Business Source Ultimate: Keyword searching

Video: demonstration of a basic keyword search (4 min 9 sec). 

To find articles on a topic, enter keywords (search terms) into the database's search boxes. The database then searches for documents that include your keywords in their titles, abstracts (summaries) and other major fields. The following will help you carefully identify and organise your keywords so that you're more likely to find the best results:

1. Identify the words/keywords in your assignment/research question that are most relevant to your topic (i.e. words that distinguish the title from any other title). For an example, let's consider this question: "To what extent do microfinance practices empower women in developing countries". 
   
   Generally, it's best to ignore generic words such as "facilitate". Using our example, you might select the following keywords: microfinance, empowerment, women.
    
2. Think of each of the above keywords as an individual "concept". For each concept, identify any alternative words that have the same/similar meaning (or opposite meanings e.g. inequality, equality). Different authors use different words to describe the same concept and if your keywords don't reflect this, you may miss important articles. Here's our search example, organised by concept and keywords:

• Plural versions: the database automatically searches for both the singular and plural versions of a word in singular form, so if you enter corporation it also searches for corporations. 
   
• Truncation: sometimes you can increase the number of your results by entering an asterisk at the end of the stem of a word e.g. if you just enter microfinanc*, the database searches for these:
  microfinance
  microfinances 
  microfinanced 
  microfinancing 
  microfinancial
   
• US spellings: the database searches for both the UK and US variant spellings of some, but not all words. For example, If you enter behaviour, it also searches for behavior.  However, if you search for analyse, it doesn't find analyze as well. 
  
  If you're uncertain as to how the database handles an English spelling, replace the relevant letter with a question mark. For example, analy?e retrieves both versions of the word (though note, it also retrieves the word analyte).

The database provides options for searching across the full text or content of articles. Be cautious of selecting these options as they may retrieve an unmanageable number of irrelevant search results. That said, if you retrieve too few results (even after entering a strong extended range of search terms), then a 'full text' option may prove useful.

Methods for searching across full text: 

• Change the 'All Fields' default search to 'All Text'.
• Alternatively, click 'Search Options' (just to the right of the 'Filters' tab) and then under 'Expanders', select 'Also search within the full text of articles'.

• Multiple search boxes: note the screenshot above. If your topic contains multiple concepts (e.g. microfinance, empowerment, women), enter your set of keywords for each individual concept in a separate search box. To add further boxes (if required), click the + button just below. Don't change the AND setting between boxes (this ensures that each search result covers all the concepts combined).
   
• Entering keywords: If you've identified a range of keywords for the same concept, enter OR between each one e.g. microfinance or micro-finance or microcredit or micro-credit. Otherwise, the database retrieves fewer results (i.e. only those results where each record includes all of these alternative terms).
   
• Entering phrases: it's generally a good idea to enter these in "speech marks" (e.g. "human rights") so that the database only searches for the exact phrase. Otherwise, it also searches separately for each individual word in the phrase, which can produce too many irrelevant search results.

• Below the search boxes, you can use various optional filters for limiting the range of your search. These include, for example:
  
  Date: be careful as some older documents might still be relevant and cited in more up-to-date literature. 
  
  Publication type (academic journal, conference paper, Government document, review and others).
  
  Document type (article, book chapter, case study, grey literature, industry profile, market research, report, SWOT analysis and others). 
   
• Peer-reviewed filter: select this if you want to limit your results to those from peer-reviewed journals. These journals require submitted articles to be evaluated by other researchers (peers) in the same field. Articles are accepted for publication only if they meet certain quality criteria, such as presenting a coherent and robust argument.
  
  Be careful: if you want the database to include a search of Harvard Business Review, do not select either the peer-reviewed or academic journal filters. Whilst Harvard Business Review is a highly respected title, it is not peer-reviewed, and the database defines it as a magazine (rather than an academic journal).