The document provides guidance on researching and defining the topic of decision support systems in business information systems. It outlines steps to search for initial ideas on the topic, narrow or broaden the topic as needed, state the topic as a question, and identify the type of information required. It also discusses gathering background information and searching relevant databases to find journal articles, technical reports, and other sources on the topic.

1. I. Define a Topic in Business Information Systems
Presume you are interested in writing a paper on Decision Support Systems . You
may want to define the scope of your paper by defining what constitutes Decision
Support Systems in Manufacturing.
1. Search for Ideas
If you do not have an idea what constitutes Decision Support Systems, search
and read articles or books on the topic.
For example, use ScienceDirect online database,
set Dates from 2000 to present to retrieve the most
recent information, set terms by using connector
AND within Abstract, Title, Keywords or Full-Text.
Select Subject, in this case either Business, Management and Accounting or
Computer Science. Type: Decision Support Systems You will access articles
with varying numbers according to the search choices you made.
OR, you may do a subject search in the Library’s online catalog under Decision
Support Systems.
After scanning through some articles and books, you should
be able to come up with preliminary ideas about your
topic. You can always talk to your reference librarians in the
Reference Area or send e-mails or chat online via the Ask a Librarian service
located on the Library’s web page. You can consult your instructor.
2. Narrow or Broaden Your Topic
You may find too much information on your topic. In that case, you may want to
narrow your topic. For example, in ScienceDirect you may find 3824 full-text
articles under Decision Support Systems. You may qualify your search by
limiting your topic to a certain area such as medical decision support system or a
time period such as 1990 to present or a country such as United States.
If you can find only few sources, you may want to broaden your topic by related
fields such as Database Management. For example, you may find 186 articles in
Wiley InterScience that can assist you in broadening your topic.
3. State Your Topic as a Question
Stating your topic as a question may help you to stay within the scope of your
selected topic. For example, what is the effect of Decision Support Systems in the
small and large businesses?

2. 4. Identify the Type of Information Needed
The type of information needed depends on the following:
Type of Assignment- is this a presentation, term paper, senior
project,thesis or dissertation?
Amount of Information- how much information is needed for this
assignment?
Currency of Information- does this assignment require current, historical
or a combination?
Type of Resources Needed- should the information come from scholarly
and professional journals only?
Primary vs Secondary Resources- should the information come from
primary or secondary sources?
Information in Various Formats- should the information come from only
print resources or include other formats such as visual/ graphic sources,
numeric sources (statistics), audio sources and/or electronic sources?

3. II. Gather Background Information
A brief background information in your topic would enable you to focus
on a theme and an outline effectively. As you peruse the background
information make note of relevant issues within your topic, differing
issues and definitions of key concepts. Appropriate sources for locating
background information include encyclopedias, almanacs and yearbooks,
and handbooks and bibliographies. In order to find information in
Decision Support Systems, you need to look for background resources in
Business Information Systems. You will locate these resources by
1. searching the Library’s online catalog under the subject heading
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries. From the entries retrieved, you may choose
the relevant ones.
2. Note the appropriate classification numbers for
specific resources or resources in the subject area and locate them in the
appropriate reference section.
3. You may advance your search by searching via
keyword and combining words in general areas such as
Business Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Databases with
such words as encyclopedia, dictionary, etc.
Resources that provide background information include
1. Encyclopedias –
General-
Britannica Online
http://www.tnstate.edu/library/database.htm#B
Encyclopedia Americana
Ref. AE 5 .E333 1996
Subject-
Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Ref. Q121 .E53 2001
The Cutting Edge: an Encyclopedia of Advanced
Technologies
Ref. T9 .C96 2000
Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology
Ref. QA76.15 .E5 v.43
2. Dictionaries-

4. General-
Random House Webster’s Dictionary
Ref. PE 1628 .R294 2001
Subject-
Dictionary of E-Business: A Definition Guide to Technology and Business
Terms
Ref. HF 5548.32
Dictionary of Information Technology
Ref. QA 76.15
Dictionary of Computer Science, Engineering and
Technology
Ref. QA76.15 .D5258 2000
Welcome to the Academic Press Dictionary of
Science & Technology
http://www.harcourt.com/dictionary
Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary
QA 76.15
.M538 1999b
3. Almanacs and Yearbooks-
Infoplease.com (electronic resource)
http://www.infoplease.com/
Educational Media and Technology Yearbook, 2000
(electronic resource – electronic book)
LB1028.3 .E372 2000eb
Plunkett’s E-Commerce & Internet Business Almanac
HF5548.32

5. III. Search
the Databases for Journal Articles, Technical Reports,
Conference Proceedings and Standards
1. What are databases?
In general, databases are organized collections of
information. For example, TSU Library’s online
catalog is a database as well as electronic periodical
indexes that provide full-text articles, including
ScienceDirect, Wiley InterScience, and citation
Indexes such as CompendexWeb and others. You may
locate and access Library’s databases online from
our web page at
http://www.tnstate.edu/library/database_oncampus.htm
In order to use the databases properly, you should be
able to understand the structure, type, coverage and
attributes of them.
a. Structure-
Databases contain records that are information
about each item within those databases.
For example, the Library’s online catalog
has a record for each book, journal, microfilm,
etc owned by it. In turn, each record contains
information called fields. The fields in a record
may include author, title, publisher, subject
headings, and others. Other database records
may contain fields that include author,
title, title of the periodical, volume
number, date, year and page numbers.
b. Type-
The nature of the information contained in a
database determines its type. The main types
of databases include Bibliographic, Full-text
Numeric, Image, Audio and Mixed.
Bibliographic databases do not contain the
items, however, they provide information as
to where you can find it. The information
provided by the Bibliographic database may
contain items such as Author, Title, Publisher,
Date, Volume Number, Page Number and
others that is called “citation”. Sometimes
they include abstracts ( a summary) or
descriptions of items. If you are interested in

