industries.	Covers mostly in full-text over 6000 business titles from top national newspapers, newswires, business journals, and SEC filings. Focused on broad array of business sources that can be searched individually. Indexes a wide range of trade business journals.	Strength: Offers Free-text/indexing and search capabilities. Text content available for 21 foreign languages. Weakness: Database runs only with Internet Explorer, version 5.01 or higher.	AND, OR, NOT	W/#, ADJ#, N/#, NEAR#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.) Truncation: $n Ex. Earn$4 (earnings) Wildcard: ? Ex. Wom?n (women, woman)
Hoover's Online (Hoover's, Inc.) One of the leading directories for quick access to company and industry information.	Provides comprehensive profiles, in-depth financials, company overviews and histories, their competitors, products, services and operations. Also provides a list of key company officers and competitive analysis.	Strength: Advanced search capability allows for screening of over 10 million companies; detailed information on major companies includes list of competitors and key personnel Weakness: Search engine does not allow for advanced searching techniques.	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
IBIS World Industry Market Research Reports, Public Company Research Reports, Business Environment Reports. Information is current, reports may contain historical data going back several years.	700+ full text Industry Market reports at the 5 digit NAICS level Information on 8000+ US, Canadian & global publicly traded companies (personnel and financial data) Business environment analysis "provides an understanding of the key drivers and influencing factors which are responsible for change within selected industries".	Strength: Covers 700+ industries in a concise, very focused format - provides statistics, graphs, charts, lists competitors. Can be searched by key word, or NAICS, or company name or sector in the Business Environment Reports. Weakness: Focus mostly on US Industries and US business environment. Very little international coverage. The company report information is very limited.	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
RDS Biz Suite (Gale) Time coverage varies by title. Combines all RDS Business & Industry, Business & Management Practices, and TableBase. The three databases can be search individually or simultaneously.	Contains extensive full-text information about companies and/or industries. The content of each database is highly complementary. Searching B&I and TableBase together produces results which include the textual content from B&I, supported by the tabular content of TableBase.	Strength: Simultaneous searches from three complementary databases. Weakness: No date coverage is provided for each source.	AND, OR, NOT	NEAR#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.)
RDS Business & Industry (Gale) Indexing 1994- Present. Focuses on facts, figures, events & market information about companies, industries, products and markets.	B&I covers all industries and is international in scope. Draws content from over 1000 trade and industry publications, regional, national and international newspapers, business dailies and newsletters.	Strength: Covers the trade literature. Good place to look for topics dealing with: market share, market size, new products, or trends. Weakness: No academic, research, theoretical coverage.	AND, OR, NOT	NEAR#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.)
RDS Business & Management Practices (Gale) Time coverage varies by title. Focuses on practical approaches to management processes and methods, case studies, and explicit "how-to" guidelines.	Highly focused coverage from more than 300 professional and trade journals containing information relevant to the fields of management, planning, production, finance, marketing, information technology and human resources.	Strength: Focuses on real- life applications, and searches can be customized by company, department, industry, type of document, SIC code, geographic region, and source. Weakness: No date coverage is provided for each source.	AND, OR, NOT	NEAR#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.)
RDS TableBase (Gale) Date coverage varies by title. Database comprised of tabular information of a strategic nature. Every record has a unique table title that meet a searching criteria. Many of the table records also have textual content which supports the data in the table.	The tables provide information on market share, market size, imports/exports, sales, product and brand rankings, forecasts, and demographics. Tables are drawn from more than 1000 sources that go into the B&I database and from statistical annuals, brokerage reports, trade association reports, and government reports.	Strength: Tables are easy to find, since they are the focus of the search, and also because the contents of the table are indexed. Weakness: Although the tabular information data is in most cases extremely accurate, it might not always matched your search criteria.	AND, OR, NOT	NEAR#	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.)
Social Science Citation Index Multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the social sciences. Covers 1956-present.	Select "ISI Web of Science" from the pull-down menu at the top of the page.	Strength: Indexes more than 1,725 journals across 50 social sciences disciplines. Weakness: No full-text available.	AND, OR, NOT	Not Applicable.	Truncation: * Ex. Drucker P*
Standard & Poor's NetAvantage (Standard & Poor's) Coverage is for current and up to 4 years, depending on the industry. Online version of the Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys.	Provides full-text reports, forecast, analysis, statistics and ratios of about 52 major industries. Data comes from nine S&P publications: Stock Reports, Industry Surveys, Corporation Records, Corporation Register, Stock Bond, Bond Guide, Earnings Guide, The Outlook, and Dividend Record.	Strength: Current and very comprehensive industry report and analysis. Weakness: Limited only to certain number of industries.	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Truncation: * Ex. Econom* (economy, economics, economical, etc.) Ex. *ia (finds records that end in "ia")

1. Topics (Industry, Company, Product, Demographics & Statistics)
   
   
2. Keyword Search
   
   
3. VBIC databases (alphabetical list of databases)
   
   
• Click here for Search Tips for selected databases.
  
  

1. If you are searching for articles from journals or newspapers, think of synonyms that would define your concepts:
   Example: Concept 1 ; (assessing, motivating, evaluating)
                  Concept 2 ; (teams, groups)

   Note: You may want to truncate terms to retrieve all forms of a word. Most databases use * or ? to truncate. See Database Search Tips for examples.

2. Check to see if there is a Topic Guide (ABI/Inform Global), a Concept Term drop-box (RDS Business Reference Suite), or a Thesaurus (Business Source Premier).

3. Use Boolean search power to connect search terms:
   Combine synonyms using Boolean "OR" to broaden focus.
   Combine concepts using Boolean "AND" to narrow focus.
   Combine search specifications using Boolean "AND".

   Example: (assessing OR motivating OR evaluating) AND (teams OR groups) AND case studies

1. University of Maryland Libraries, Citing Electronic Resources, http://www.lib.umd.edu/UES/citing_apa.html

2. J. Murrey Atkins Library, UNC-Charlotte, Citation and Style Guides

3. American Psychological Association, APA style for electronic resources, http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

4. Bedford / St. Martin's, Online's Citation Styles,
   http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html