This document provides guidance on finding and accessing electronic journal articles. It discusses introducing journals, searching for a specific article, the four stages of literature searching including defining keywords and choosing a database, and search techniques using Boolean logic and limiters. The focus is on accessing the over 41,000 electronic journals available through the Manchester Business School library.

1. Finding electronic
journal articles
John Hynes– MBS Library Service
Tel: 0161 275 6501
Email: john.hynes@manchester.ac.uk
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/library

2. Introduction
Introduction to journals – JRUL journals
Download of a specific journal article
Introduction to literature searching (4 stages)
Bibliographic databases – Which should I use?
Bibliographic databases – How to search
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/library

3. Introducing journals
Academic (peer-reviewed) journals contain scholarship
relating to a particular academic discipline.
Will present research findings, or provide critique / new
interpretations of existing theories.
There are 3 major types of journal “Academic”
(often peer-reviewed), “Mass market” & “Trade”.
Internet has revolutionised production of and access to
journal articles.
Journal articles are added to bibliographic databases as
soon as they are published.

4. Article search
• We subscribe to over 41,000
individual journal titles
• Pay close attention to citation detail
before accessing: All elements are
important, but the JOURNAL TITLE is
key to locating an individual article:
Cuenda, Ana and Angel R. Nebreda.
2009. "p38[delta] and PKD1: Kinase
Switches for Insulin Secretion." Cell
136(2):209-210.
• Use the A-Z listing of e-journal titles
to locate the article: Follow the links
from www.mbs.ac.uk/library
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/library

5. Literature searching
Stage 1: Carefully define your research topic in terms
of keywords.
Stage 2: Identify appropriate sources of information to
run your search.
Stage 3: Search the information source(s).
Stage 4: Download relevant search results.
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/library

6. Identifying keywords
Focus first of all on WHAT you are searching for…
Think about your research topic - Select 2 – 3 terms describe the subject you
are focusing on.
e.g.“Impact of the economic downturn on the UK
Retailing industry”
e.g.
- Economic downturn (Recession / Credit crunch)
- UK (United Kingdom / Great Britain)
- Retailing Industry (Retail* / shop* / High Street)

7. Choosing an information source
• Subject specialist databases
• JSTOR
• Library Search
• Our bibliographic databases provide access to high quality (peer-review) articles from
leading business & management periodicals.
• They also provide you with advanced searching facilities which help you to retrieve more
relevant articles.
• Search engines such as Google Scholar will also return articles that we do not have access
to and /or direct you to wrong login point when off-campus.
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/library

8. Search techniques
Use Boolean logic – (AND, OR & NOT)
• AND will link the terms to find only
articles that mention both concepts –
eg: tobacco AND advertising
• OR will broaden the search by looking
for synonyms, alternative spellings,
abbreviations and plurals –
eg: United Nations OR UN
• NOT can be used when you need to
narrow the search by excluding certain
keywords or concepts –
eg: industrial action NOT fire service
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/library

9. Search techniques
Adding limiters to the search will reduce the number of results
received, and also improve the relevance of those returned.
Restrict your text search to scan journal abstracts rather than
full text.
Set date parameters for search e.g. 1/1/2007 – 31/10/2008.
Restrict search to certain publication types (e.g. academic
journals) or to specific titles.
Use subject specific limiters such as the “company” field in
B&M databases.
http://www.mbs.ac.uk/library