6. finding records or citations about a certain
topic then you can choose to use these
databases to create bibliographies. However, if
you want to read the information in its entirety,
you will either locate the source given in the
record or use a full-text database. An example
of a record from a bibliographic database such
as an online catalog may look like this:
Title: Decision Support Systems in the Twenty-first Century/ George M. Marakas
Call Number: HD 30.213 .M36 1999
Publisher: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1999.
Subject Heading(s): Decision Support Systems
Display Related Subjects
Description: xxi, 506 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 487-495) and index.
ISBN: 013744186X
DBCN: AAZ-1117
Item Holdings
Location – Shelf-Williams Campus
Call Number- HD30.213 .M36 1999
Volume-
Material- Book
Status- Available
The information we gather from this record is
extensive. We obtain the title of the book, author(s)
or editor(s), call number, publisher, place of
publication, publisher and the year copyrighted and
published, subject area of the book, number of
preliminary pages, number of pages in the text,
whether or not the text contains illustrations, size of
the book, whether or not the book contains
bibliographical references and an index, names of
co-author(s) or editor(s), whether or not the book is
part of a series, international standard book number
assigned to the book, and the location and the
availability of the item you are searching for.
A bibliographic index for journal articles such as
EiVillage-CompendexWeb will provide citations
and abstracts on your topic. For example,
you may search under Decision Support Systems and Business.
You may limit your search to abstracts, to journal
articles, to English language only and to certain
years. If you used the above example, you will
retrieve 1425 records which are available to you

7. immediately. Press Datailed Records button for a
full citation for a record. For example, you will
retrieve the accession number , title, Author(s), First
author affiliation, serial title, abbreviated serial title,
volume, issue, issue date, publication year, pages,
language, ISSN, CODEN, document type,
publisher, abstract, abstract type, Ei main heading,
Ei controlled terms, uncontrolled terms, Ei
classification codes, treatment, and database.
Full-text Databases
These databases are called full-text because they
contain the complete text of publications. For
example, Wiley InterScience provides full-text
articles from scientific journals and books in
addition to summaries. For example, a Basic
Journal Search under Decision Support Systems will retrieve 189
documents. You may choose to read the abstract to
determine if this article is useful for your research.
If so you may want to read or print the article. If
you would like to retrieve chapters in books about
automation, you can search Wiley InterScience
under Book search. Your search will yield 1
document in full-text and/or summary of the
chapter.
Numeric Databases
These databases generally provide numeric data,
including statistics, financial data, census
information, economic indicators and others.
For example, FIS Online will provide statistical
information about companies and countries. Census
Data would provide statistics about people, business and others.
Image Databases
These are the databases that provide access to art
prints, animations, photos and others. For example,
If you access the Library’s Virtual Reference web
page you will find a list of museums and art
resources that display images.
Audio Databases
These databases provide access to audio clips to
music and sound effects. For example, Library’s
Virtual Reference web page would provide access
to the Internet Public Library Listening Room

8. where you may listen to and observe the videos of
Ray Brooks, Steve Wood Quintet, Pamela Wise,
Blue Dog and others.
c. Coverage
The selection of appropriate databases is an
important factor in finding relevant information.
A description of information covered by a database
is usually found in the introductory screen.
Subject Area-
Some databases cover a specific subject area or
discipline such as computers, psychology, nursing
and others. Others cover areas in more general in
nature or a mixture of subject areas. For example,
in Business Information Systems, your library provides you access to
ABI/Inform, ScienceDirect, Wiley InterScience, Ei Village-
CompendexWeb, MIT Press, SpringerLink,
WilsonWeb-Applied Science and Technology
Index. You can also find a list of databases
according to their subject coverage in the Library’s
web page under
Databases by Subject at
http://www.tnstate.edu/library/databases_subject.html
Type of Publication-
Databases may contain information from only
periodicals. For example, MIT Press will give you
access to periodical articles they publish in the areas
of science and technology. Some databases will
include information from a combination of sources
such as periodicals and books. For example, ScienceDirect,
WilsonWeb-Applied Science and Technology Index, and
Wiley InterScience will provide you with articles from periodicals and
chapters from books. Some databases include
only popular sources such as magazines and
newspapers. You can use these databases for leisure
reading. For example, InfoTrac-Expanded
Academic ASAP will provide you access to some
sources related to Business Information Systems such
as Computerworld. On the other hand, some databases
include scholarly materials found in scientific
journals, conference proceedings and reports.
For example, Wiley InterScience, ScienceDirect
and MIT Press will provide access to scientific

9. journals and materials. Databases differ in terms of
frequency of updating materials, accessibility of
the most recent periodical articles and the
publication dates of the materials included.
Sometimes publishers put an embargo on the
availability of the recent issues. For example, while
searching the EBSCOHost, you may come across
some periodicals that are not currently accessible.
That is, an embargo has been placed for the last two
years. Another feature to consider in selecting a
database is the availability of the material. You
may select a full-text database so that you can read
the material immediately. Or you may choose a
database that may provide only bibliographic
information, however, your library owns a majority
of the items. If you are willing to wait, you may use
amore comprehensive database that indexed a great
number of items your library does not subscribe to
but is able to obtain them for you through
interlibrary loan. The decision is yours.
d. Attributes
After you make the selection of the databases you
would like to use, you will need to determine if the
databases use controlled vocabulary and if the
databases do field search or free-text indexing.
In performing searches you will find that some
databases use controlled vocabulary which is a
specific list of subject terms in organizing the
database contents by subject. If you want to retrieve
relevant items or information , you should be aware
of “controlled vocabulary”. For example,
CompendexWeb provides you with Ei Controlled
Words. This is a list of subject headings you can use
to retrieve the relevant information you need. If you
look under Decision Support Systems you will find the following
subject headings to chose from:
Computer supported cooperative work
Data warehouses
Database systems
Decision support systems
Expert systems
Group decision support systems
Management
Management information systems

10. Management science
Subject Headings may be found in special
thesaurus, like in ERIC, or provided by the database
or in the Library of Congress Subject Headings
source. You may search most databases by
subject, using controlled vocabulary OR
keyword, by using your own words
Some databases use field searching which means
that the search term you used is only looked up in
specific fields. For example, if you are using the
Library’s online catalog and select the keyword
search, your search will locate items with that
specific search term in the title, subject or content
fields. On the other hand, some databases use free-
text searching which means that the search term
you have selected will locate items anywhere in a
document or record. This type of searching may
return false drops or irrelevant items because the
search term you have located will be located no
matter where it is. Some databases may give you the
choice for field or free-text searching. Check the
sites for this information before you begin your
search.
2. Searching Databases
A. Search Strategies –
Your library provides access to over 101 databases.
You can search these databases from any computer
on campus and/or from off campus sites. In
selecting the type of database that will provide
appropriate and relevant articles, you may consider
the following:
subject discipline of your topic –
specialized or multidisciplinary
type of resources needed – basic sources, scholarly sources or
professional/trade sources
the target audience – is the research for a term paper, independent study,
senior project, thesis or dissertation?
B. Use of Databases Subscribed by TSU
Databases in Business Information Systems
Your Library subscribes to over 101 online

