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Human Resources Management & Development at Webster University Library

How to search Business Source Complete

Business Source Complete, our largest business and management article database, offers scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, trade publications and business magazines. It is often the best place to start searching for articles.  Here's a brief (2-page PDF document) tip sheet on how to get started with a search.

Some common subject search terms

  • Personnel management (note that human resources is not a valid subject)
  • Career development
  • Compensation management
  • Employee fringe benefits
  • Employee recruitment
  • Employee retention
  • Employee reviews
  • Employee training
  • Human capital
  • Human resources departments
  • Labor laws & legislation
  • Occupational training
  • Organizational learning
  • Organizational performance
  • Personnel changes

Journals (e.g. peer-reviewed) vs. popular magazines

Types of periodicals

Scholarly/academic journals, e.g. The Career Development Quartetly or Human Resources Management Journal may be peer-reviewed and provide research findings in a discipline.

Trade publications, like HR Magazine or Chief Learning Officer, inform or educate professionals in an industry or management function (e.g. human resources).

Popular magazines, like Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, Harvard Business Review, and newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, inform or entertain the general public.

If in doubt, ask your professor what kinds of periodicals s/he prefers you to use for the assignment.

Additional article databases

These databases may provide a different focus for your search. You might use them in addition to one of the comprehensive databases listed above, or if you have a multidisciplinary topic.

Here are a couple of tip sheets on using advanced features within Webster University Libraries' databases, which include:

  • Cite tool: how to generate a citation, e.g., in APA or MLA format
  • Folder tool: how to save items to EBSCO folders for future use
  • Full-text: where to locate the full text of an article

Search the Journals and Magazines A-Z list to discover if the periodical you seek is one of more than 80,000 titles available full-text online or in print from the library.

If the full-text is not available online, see our Borrowing & Returns page to learn how the library can help students, faculty and staff to obtain the text (at no cost to you).