BNMG 310 Organizational Behavior & Management: Sustainability

Steps in a Successful Research Process:

1. Identify Your Topic - The topic is the idea that you are researching. Example: Affects of caffeine on a student memory.
2. Gather Background Information -  Get a broad overview of the subject or topic. Encyclopedias, Dictionaries and websites can provide you with background information on your topic.This is important, because background sources give you the language that people are using to discuss your topic. You will use this language when you start to search databases for scholarly articles and resources on the topic. This "pre-research" also gives you a sense if your topic is focused enough. If your initial searches bring back so many results you can't even figure out what the language people are using to discuss your topic, then you should consider narrowing your topic. Remember, background information is always a starting point for research, not an ending point.
3. Focus Your Research - Gather in-depth, focused information on the topic.
4. Evaluate Your Sources - Does the author have authority on the topic? What are author's credentials? What is the purpose of the source? How will it impact your research?

Conducting research in the library catalog and databases is different than searching in Google. When you're searching for articles in the catalog or databases, you'll want to write down as many keywords and phrases that best describe your topic/subject as possible. It's a good idea to brainstorm for related terms. Use the operators, AND, OR, NOT when combining your keywords.  

1) Start with keyword(s) and/or phrase(s) that are as specific as possible. For example: "How does sustainability management impact business profits?"

Your keywords would be 'sustainability management', 'business' and 'profits'

2) Brainstorm for related terms (Try using a Thesaurus to generate synonyms).

 Even if a combination of words works well in one database, you may have to change keywords to find results in another database. 

3) Create your search by combining your keywords using Boolean Operators AND, OR, NOT:

• AND =   All words must be present; helps limit the search.
  • sustain* management AND company performance
  • corporate social responsibility  AND earning transparency
• OR = Great for synonyms or variations of the same concept; helps broaden the search while staying within the subject area.
  • sustain* management OR corporate social responsibility
  • sustain* AND (corporate OR business)
  • corporation OR business OR supply chain
• NOT = Exclude an unrelated term, or to weed out irrelevant results.
  • renewable energy NOT biofuel
  • (food waste AND restaurants) NOT grocery stores

Search Tips:

• Nesting  =  Group terms together using parentheses. Terms within the parentheses will be processed first.
  • Example: "Alaska AND (Denali OR McKinley)"

• Phrase Searches = Use a phrase search to search for certain words as a group. You can do a phrase search by enclosing a phrase in quotation marks to ensure that the database searches for the entire phrase, in the specific order you provided. 
  • Example: "economic stimulus package," "climate change," "healthcare reform."

• Truncation Marks = A truncation mark is a symbol that is added to the end or beginning of the root of a word to instruct the database to search for all forms of that word. The asterisk (*) is used in many databases for truncation. 
  • Example: adolescen* retrieves adolescent, adolescents, or adolescence.
  • Example: develop* retrieves develops, developing, or development