11. databases in general and subject fields. The
databases in subject field – Computer Science,
and also Business include the following that provide the
most appropriate and relevant information:
CompendexWeb
Years Covered: 1970-Present
Relevancy: computers and data processing
Truncation: *
Search Tips:
1. You need to use truncation (*) to search for words that begin with the same
letters. For example, computer* will return with computer, computers, and
computerization.
2. Terms are automatically stemmed except in the author field. For example,
the word management will retrieve manage, managed, manager,
managers, managing, management. You can disable this feature by
clicking on “ Autostemming ”.
3. To search for an exact phrase or phrase containing stop words such as and, or,
not, near, enclose term in braces {} or quotation marks “ “.
For example, {Robotics and Autonomous Systems} or “networked
robotics”.
Browse the author look-up index to select all variations of an author’s
name. For example, Smith, A. OR Smith, A.J. OR Smith, Allen J.
MIT Press
Years Covered: Varies by journal titles. You may want to browse journals by
subject or title to see the coverage for each journal.
Relevancy: Business, Computer Science
Truncation: *
Search Tips:
1. You can search this database by BROWSING the journals and/or by
searching a phrase or phrases. For example, you can browse the MIT database
by journals subscribed by your library. In this case you will have access to
full-text articles. You may chose the format of the article by clicking next to
RealPage, RealPage Plugin, PDF (full-document), PDF (page at a time) and
SVG (page at a time). You can also browse by title, subject, publisher and LC
Classification of the MIT journals. If you chose to browse all MIT Journals, you
will only retrieve abstracts of articles that are not subscribed by your library.
However, your Interlibrary Loan librarian can obtain articles you need .

12. 2. You can retrieve information from this databases by using the
SEARCH mode. You can search for articles through
combinations of authors, article titles and abstract keywords.
To include the fulltext of the articles, please either check the Include Fulltext box,
or select Fulltext from the drop down list of fields.
ScienceDirect
Years Covered: Varies by journal titles. You may want to browse journals by title,
subject and publisher to find out the years covered.
Usually the coverage is from the date the journal is published.
Relevancy: Business, Management and Accounting, Computer Science, Decision
Sciences
Truncation: (!) , (*), (**)
Search Tips: (!) Use this wildcard character to find root word plus all
the words made by adding letters to the end of it. For
example, robot! would find robot, robots, robotic,
robotics.
(*) Use an asterisk to replace characters anywhere in a
word, except the first character. Use one asterisk for each
character you want to replace. For example, wom*n would
find woman and women.
(*) Use the asterisk to hold a space for variations in spelling at any point in a
word. For example, bernst* would find both the ei and the ie spelling of the
name.
If you use (*) asterisks at the end of a word, they do not all
have to be filled, but may find up to the specific number of
characters. For example, transplant** would find
transplant, transplanted, transplanter.
Note: transplant** does not find transplantation or transplanting because only
two wildcard characters are used. To find all the variations of transplant, use the
(!) wildcard character.
To find a journal or publication you can use the journal
title finder search box, available when you click on
journals on the navigation bar. Alternatively, you can
browse the alphabetical journal list. The journal screen
allows you different options for browsing the list. A drop
down menu allows you to choose to view the entire journal
list available on ScienceDirect {Subscribed by your
library) or Non-Subscribed ( not subscribed by your
library)}.
Quick Search – can be performed for an author, subject of interest. The search
will look for any relevant results from abstracts, titles, authors and article
keywords. Enter the search terms into the Quick Search bar beneath the main
navigation bar. You can search all Full-text Sources, All Journals, This Journal,
This Issue, This article, etc. You may use the Boolean syntax to produce precise

13. results. It is better not to use words that are too general, such as “cell” or
“behaviour” as they will retrieve too many results.
Basic and Advanced Searching- will perform accurate or detailed search queries,
improve the relevancy of the retrieved articles or save your search queries. With
this type of search you can search across all journals, a subset of journals (by
subject), abstracts databases, Scirus, etc.
Additionally, you can specify to search for your phrase within the abstract, title,
author, references, or full-text of the content. You can also limit your search by
date or the journal volume, issue and page number.
Search Within Results- will enable you to refine your Search. You can run a new
search that is restricted to the list of articles you are already viewing. You can
perform unlimited number of refinements, each time restricting your search to
only the list of results you already have. Each stage of refinement appears in the
search history, allowing you to return to any stage of your search at any time.
Search Using Scirus- You can search across the entire web for additional
scientific information via Scirus tab on the search form. This search complements
the content available on ScienceDirect. A Basic Search under Decision Support
System retrieves 3824 articles, a search under Scirus that searches the entire web
renders 40,439 entries.
SpringerLink
Years Covered:
Relevancy: Computer Science
Truncation: (*) asterisk substitutes any character from none to infinite number.
(?) question mark substitutes exactly one character
Search Tips: SpringerLink Easy Search will allow you to search for any terms in
abstracts and bibliographic data. Type in one or more search terms and mark how
they are to be connected:
either connected by AND (default) to find articles that contain all the terms
such as robotics AND manufacturing.
or connected by OR to find articles that contain any of the terms such as
robotics OR automation.
or search as phrase to find the exact words in this order.
You can also combine the use of phrases with the AND or OR operator. In
this case the following syn should be applied:
phrases must be enclosed by ‘single” or “double” quotes
there must be at least one space between phrases and terms
single or double quotes cannot be used within search terms
phrases consisting of only spaces or special characters (),{},[], are not valid
expressions For example, robotics “car manufacturing” and choosing to
connect them with the AND operator will retrieve all documents containing

