Using the power of the AND OR NOT "Boolean operators" between your search terms enriches the quality of the information you find.
accounting AND "product reviews" = The search engine will find articles with BOTH of these terms present.
"beer industry" OR "alcoholic beverage industry" = This search will return articles which possess either the phrase "beer industry" OR the phrase "alcoholic beverage industry." Use OR with synonyms to broaden the number of hits. (For example: soda OR pop OR "soft drink")
"General Motors" NOT bankruptcy = This search will look for articles that use the phrase "General Motors" as long as they do not include the word "bankruptcy." Using NOT before a word will exclude a term narrowing the number of hits. (Another example: saturn NOT planet)
When you are looking for a particular journal or magazine, always check the Otterbein A-Z list to see if we have it.
If we don't have the journal you need, remember that you can always do Interlibrary Loan to get the article.
Evaluating sources is an ongoing part of the research process. Continual evaluation of sources will allow you to produce a better project. Part of the evaluation process involves identifying the various types of articles such as popular/general interest, trade/professional and scholarly.
Scholarly articles are usually written by specialists in their fields, and they have descriptions of methods of research and extensive bibliographies or lists of references at the end of the articles. These articles have been reviewed by the authors' peers in the field to make sure the research was conducted in a scholarly manner.
Trade publications usually provide short articles written for people interested in a specific industry. They often have the latest news and trends and sometimes job advertisements.
(More in the Library Research Tutorial)