Transcript Research skills - York St John University

Library and Information Services
Searching techniques
Ebooks
Searching for ebooks on the catalogue
(if accessing offsite the URL is http://library.yorksj.ac.uk)
Use the library catalogue to find the following
ebook and go to the full text:
Gower handbook of leadership and management
development
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You may wish to watch the online demonstration
The searching process
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Step one - Spend some time thinking about your topic
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Step two – Considering your search terms
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Step three - Linking your search terms together
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Step four - Choosing your databases
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Step five - Searching and modifying your search online
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Step six - Relevant results retrieved! Next steps
Step one
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Spend some time thinking about your topic to
define and clarify your research question
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Break down search topic into sections
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Think of keywords to describe the topic
Step two
Think about the search words
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Generic words can be omitted eg: discuss,
assess, importance
Consider alternative terms- look at Oxford
Reference online business dictionaries
Alternative spellings such as organis/zation or
behavio(u)r: use asterisk eg: behavio*r
Search for different word endings such as
leader, leaders and leadership: truncate using
asterisks eg: leader*
Step three
Linking search words together
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AND search – combining two different subjects
together
OR search – alternative words, often crucial to
success of the search eg: workplace OR organization
Words as a phrase eg: “transformational leadership”.
May be a phrase search option, or use quotation
marks.
Step four
Choosing your database
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For articles
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Emerald full text
Academic OneFile
PsycINFO and possibly Greenfile (EBSCO)
Business and market data
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Marketline
Mintel (only accessible once registered with a YSJ email
address)
Step five
Searching and modifying online
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Different databases will use different search terms to describe
same subject
Check what subject terms (called keywords in Emerald) are
used for your topic and modify the search if necessary
Limit to searching within different indexes eg: subject, article
title, author
Limit to years of publication
Limit to type of document eg: books, book chapters, journal
articles, conference papers, reports.
Step six
Relevant results retrieved!
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Item is full text – go direct to article, linking via a
database or via library catalogue
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Item has abstract only – can you access or
request the full article via your local library?
Leadership styles and employee
engagement
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Emerald
Leader* (all except full text)
AND “employee involvement” (phrase all except full
text)
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PsycINFO
Leadership style (subjects)
AND employee involvement or employee motivation
(subjects)
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Emotional intelligence and leadership
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Emerald
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Academic OneFile
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Emotional intelligence (keyword phrase) and
leader* (keywords)
Try browse subjects option: emotional
intelligence, then search in results for leadership
PsycINFO
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Emotional intelligence and leadership (subjects)
and link to article in Journal of management studies
Summary of useful links
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Ebooks - online demonstration
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Emerald - online demonstration
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Business subject page
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How to plan a search strategy
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Search techniques