Skip to Main Content

Develop your search

Trying different keywords and using synonyms is important when searching. For example, one topic could be searched a number of ways:

communication damaged reputation
crisis communication organization
"corporate image" communication

communicating CSR audience
layoff communication shareholders

corporate scandal reputation
"crisis management" businesses
(reputation or damage) company scandal 
"customer loyalty" scandal

Resources to help: The differences between Scholarly/Popular/Trade publications and Is this scholarly?

Below are ways to try searches to find academic/scholarly articles and reliable sources:

Google Scholar: finding a minimum of two academic articles

If you find one good article make sure to "chain" by clicking Cited by and Related articles below its summary. The Cite link will provide an APA reference but usually does not include the doi.
Does not include magazines or trade publications. 
Change the date on the left. 
The Advanced Search is found by clicking the menu icon (top left).
Besides providing links to articles in MRU databases, Google Scholar links to books and online repositories which contain articles the author has been allowed to upload.  Academia.edu and ResearchGate are among the repositories searched by Google Scholar. Double-check legitimacy of all sources that are not "Full Text@MRU".
To set up off-campus follow Menu Icon --> Settings --> Library Links. 

Google News: generally relevant & reliable

Google News: most sources are reliable. Always check the date. Does not include scholarly/academic sources. At the bottom of this guide are links to several online news sources that are paywalled but free via MRU.

Communication and Business databases

Use the MRU's LibrarySearch to find articles or try these three business communication-related databases:

Communication and Mass Media
Business Source Complete
ABi/Inform
Tips: change the date range and sort articles by Relevance

You can improve your search results by combining the keywords you brainstorm with the subject headings each database uses to categorize articles. These headings or tags are added to articles to make them easier to find and group. In Communication & Mass Media and Business Source, subject headings are found in the Thesaurus

Keywords Subject Headings 

Natural language words that describe your topic

Pro: Easy to combine terms

Pro: Can search for them anywhere in the source

Con: Can be difficult to narrow results

Con: Might retrieve irrelevant results

Pre-defined vocabulary that describes your topic

Pro: Can quickly rule out irrelevant sources

Pro: Often retrieves more accurate results

Con: Harder to combine terms (need to know which terms exist)

 

Search every database at once: find academic and non-academic articles

This is the same search box that is on the Library homepage. Once you've done a search, you can change the type of your results by clicking the filters on the right.

  • Check off Articles under the Resource Type filter to just see both popular and scholarly resources.
  • Check off Peer-Reviewed Journals under the Availability filter to find scholarly articles. Select Available online to retrieve full-text articles. 
  • Limit by publication date by using the Creation Date filter
  • Find related articles by clicking on the red arrows (when available)
  • Use the Advanced Search link to open an advanced search box for more precise searching

Here are direct links to reputable sources that are limited online but you can access free via the Library:

Bloomberg Businessweek - Search example: JN "Bloomberg Businessweek" AND reputation
The Economist - mainly international issues
Forbes - Search example: JN "Forbes" and "artificial intelligence"
Globe and Mail - Canadian news
Harvard Business Review - Search example: JN "Harvard Business Review" and scandal
Toronto Star
Wall Street Journal

Profile Photo
Geoff Owens
Contact:
Email: gowens@mtroyal.ca
Phone: 403.440.7737
Office: EL4471S