First, follow your professor's instructions, as some may require the "APA" style, others the "Chicago" style, and so on.

A copy of the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association is available in print at the Rod Library Reference Desk, as is a copy of the APA Style Guide to Electronic Resources. The APA style is summarized at this page.

The Chicago Manual of Style is also kept at the Rod Library Reference Desk. This quick guide from The Chicago Manual of Style Online provides tips on how to cite different types of publications.

The Library at UNC-Greensboro has done a nice summary of how to cite articles and documents from business databases like Mintel. It recommends citing Mintel reports in APA style as follows:

Mintel. (2008, December). Breakfast Foods: the Consumer - US. Retrieved from http://academic.mintel.com/.

This guide prepared by the Library at Boston University provides suggestions on how to cite sources from business databases in Chicago style.

Posted by Stanley Lyle at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Professors may require that all or at least some sources for assignments come from "academic" or "scholarly" journals. Both terms are used to describe such journals. So what is an academic journal?

A "journal" is a publication that is published on a regular basis such as four or twelve times a year. Academic journal articles are aimed at faculty, students, and other researchers in a field. Published academic journal articles typically have been evaluated and "graded" by two or more experts in the field before being published.

Academic journal articles typically include a list of works cited (references). The authors are named and their academic qualifications and affiliations are listed. Academic journal articles often report on an empirical study and include sections such as a literature review, description of the methodology used in the study, the results, and discussion and implication of the results.

This page goes into more detail on the characteristics of academic journals, particularly in comparison with magazines.

Rod Library databases provide ways to help identify academic or scholarly journal articles in accounting, economics, finance, management, and marketing. ABI/INFORM Global is one example; the database publisher arranges search results by publication type, including Scholarly Journals. While this method does NOT work perfectly, it does speed up the process of finding scholarly or academic journal articles on a topic.

ABI/INFORM and other business databases with this feature such as Business Source Elite and Business & Company Resource Center can be accessed from the Rod Library home page under Databases A-Z or from the Rod Library Business Portal.

Posted by Stanley Lyle at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Having trouble finding appropriate sources for your assignments? Or just want to speed up the research process for an upcoming paper?

Individual students and groups can request extensive assistance with a research project by scheduling a consultation with a librarian. A research consultation usually lasts 45 - 60 minutes. The librarian will suggest search terms, research tools, and strategies oriented toward a specific topic being studied by an individual or group.

Fill out the form at http://www.uni.edu/library/researchconsultation/ to request an appointment (48 hours in advance).

More immediate assistance can be obtained by contacting the Rod Library reference desk via IM, phone, email, or in person: http://www.library.uni.edu/ris/ask.shtml

Students can also get help this semester from reference librarians Stan Lyle or Tom Kessler in the Curris Business Building student lounge, Mondays from 12 noon to 2 pm and Thursdays from 10 am to 12 noon. CBA students also can contact Stan Lyle directly to schedule a research consultation (stanley.lyle@uni.edu).

Posted by Stanley Lyle at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)