MNGT 360

Once you have a grasp of what distinguishes scholarly articles from popular articles, you are better situated to begin looking for and identifying them.

Google is a great source of information, and you can definitely find both types of articles there--but it takes a bit more effort on your part to separate them from the other types of search results you get.  In other words, don't expect to find your perfect articles on page 1 of your Google search results list!  Or maybe not even page 2. . .

Instead you will want to start your searching in one of the University Libraries article databases.  An article database allows you to search for articles on a topic across a wide number of different publications over a wide number of years.  Article databases differ as to the types of publications they include and search (e.g., scholarly or popular), the subjects that they cover (e.g., general of subject-specific) and the dates they include (e.g., current or historical). 

This database is (surprise!) focused on business publications and business topics.  It includes scholarly journals, business-focused popular magazines (like Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, Forbes), and business-focused newspapers.  That means that you can find both scholarly and popular articles in a single search.

Business Source Complete is where most people looking for business research articles would begin.

A topic may be covered in publications coming from different subject areas.  In this instance, organizational research is produced in both the areas of business and psychology.  As a result, it may be useful to do some searching in this database as well.

Google Scholar is a specialized subset of the larger Google web index.  Its purpose is to allow you to search broadly for "scholarly literature."  This sounds great in theory, but unlike traditional library databases, there isn't a list of all of the scholarly journals that might be included in the index, the dates that they cover, etc.  You could find one article from an issue of a journal but that doesn't necessarily mean that all of the other articles from that issue will be searchable.  It is more of a mystery.  However, Google Scholar's primary strength is that it allows you to do a more comprehensive search across multiple academic disciplines.  This can be quite helpful, especially as you are beginning to explore a top

Academic Search Premier is very similar to Business Search Complete--in fact, they are provided by the same vendor and have the same search interface.  While Business Source Complete is focused on business, Academic Search Premier is more like Google Scholar in that it covers a wide range of subjects and academic disciplines but not in great depth.  So you will be able to find business-related articles in Academic Search Premier, but not nearly as many as you would find in Business Search Complete.

Academic Search Premier is also a good way to access more general popular magazines.