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CoB Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

This guide will introduce you to foundational research skills to begin your journey as a research assistant.

Develop a Search Strategy

At this point, ask yourself the question “What do I know or not know about this issue?" Start examining sources to come to a greater understanding of the state of knowledge. The individual pieces (arguments) must be put together in order to reveal the whole picture.

Once your research question or topic is formulated, it is time to start searching the literature. The following steps can help in developing an effective search strategy:

  1. Create search terms and concepts from a research question
  2. Or transform your topic into a question and identify major terms and concepts
  3. Identify related synonyms to search terms and concepts
  4. Rephrase your question, as it helps to avoid word fixedness that may limit your search results

Find Scholarly Articles on Business Topics

These databases are best for finding scholarly articles about business topics.

Questions about connecting from off-campus? Review the off-campus access page.

These databases are best for finding scholarly articles about Hospitality & Sport Recreation topics.

Questions about connecting from off-campus? Review the off-campus access page.

Use the Research Guide for your faculty member's department to dive deeper into discipline-specific databases.

Using Google for Research

Google is another great resource that can be used to find news articles, blogs, background information on a topic, etc. However, many resources you find in Google, like business news articles from the New York Times or magazine articles from The Economist, will be locked behind a paywall  -- making it look as if you need to pay for access to these articles.

Often, these are resources that JMU Libraries already pays for you to read. Check with one of JMU's business librarians to see whether the full-text article is available for free.

When looking specifically for articles from scholarly journals, it's best to use Google Scholar -- a search engine that specifically searches scholarly literature and academic resources.

Prefer Searching in Google?

Try these tips to access Libraries' resources more seamlessly while in Google.

Does JMU Libraries Subscribe to a Journal?

Has your faculty member suggested you review articles in a specific journal, such as the Journal of Consumer Psychology? 

Use this search box to see if JMU subscribes and review the articles in its most recent issue.

Search for journals, newspapers, and magazines

 

 

Alternatively, you can use skim these lists of scholarly journals in different subjects that are available through JMU Libraries.

Find an Article from a Citation

Often, simply searching the title of an article in quotation marks in Google Scholar will bring you to the electronic version.

Follow these steps to link Google Scholar to JMU libraries. Then you should be able to click Get JMU Access to open the article.   

This video shows how to identify the journal title from a citation.

 

If JMU doesn't have access to the full-text of the article, we can borrow it from another library -- at no cost to you. Interlibrary Loan is a service for requesting articles and other materials that are not available in any JMU Libraries collections.

We can retrieve the articles you need within a few days -- and sometimes within just a few hours! 

All students, faculty, and staff with a valid JMU e-ID can use Interlibrary Loan services.