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Business Databases: An Overview

Business Source Complete Overview

As you type your search term, this database will give you suggestions. In this example, I typed marketing and it gave me this suggestion: marketing or advertising or promotion or branding. Since that provides a lot of synonymous terms, I'm going to use that suggestion by clicking on it.

A screenshot showing how Business Source Complete database provides suggested search terms as you type

Now, I am going to scroll down to select limits. Reading the assignment guidelines is a helpful way to determine what limits to select. 

A screenshot showing how to scroll down to the "Limit your results" category to select limits

In this example, I have selected 4 limits:

  • Full Text
  • Peer Reviewed 
  • Past 10 years
  • Academic Journals

As each limit is selected, the number of limits applied appears in parenthesis next to the "Limit your results" category

A screenshot showing the 4 limits I have selected for this search

Now, I scroll back up and click Search! 

A screenshot showing how to click Search on Business Source Complete

I got a large number of results! 57, 481

A screenshot showing 57,481 results from this search

One way to narrow the results further is to click on "All filters"

A screenshot showing how to click on "All filters" under the search bar. This will provide options to narrow the results further.

From the All Filters over on the right, scroll down to where it says "Subject: Thesaurus Term." From here, select terms and then click Apply. 

A screenshot showing how to scroll down the All Filters to the Subject: Thesaurus Term and make selections

Now the results are under 5,000. Much better! From here I can browse and look for options like "PDF Full Text" or "Access options" in order to read the full article. 

A screenshot showing fewer results and how to look for "PDF Full Text" or "Access options" in order to read the full article.

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