14. the word robotics and the phrase car manufacturing with the abstract and
bibliographic data. The result list includes bibliographic data of matching
articles and links to the abstracts and full-text if available. The above example
retrieved 348,246 documents which needs to be further refined. You can do
this by adding further terms in the field available at the top of the results list
and clicking on refine search, or you can search for further articles by a
particular author.
SpringerLink Expert Search is structured for terms in specific bibliographic
fields and unstructured search in fulltexts.
Offers 4 main options
search in bibliographic fields
search in full-text articles
search by command line
search by Digital Object Identifier –DOI
SpringerLink Bibliographic Search is best suited to searches in specific
fields. For example, use this search to find article by a particular author or
limit the search to a specific journal. Fill in your search terms in the field on
the left and choose the corresponding bibliographic category:
abstract
affiliation
author (surname or collaboration name)
keyword
publication name (title of journal, book series, expert system, or book)
title (title of the document)
all categories (to search in all categories listed above)
If you use more than one line in an Expert Search, choose how you wish the
search terms in the lines to be connected:
And
Or
But not
CrossSearch in PubMed/Medline gives you a chance to continue your search
at other sites. If you choose this option your results page will include a link for
the same search in Medline/PubMed. You do not need to retype the PubMed
query interface; just click on the CrossSearch link and the results are
presented immediately on the screen. SpringerLink Command-Line Search
is available for both the Bibliographic Search and the Full-text Search. It is
intended particularly for persons who are very familiar with advanced search
facilities, as using command strings requires a good working knowledge of
this method. You may prepare the command line interface by first using the
forms of the Bibliographic Search or the Full-text Search. Any search terms
entered in these forms will be transferred to the new command line form when
you click on Command-Line Search. For example, if in the Full-text Search
you enter Fermi in the first line, Dirac in the second line and Dirac in the third
line, connect the first two lines with AND and the other two lines with OR and

15. then click on Command-Line Search, you will see the phrase
(“Fermi”)AND(“Dirac”)OR(“Fermi-Dirac”) in the box.
You can now edit this to
“Fermi”)AND(“Dirac”)OR(“Fermi-Dirac”) which is the intended search
phrase.
Springer-Link Full-text Search covers the largest amount of data. If you use
more than one line, choose how you wish the search terms of the lines to be
connected:
And
Or
But not
For example, “decision support system” and manufacturing but not car
manufacturing will retrieve information about decision support systems in
manufacturing but does not include car manufacturing.
Springer-Link DOI Search is an identification code for
Online version of articles before they are published in print
form. DOI, being part of the bibliographic data, can be used
as a search term. Make sure you enter the information
correctly, complete with any slashes and hyphens it
contains. For example,
10.1007/s00214990m180
10.1007/s00399900316
Searching Landolt-Bornstein, the uniques, top-quality chemistry, physics and
technology data collection.
Searchable Landolt-Bornstein texts are already included in the normal search
function and will appear in the results list along with other articles. If you
want to search in this collection only, you can access the LB search mask via
the Landolt-Bornstein start page. You can choose to search in the tables of
contents, the full-text PDF files, the titles only, or the author names only.
Wiley InterScience
Years Covered:
Relevancy: Computer Science
Truncation: *
Search Tips: Search allows you to locate articles in a goal-
directed manner by restricting the scope of the
search to individual fields of an article. Results are
displayed whenever exact matches are found for
search terms. Searching is supported for the
following fields:
Search all text

16. Article title
Section title
Author
Keywords
DIO
Tables
Figures
Basic Search allows you to
select the desired field in the pull-down menu
specify the search expression in the text field next to the menu. To search
using word roots insert the asterisk (*) . For example, robot* will find results
for robot, robots, robotic, etc.
click on the Begin Search button
Advanced Search allows you to
find Characterization of materials contents
specifically by entering any combination of
article title, section title, author, keywords, DOI,
table, or figure.
select the desired field in the first pull-down menu
specify the search expression in the text field next to the menu. To search
using word roots insert the asterisk (*).
you can specify up to five search expressions, which are combined using
AND or OR. For example, you can search for all articles the title of which
contains the word “robots” AND are authored by “Young”.
As a short cut for OR, you can use the comma “,”. For example, the
search expressions:
gene, therapy and gene OR therapy
returns items that contain either gene or therapy.
to limit the search to specific subject areas, select the appropriate subject from
the scroll down menu in the Journals in Subject Category.
to limit the search to a specific date of online postings or to a range of dates,
click the appropriate radio button and complete your date selections using the
drop-down menus provided.
click on Begin Search button
To search for variants on an author’s name,
separate the parts of the author’s name with AND.
For example, to find Joel F. Liebman, enter Joel
AND Liebman or Liebman AND Joel.
In the Search Results Section you will find the
relevancy value of the articles. The relevancy value
is a number between .01 (partial match) and 1.00
(complete match)
Reference Works/Encyclopedias section allows
you to peruse the alphabetically ordered listing of
the encyclopedia’s articles by clicking on the

17. Articles button on the encyclopedia’s homepage or
A-Z button on the navigation bars.
Article Content Links allow you to follow other
links that help to navigate to points within the
article section or to a different article. They may
include:
• equations- displayed as “equation (1)”, the link shows image equation
where it appears in the article
• cross references- displayed as “(see Name of
Article)”, the link opens the selected article in the window
WilsonWeb- Applied Science and Technology
Years Covered: 1983-Present
Relevancy:
Business, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Databases and Software, Machine
Learning, Neural networks
Truncation Symbol: *
Search Tips: You may use Basic Search by selecting one or more databases,
selecting the Natural language Search or Boolean Search radio button. Then enter
a word or phrase and click start.
To use Natural Language Search, you need to enter a
phrase or complete sentence. For example,
decision support system in manufacturing
will retrieve 368,437 records
are decision support systems useful in manufacturing?
will retrieve 378,334 records
To use Search/Boolean Operators, enter a constructed
search string. For example,
(computers or databases) and car manufacturing
will retrieve 1216 records
In Boolean Searches the operators and, or, not and in do not require brackets. To
eliminate stemming (variation of a word) include “ “ quotation marls around the
word such as “painting”. Paint or painted will not be included in the results.
You can use wildcard ? question mark as a substitute for a
single alphanumeric character. It is very useful when you
are unsure of a spelling. For example,
einst??n retrieves the correct spelling of
Albert Einstein.
You can also use the wildcard operator, <wildcard> in a
constructed search query to specify a pattern or range of
characters. You must enclose the pattern in brackets or
braces without spaces. For example,

