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A-Z Databases: Business Source Ultimate: Library Guide

This is a detailed guide about a specific database - Business Source Ultimate

How to Access

Click the link below and sign in with your usual University e-mail address and password.

When to Use

Use Business Source to find industry information and good quality journal articles related to:

  • Accounting
  • Administration
  • Banking
  • Creative industries
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Human resources
  • Management
  • Marketing

Using your smartphone?

  • Download the Ebsco mobile app for easier access.

Finding Journal Articles and Trade Publications

Standard Search

Type your terms in the search box. Instead of typing full sentences or questions, think of the most important words that describe what you're looking for (e.g. organisational change and theory). You should also try and think of other words people might use to describe the same idea.

Use the filters on the results page to refine your search by options such as date range, source type or language. The Source Type option is very useful if you are only looking for journal articles, magazines, company profiles etc.

 

Advanced Search

Phrase search - put your terms in quotation marks to ensure they appear together (e.g. "organisational change"). This is a quick way to narrow down your results.

Putting your search terms together:

  • AND - finds articles that include both of your search terms - "organisational change" AND theory. Use this to link different ideas and narrow down your results.
  • OR - finds articles that include either of your search terms - "organisational change" OR "organisational restructuring". Use this to link words that mean the same thing and find more results.
  • NOT - removes any articles with your second term - "organisational change" NOT startup. Only use this if absolutely necessary as it is easy to delete relevant articles.

Shortening (or 'truncating') a word using * will find all words that start with the same letters - leader* will find leader, leaders, leadership, leading.

Finding Company and Industry Information

Industry Profiles

Use the basic search for the industry you are interested in i.e. gym industry. In the results list, use the Source Types option on the left-hand side to refine your results to Industry Profiles.

 

Company Information

Click Company Information in the top menu and search for your company. You can search using the company name, parent company, stock market abbreviation or keyword.

Company Information includes revenues, parent companies and company owners.

 

Company Profiles

Click More > Company Profiles at the top of the page to search for your company.

Company Profiles include overviews, key products and SWOT analyses.

 

SWOT Analyses

In the search box, type in the name of a company AND SWOT. You can also use the Source Types option on the left-hand side to refine your results to SWOT Analyses.

 

Video: A Video Guide to Creating a Search

Learn how to perform an advanced search on EBSCOhost databases, e.g. Business Source Ultimate.

Top Tips

  • In the 'Select a field' dropdown, select Abstract to limit the search results to articles discussing your topic.
  • If you are working on an advanced research project, you can create a personal account to save your search history and to automatically get an email when new articles appear.

Help & Support