18. <wildcard>’robot{s,ics}’ will locate one of each
pattern, as robots and robotics.
Advanced Search enables you to enter a word or phrase in the first text entry
area and make the appropriate selection from the as: drop-down list (All-Smart
Search). When using All-Smart Search query do not use truncation symbols or
other special characters. The search results will automatically show the most
relevant articles at the top of the set when the Sort by relevance option has been
selected. To formulate a search within specific field, select and, or, not and enter
additional terms in the secondary area. You can also use the third entry area for a
more complex search.
For example,
Decision support ______________ All-Smart Search
And
Business information ___________ All-Smart Search
And
Executive support ________ All-Smart Search
sorted by relevance will retrieve 1674 records.
Databases in general that will provide in formation in the
area of Business Information Systems include
ABI Inform
Academies of Science Abstracts
Current Research
Dissertation Abstracts
EBSCOHost-Academic Search Premier
Emerald
GPO
InfoTract-Expanded Academic ASAP
Lexis-Nexis
3. Locating Print and Electronic Journal Articles
The quickest way to locate and access journals is via Full-text Electronic, Print and
Microform Journal Holdings.
You will find this service on the Library’s web page. This
Service will provide you with
accessibility to the journals you are looking for
the list of databases that include the journals you are looking for

19. IV. Search TSU Online Catalog for Print and Electronic
Books and Other Resources
1. How to Use the TSU Online Catalog?
The access points in finding a book in the area of Decision Support Systems are keyword,
subject, author and title.
Keyword Search is a primary method for searching for a topic. It allows you to search
for individual words in the title, subject and other fields in the bibliographic record. This
is generally the easiest type of search to do, but it also produces the largest hit list. You
may limit the number of items retrieved by using operators and qualifiers discussed under
Search Commands. You will find Keyword search in The Library’ online catalog. For a
successful keyword search for Robotics, you need to identify Main Concepts- For
example,” what is the impact of Decision Support Systems in manufacturing?” The main
concepts can be impact, Decision Support Systems and manufacturing.
Choice of Words- You may try use those key terms that
may be used to describe your main concept. For example,
impact: impacting, influence, resulting
Decision Support: data mining, databases
manufacturing: industry, manufacturers
Subject Search is a method of searching by using subject headings. The online catalog
automatically does it for you. Subject heading describes the items and there are one or
more subject headings assigned to them. The TSU Library uses Library of Congress
Subject Headings. You may want to consult the Library Of Congress Subject Headings
located at the Circulation Desk to make sure that you are using the correct words for a
subject search. For example, if you use the subject heading Decision support, you may
retrieve a book titled “VBA for modelers : developing decision support systems with
Microsoft Excel”. You can look for additional books in the area of Decision support by
using the suggested subject headings in the record, including Microsoft Visual Basic for
applications., Microsoft Excel (Computer file) and Microsoft Visual Basic for
Applications.
Author Search is used when you have the name of an author and would like to retrieve a
list of items written by that author. For example, if you do an author search under Young,
John Frederick, you will find three (3) books located in the TSU Library. They are
Cybernetic Engineering, Cybernetics and Robotics. You may search the online catalog
under Author Search by typing the author’s last name first and first name last. If you need
to find information about the author, in this case, John Frederick Young, you may do a
subject research using his last name, first name.
Title Search is used when you know the title of an item. One point to remember is that if
the title begins with an A, An or the, disregard them and search under the second word of
the title. Do not discard the articles in between words. Title Search works best if you are

20. looking for a specific item and know the exact title. If you do not know the title, a Subject
Search would yield better results.
Search Commands- the following commands may be used in searching most databases.
Same may be titled and used somewhat differently. You may use the following search
commands for a successful search:
BOOLEAN OPERATORS
AND is used when you want the records to include
both search terms to narrow a search. For example,
Decision AND Support. In this case you are
limiting your search to only Robotics and Car
Manufacturing.
OR is used to find records in which one or both search
terms appear thus broadening the search. For example,
Decision OR Support. In this case you are broadening
your search to include Robotics and automation in
general.
NOT is used find those records that contain the first search
term but not the second search term. In this case those
articles containing both terms are not retrieved. For
example, (Decision Support) NOT (Group Decision Support). You will find
articles only about Robotics. Articles with Automation will not be retrieved.
Truncation is used to retrieve variant endings of a word.
For example, Robot* will retrieve any words starting with Robot-Robots, etc.
( ) Parentheses will signal priority and order. For example,
(robotics*OR automation*) AND car manufacturing*
will first find records containing words that start with
Robotics or words that start with Automation or both, then
those records that also mention words that start with Car
Manufacturing.
# Pound Sign represents a single character. For example, Robot# will retrieve robot and
robots.
? Question Mark represents characters at the end of a
search term. For example, Computer? may retrieve records
about Computer, computers, computerization and business? may retrieve Business,
Businesses, Businessman.
SEARCH QUALIFIERS
Search Qualifiers include author (au), title (ti), and
subject(su). They will allow you to limit your search to
specific fields. By using the Search Qualifiers you can
speed up response time and narrow the search to the more

21. relevant records. For example,
su robotics not manufacturing will retrieve all
records on the subject of robotics that do not
contain the word manufacturing anywhere in the
record.
ti (Decision Suppport) and au Young will retrieve all records with
the words decision support in the title field and Young in the
author field
TIPS:
1. When you search the Library’s Online Catalog, you should start with a
keyword (Word/Phrase) search. For a successful search, find relevant subject
headings and use them for your search.
For example, a Keyword search in the Library’s online
Catalog in the order below will retrieve 818 resources:
(robots* or automation*)
2. Online Library Catalogs may differ, some of the features of the TSU
Online Catalog are as follows:
Searching by
Author, Title and Subject
Searching for keyword(s) in
Author, Title and Subject
Limiting the Searches by
Dates: from 1900-
Language: All languages, English, French,
German, Italian and Spanish
Material Type: All materials, books, Serials,
AV materials, Music Recordings, etc.
Numeric Searches by
Call Number
OCLC Number
LC Card Number
Reference Number

22. ISBN- International Standard Book Number
ISSN- International Standard Serial Number
Sorting your findings by
Unsorted
Author
Title
Subject
Material
Date (Ascending)
Date (Descending)
Help Window will assist you in properly using the
Library’s Online Catalog. You will find information
about the System, Easy search, Numeric Search,
Advanced Search, reserve Room, Local Info, Your
Account and List of Topics/Links
2. Location of Materials
In the AWC Library, on the first floor of the AWC campus books are arranged according
to the Library of Congress Classification from classification A to Z. Journals are also
housed there, current ones alphabetically, bound volumes on shelves according to Library
of Congress classification. Reference Books are arranged on the shelves by Library of
Congress classification.
3. Library of Congress Classification System
This system is used so that each book and journal are identified by their subject, assigned
an alphanumeric call number and placed on the shelves according to that number with the
similar resources for easy access and browsing. Major classification headings used in the
area of Business Information Systems are as follows:
HD 28-70 Management, Industrial Management
HF 5546-5548.85 Office Management
T 58.5-58.64 Information Technology
T 58.6-58.62 Management Information Systems

23. TA 7885-7895 Systems Engineering
TK 7885-7895 Computer Engineering and Hardware
4. What is a Call Number?
As mentioned before, books and some periodicals are
arranged on the shelves according to the Library of
Congress Classification system. According to this
system each book or periodical is assigned an alphanumeric call number based on its
subject content. This specific call number identifies the item and places it on the shelves
with the items on the same subject.
5. How to Read a Call Number?
Each call number has several parts. For example, the
following call number
HD
30.213
.M36
1999
gives us the following information:
The first line HD defines the class or subclass. It defines the broad subject area within
class H for Social Sciences and HD represents the the subclass Industries, Land Use and
Labor.
The second line 30.213 is the classification number. When
browsing the shelves for this book, you need to read this number as a whole number with
a decimal component to determine its location on the shelf. Combined with class and
subclass, the classification number defines the subject matter more precisely. In the above
example, HD 30.213 represents Industrial Management which is a subdivision of HD-
Industries, Land Use and Labor, which in turn is in the broader subject field of H for
Social Sciences.
The third line of the call number is called the Cutter
Number. It is a combination of letters and numbers that
usually indicates author. However, sometimes it may
represent a subject division. Some items may have double
cutter numbers. Always interpret the numeric part of the
cutter number as a decimal number when you browse the
shelves. Thus, the numeric component of .M36 should be
read as .36. Therefore, HD 30.213 .M36 1999 should be
shelved before HD 30.213 .R707 1999.
The year of publication of the item, in this case 1999, may also be present. The items are
shelved in chronological order which often distinguishes items by varying editions of that
item.
The items with the following call numbers should be on the shelves in the order below:

24. HF LB QP T
5382.5 1028.3 144 56.23
U5 H355 F52 H36
. C32 2001 H36 . 2001
2002 2001
2003
5. Electronic Books- Your library provides access to electronic
books via its web page at
http://www.tnstate.edu/library/Catalogs.html
Currently you can read general interest electronic books via netLibrary or technical
electronic books via Safari. In addition you may find electronic books via the Library’s
online catalog. The icon for an electronic book is a floppy disk

25. V. Explore Internet Resources
The Internet contains a vast number of electronic documents created by individuals and
institutions that reside on computers (servers) world wide and are linked by hyper-links.
Structure and attributes of the Internet: While the Internet is one giant database, it has
no organizational structure. Most information on the
Internet is free, however, some require a subscription.
For example, you may access some newspapers free
and may be able to read news items in their entirety.
Some may only allow you to read the abstracts of the
headline and require subscription for complete access. The most important thing
to keep in mind about the Internet is that the information it offers is not screened
or edited. Note: The databases your library offers on the web are Screened and
edited.
Search Tools for the Internet
1. Search Engines- are used to search for vast
amount of resources on the Internet. These
engines are very useful when searching unique
word or phrases. When choosing a search
engine you should keep in mind that each
search engine searches a different number and
type of sources. Following are the most popular:
Google (http://www.google.com) – has
been voted as the Most Outstanding Search
Engine for three times. This crawler-based
service provides comprehensive and relevant
coverage of the web. It is highly
recommended as a first stop in you hunt for
whatever you are looking for. For more
information about Google go to
http://searchenginewatch.com.
AllTheWeb.com
(http://www.alltheweb.com)- is an excellent
crawler-based search engine. It provides
both comprehensive coverage of the web
and outstanding relevancy. If you tried
Google and did not find it, AllTheWeb
should be next on your list.
Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) – is Internet’s oldest directory, launched in
1994.
Yahoo began using crawler based listing in
2002 for its main results. Yahoo is
important because it enhances Google’s
listings with information from its own

26. directory may make search results more
readable. Yahoo will help you to narrow and
refine your query.
AltaVista (http://www,altavista.com)-
provides access to 31 million pages found
on 627,000 servers and four million articles
from 14,000 Usenet news groups.
Ask Jeeves (http://www.askjeeves.com)-
gained fame in 1998 and 1999 as being the
“natural language” search engine that let you
search by asking questions and responded
with what seemed to be the right answer to
everything. Actually 100 editors monitored
the search logs. They then went out on to the
web and located what seemed to be the best
sites to match the most popular queries.
Today, Ask Jeeves depends on crawler-
based technology to provide results to its
users.
HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com)- provides
easy access to the web’s four major crawler-
based search engines: AllTheWeb, Google,
Inktomi and Teoma. However, unlike “meta
search engine”, it cannot blend the results
from all of these crawlers together.
Nevertheless, it is a fast and easy way to get
different web search opinions in one place.
HotBot has a strong following among
serious searchers for the quality and
comprehensiveness of its crawler-based
results.
Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com) – is a
popular metasearch site that sends a search
to a customizable list of search engines,
directories and specialty search sites, then
displays results from each search engine
individually.
Search Engine Tips-
When you get ready to search via a search
engine, always look for the “help” button.
You need to be on the look out for the type
of results you may get. For example, if you
choose AltaVista, keep in mind that it uses
free-text-indexing which means that
whatever search term is entered, it is looked

27. for anywhere in the entire document. As a
result, you may retrieve hundreds or
thousands of documents that may have very
little or no relevancy for your search.
Search Features-
Search Engine Math Commands are as
follows:
Command How Supported By
Must include + All engines
term
Must exclude - All engines
term
Must include “ “ All engines
phrase
Match all Automatic at All engines
terms
Via AllTheWeb,
Advanced AltaVista.
Search Google,
Yahoo
Match any OR Alta Vista,
Terms Ask Jeeves,
Google,
HotBot,
Yahoo,
AllTheWeb
Try to be specific- tell a search engine
exactly what you are looking for. For
example, imagine you want to find pages
that have references to both computers and
business technology on the same page. You
could search this way by using the +
addition symbol:
+computers+technology+business
You will find only pages that contain all three
words, computers, technology and business .
You will find pages that have all three of the
words on them. This search is helpful if you
want to narrow or refine your search.
You may want to use Quotation marks, “ “
to multiply terms through a phrase search
and retrieve only pages that have all the
words in the exact order you want.

28. For example,
“decision support systems”
will retrieve pages that use “decision support systems”
in the exact order.
Power Searching Commands are:
Command How Supported by
Title Search title: AltaVista,
AllTheWeb
intitle: Google,
Teoma
allintitle: Google
host: AltaVista
site: Google,
Yahoo
Site Search
url.host: AllTheWeb
domain HotBot
none: HotBot,
Yahoo
url: AltaVista
url.all: AllTheWeb
URL Search
allinurl: Google
inurl
u: Yahoo
none: HotBot
link: AltaVista,
Google
Link Search
linkdomain: HotBot
linkall: AllTheWeb,
none: HotBot,
Yahoo
Yahoo
? AOL
Wildcard
% Northern
Lights
None: AllTheWeb,
Google,
Hotbot
Anchor None: Google,
Search HotBot
Types of Web Sites
Internet offers a vast number of web sites that

29. provide varied information such as news,
advertisement, entertainment, and personal data.
You can distinguish the nature of web sites by
looking at their URL domains. URL stands for
Uniform Resource Locator, an Internet address
which tells a browser where to find an Internet
resources. For example, the URL for your library is
http://www.tnstate.edu/library.
There are 4 broad categories of web sites you can
distinguish by their URL domain. They are:
Educational institution-
Domain: .edu (http://www.tnstate.edu)
Government site-
Domain: .gov (http://www.senate.gov)
Organizations or associations-
Domain: .org (http://www.ala.org)
Commercially based sites-
Domain: .com (http://www.cocacola.com)
Categories of Information on the Internet
1. Free Web Sites with Valuable
Information
It is recommended that you should do your
research by using your library’s electronic
and print resources accessible from the
Library’s web page. However, you may find
some valuable information on the web in the
areas listed below:
Current Company Information- You can
read information about a company from its
web site. However, the information you
obtain may be slanted to favor that
company. You can use the search engines or
directories on the Internet to find the
information you need. Always keep in mind
that your library has pertinent and unbiased
information available for you via electronic
and print resources. For example, you can
use the search engine Google to look up
information about Lockheed Aircraft
Company. You will find 786,000 hits or
results. If you look up IBM via the same
search engine, you will find 22,100,000 hits.
Current Events or Topics- Web is very
useful in finding information about current
events because it provides immediate
information on very recent events. For

30. example, you can find the most recent
pictures of NASA experiments on the web
before the print version arrives.
State and Federal Government Information-
Most state and government agencies have
their own web sites that provide information
about their offices, policies, census data,
congressional hearings and others. For
example, you can find information about
Tennessee Department of Transportation by
either looking for it via a search engine on
the Internet or via your library’s web site
under Tennessee Resources. If you need
information about the Federal Government,
you can either search via a search engine or
you can go to your library’s web site and
look under U.S. Government Resources.
Information About and From Associations,
Organizations and Others- If you are
looking for information about an association
pertaining to contact information, or share
information, you may find the web site and
get in touch with the organization. For
example, you may want to see the type of
information is provided by the Association for Information Systems.
You can search for the web site via Google or
another search engine.
The url for this organization is http://www.aisnet.org
WWW Resources at TSU-
1. Virtual Reference-
2. Tennessee Resources
3.Government Resources
Web Sites in Business Information Systems

31. VI. Evaluate Research Materials
Criteria to Evaluate Research Materials in Business Information Systems-
After you have located various materials on your
topic, you should evaluate them to determine their
usefulness, quality and authority. Keep in mind that
evaluating the information you have located is one
of the major skills of library research process. In
evaluating information in the field of Business Information Systems,
you should apply the ten criteria below:
1. Author’s qualifications or credentials-
Is the author practicing in the field? Is he
an authority in the field? How many
articles or books he has written on the
topic?
2. The Timeliness of the Publication- Is the
information timely or out-of-date for your
topic? When was the information created?
Check the publication dates. Is the
information updated regularly, if so, how
often is it updated? Some information are
updated daily, some weekly and monthly.
Is the information still valid for your
topic? If you need the very current
information then timeliness is a must for
you. But, if you are looking for the
historical perspective of your topic, then
timeliness may not be crucial.
3. Accurate and Factual Information Supported
by Evidence- Does the information you
have located come from authoritative
sources? If the information came from a
journal in a database, is the journal
refereed? Refereed journals or
publications are the ones that contain
information reviewed by several experts
in the field. Is there a review about
the book you will use as a source? How
thoroughly the information is edited and
reviewed? If you obtained the
information from a web site, how stable
or permanent is the information? Some
information will remain accessible and
valid over time than the others. Is the
coverage of your topic complete? To find
about this question, you may check the
table of contents, index, or abstract or

32. summary of the source. Are the factual
statements well documented or footnoted
so you can verify them for accuracy?
4. Primary vs. Secondary Sources- You can
locate your information from two types
of materials:
Primary Sources: These are the first-
hand or eye-witness accounts of an
event. They include, newspaper stories,
reports of experiments, statistics,
government documents, autobiographies
and letters. For example, AT&T
Technical Reports, NASA Reports, and
others.
Secondary Sources: These are the
sources that analyze, relate, evaluate or
criticize based on information gathered from Primary
Sources.
5. Reputation of the Publisher- Check out the
publisher of the source. If the publisher
is a university press then it is likely to
be scholarly. Even though you cannot
always guarantee quality based on the
publisher’s reputation, it may be a sign
that the publisher has a regard for the
type of sources it publishes. For
example, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley and Sons, Microsoft,
Kluwer Academic, CRC, and Harvard Business School Publishing are
publishers in Business Information Systems
and other areas.
6. Type of Publication- is the source scholarly,
popular, trade or government
publication? Is the journal scholarly or
popular? You need to make a
distinction because it indicates different
levels of complexity in introducing
ideas.
Scholarly Journals- the Websters
Third International Dictionary
definition of a scholarly journal is a
publication that is concerned with
academic study, especially research;
exhibiting the methods and attitudes
of a scholar; and having a manner
and appearance of a scholar. These
journals usually have a serious look

33. and contain various graphs, charts
and other statistical information. The
articles in these journals always cite
their resources in the form of
footnotes or bibliographies. The
authors of the articles are scholars in
the field or someone who has done
research in the field. The language
used is discipline related. Scholarly
journals aim to report on original
research or experimentation and
disseminate it for scholarly use.
Examples of Scholarly Journals
include, Journal of Communications
and Networks, Infoworld, Information Systems, Learning & Leading w/
Technology, Network Computing and others.
General Interest and News
Publications- These publications
are attractive in appearance, their
format can be a journal or a
newspaper. The articles contained in
these sources may be written by
editorial staff, scholars or free lance
writers. The language used is for the
general public. They are published
by commercial entities, individuals
and/or professional organizations.
The aim of these sources is to
provide information to a broad
audience of concerned citizens.
Some examples are Popular
Mechanics, Scientific American,
New York Times, National
Geographic and others.
Popular Journals- these sources are
attractive in appearance. They
contain many photographs,
drawings. They very rarely cite
sources and information they contain
are usually second or third hand. The
articles are in general with very little
depth. The popular journals are for
entertaining the reader, selling
products or promoting a viewpoint.
Some examples are People Weekly,

34. Traditional Homes, Vogue, Good
Housekeeping, Southern Living,
Essence and others.
Sensational, Tabloid Publications- use
elementary language that is often
sensational. They aim to arouse
curiosity with flashy headlines.
Some examples are National
Inquirer, Globe, Weekly World
News, Star, and others.
Criteria to Evaluate the Web Resources
You can find a vast amount of information on the
Internet, however, not all resources are equally
valuable or even reliable. Your challenge is to sift
through the vast amount of information and
pinpoint those sources that are reliable and relevant
for your topic. As a rule the, informational web
pages present factual information. For example, the
web pages with URL addresses that end with .edu or
.gov provide reliable information since they are
sponsored by educational institutions or government
agencies. You may consider the following points in
evaluating web sources:
1. Scope- How complete is the information covered?
Is the information given in detail?
2. Content- Is the information accurate
or factual and reflects the
opinion of the author? Does the
author list his/her sources for
verification? Is the information
biased? Does the information
clearly provide the name(s) of
person(s) or organizations
responsible for the content of
the information? Is the author
qualified to provide the
information? How current is
the information? Do you see
dates as to when it was written
and when it was last revised or
or updated? Are there links to
other related resources? If so,
are they up-to-date? Is the text
well written and
communicated clearly?
3. Graphics and Multimedia Design- Is the

35. Page attractive and Interesting to look at?
4. Navigation- is the web resource easy to
use? Is it user friendly? Can you access
the resource via standard computer
equipment and software?

36. VIII. Write the Research Paper
1. Organization of Information
Now that you have gathered the pertinent
information, it is time to organize it. You may look
at the organization of your information as if you are
organizing your desk drawer or closet. Similar items
are grouped together for easy access. In writing
your research paper, you may group your
information by similar concepts. For example, if
you are using the web to gather information, you
may bookmark them under a concept. One of the
best ways to organize information is to create an
outline, kind of a skeleton that you will later fill
with information. In an outline information is
arranged by hierarchy and sequence. This is done
by identifying Main Topics, Subtopics,
detailed information under subtopics,
Conclusion and Bibliography.. An outline would also contain forward, preface and
table of contents.
An outline may look like this:
I. Main Topic
A. Sub-Topic
1. Detail
2. Detail
3. Detail
B. Sub-Topic
1. Detail
2. Detail
3. Detail
C. Sub-Topic
1. Detail
2. Detail
For example, the book titled “Decision Support Systems in the 21st Century“ by George
M. Marakas has the following outline:
Chapter 2- The Decision Maker
2-1 Decision Makers-Who Are They?
2-2 Decision Styles
2-3 Decision Effectiveness
2-4 How Can a DSS Help?
2-5 Chapter Summary
Chapter 4- Decisions in the Organization
4-1 Understanding the Organization

37. 4-2 Organizational Culture
4-3 Power and Politics
4-4 Supporting Organizational Decision Making
4-5 Chapter Summary
Chapter 5 Modeling Decision Processes
5-1Defining the Problem and Its Structure
5-2Decision Models
5-3 Types of Probability
5-4 Techniques for Forecasting Probabilities
5-5 Calibration and Sensitivity
5-6 Chapter Summary
References
Index
In this example, the title is “Decision Support Systems in the 21st Century“
The author organized the information into
four Main Topics. They are The Decision Maker, Decisions in the
Organization, and Modeling Decision Processes. These are in turn
refined into subtopics such as Decision Models, Types of Probability,
Techniques for Calibration, and Calibration and Sensitivity.
2. Citing Sources and Ethical Issues-
While writing your paper, no doubt, you will need
outside support for your thesis or point of view.
That is, you will use quotes from other researchers.
When you incorporate someone else’s ideas or
material in your paper, you are obligated to give
credit to the original author. You can give this credit
by citing other authors’ works in your paper. These
citations must be complete and they include books,
journal or newspaper articles, Internet sources. Etc.
Failure to cite the source material is unethical and it
called “ plagiarism “.
You can cite your sources properly by using a
variety of formats available in the following
categories:
Science- CBE (Council of Biology Editors)
Social Sciences- APA ( American
Psychological Association)
Humanities- MLA (Modern Language Association)
History- Chicago Manual of Style.
Tips
You should pick a style that fits your research
topic and use it consistently.
Make sure that you provide a complete citation so

38. that persons reading your research can locate the
information you are citing.
Examples-
Footnotes:
Print materials-
Electronic resources-
Bibliographies:
Print materials-
American Psychological Association (APA) Style
Books-
The bibliographic citation for a book is
generally document as follows:
Anahory, Sam. (1997). Data warehousing in the real world : a practical guide for
building decision support systems.
Harlow, England ; Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley.
( Notice that the title of the book is in
Italics)
Journals-
Horn, Andreas L.; During, Rolf-Alexander; Gath, Stefan.
(2001). “Comparison of decision support systems for an optimised application of
compost and sewage sludge on agricultural land based on heavy metal accumulation
in soil.”
Science of the Total Environment, v 311, n 1-3, p 35-48.
(Notice that the title of the journal is in
Italics)
Modern language Association (MLA)
Books-
Anahory, Sam. Data warehousing in the real world : a practical guide for building
decision support systems. Harlow, England ; Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1997.
( Notice that the author’s name is given
in full and the publication date of the
book is entered at the end of the
citation. There are two spaces after
each period)
Journals- (scholarly)
Horn, Andreas L., During, Rolf-Alexander, Gath, Stefan.
“Comparison of decision support systems for an optimised application of
compost and sewage sludge on agricultural land based on heavy metal accumulation
in soil.” Science of the Total Environment, 311. 1-3. (Jul 20, 2003): 35-48.
( Notice that the title of the article is in
quotation marks, both the volume and
the issue number and the month or
season and year of the publication is
given. The month or the season and the
year of publication are in parenthesis)
Electronic resources-