As part of our commitment to supporting you with all your research needs, over the last few months we’ve been recommending some useful business apps for you to download to your tablet devices, some of which are for accessing our databases and some which are for useful external sources.
The launch of Emerald’s first app provides a feature-rich interface with which to find, read and save Emerald academic journal content if you’re on the go.
Showcasing a clean and easy to use design, the app makes searching and browsing for journal content an intuitive and time saving experience. As Emerald subscribers, our customers need simply download the app for their own device and use the search and browse options to start finding content immediately.
You can also tap the “My Profile” box and login to your free profile. If you don’t yet have a profile, you can quickly sign up on the Emerald web-site and unlock the extra functionality, the app allows you to:
- Find what you need, when you need it: Search and browse Emerald’s extensive online content library of almost 100,000 journal articles.
- Personalise your experience: Use your Emerald profile to manage your marked lists and saved searches.
- Spread the word: Email links to your friends/colleagues and share content via the built-in Facebook and Twitter functionality.
- Enhance your knowledge: Read full-text content through the integrated browser. Most content is available in easy to read PDF format too.
- The Emerald app is optimized for the iPad and compatible with iPhone and iPad touch. It requires iOS 3.0 or later and is available free of charge from your app provider.
Remember if you’re using an iPad make certain to add the MBS Library Service page to your Home Screen for easy access to all the Resources we have to offer you for your research. Simply open our page then tap the arrow in a box symbol next to the top URL line and then select “Add to Home Screen”. You can even edit the name of the Web Icon, after you’ve done this – tap the “Add” button.
The 2011 version of John Hynes’ Guide to citing references (Harvard system) is proving to be the most popular of our How to research guides.
The guide provides a brief introduction to referencing: both citing references to others’ work within the text of your assignment/thesis/paper, and compiling an accurate list of references.
The Harvard system (Harvard style) is based on Author – Date information in the text with a list of references at the end in alphabetical order. However, it does allow for some variation in the detailed formatting. For example:
A) Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2010) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 8th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
OR
B) FISHER, D., and HANSTOCK, T., 1998. Citing references: a guide for students. Blackwell.
The guide chooses A because all Manchester Business School course handbooks use uppercase and lowercase for authors’ names, rather than all uppercase (and an unscientific survey of descriptions of Harvard referencing had most with the publication year in brackets).
Reference Management
It is much, much easier to do the references in any assignment/paper/thesis if you keep a record of your related reading as you go along. There are a number of options for reference management:
- Manual (e.g. Word) - Simply create yourself a “my references” document, and as you read a paper/book/… add all the necessary reference information. When writing do your referencing by hand: cutting and pasteing from your references document as appropriate.
- EndNote – A sophisticated reference management system, available on all University of Manchester cluster PCs and supported by Library training sessions. ( JRUL EndNote Page, Endnote FAQs ) However you have to buy a personal copy to use on your own laptop (academic discount available).
- EndNote Web – Free to University of Manchester staff and students with our site licence for EndNote. (JRUL EndNote Web Page, EndNote Web FAQs) Well worth a try before buying your own personal copy of EndNote.
- Zotero – Free reference management software: originally a Mozilla Firefox browser plugin but now also available in a stand-alone version. Well regarded – for example Cambridge Business School library’s recent post Zotero: a new dawn for referencing
- Mendeley – Free reference management software like Zotero – adopts support for collaboration as its unique selling point.
If you have a small number of references it is relatively easy to do your referencing manually. However using reference management software can be a big help in getting your references organised and making it easy to produce a consistent professional set of references like you see in academic texts and journal articles.
When using EndNote and Cite While You Write (CWYW) to manage your references it can be a little tricky to add page numbers into citations in the text.
EndNote CWYW adding page numbers - click to expand
The key is to edit the EndNote citation and include the page number(s), and any punctuation, in the Suffix not Pages field.
The technical reason for this is that Harvard (and its variants) is an author date citation style and so the pages field is ignored. (In contrast MLA is an author page number citation style, but this is rarely used in business and management literature.)
The EndNote CWYW Edit Citation feature is also used if you want your in text citation to have just the year – just tick the Omit Author checkbox.
Related FAQs on EndNote (from http://go.mbs.ac.uk/bizlib247 ):
Finally, advice from the University of Queensland on how to combine references if you have written each chapter as a separate Word document – http://www.library.uq.edu.au/endnote/combine_chapters.html
EBSCOhost databases are the most-used, premium online information resources for tens of thousands on institutions worldwide. This free app ensures that iPhone and iPod touch users get the most from searching premium EBSCOhost database content like Business Source Premier, the only provider of full text access to the Harvard Business Review.
EBSCO’s new app is free, and offers the convenience and rich functionality that enables users to:
- Choose which databases to search
- Limit Results to full text or peer reviewed
- Sort by relevance or date
- Retrieve full text results in HTML and/or PDF formats
- Save results for offline access at a later date
- Email results to self or others
- View cover flow display of results
First download the free app from the App store. Next step is to select E-Resources on the Library Web-site, then click on Electronic Journals, and choose Business Source Premier (EBSCO).
To get started, simply click on the EBSCOhost iPhone/iPod touch Application link at the bottom of the EBSCOhost screen and follow the instructions. An email will be forwarded to you enabling you to authenticate your status as an MBS Library user. After this you’re free to search and take advantage of this innovative free new app.
Learn more about EBSCOhost Mobile and the new iPhone app at:
http://www.ebscohost.com/academic/mobile-access
A guide to Business Source Premier is also available on the Library Web-site outlining the key features of the database
Lots of students have recently been asking about reference citing. Either follow this link to find the guide from our Database Guides page
Referencing Guide
or you can find the guide on our website at www.mbs.ac.uk/library and click on Electronic Resources. Scroll down and click on Research/Database Guides for this and many more guides to help you through the range of data available from MBS Library
Further referencing information:
Turabian, Kate L.
A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations : Chicago style for students and researchers (7th edition)
EDL 808.02/TUR Catalogue link
PL 428.2/TUR (6th edition) Catalogue link
The Harvard citation style is the most commonly required style for references at Manchester Business School. In truth there are many variants on the Harvard style. The Chicago/Turbian style and the APA style (American Psycological Association) are very similar to Harvard and better documented.
FAQ – How do I choose a citation style?
Lots of students have recently been asking about reference citing. The library has a useful guide: Guide to citing references (Harvard System) 
(Also available from our Database Guides page - Goto our website at www.mbs.ac.uk/library and click on Electronic Resources. Scroll down and click on Research/Database Guides for this and many more guides to help you through the range of data available from MBS Library)
There are related questions on Manchester Business Answers 24/7 (FAQ):
If you are planning to use EndNote for managing your references, take a look at the earlier Harvard referencing and EndNote blog post.
(The term Harvard system is sometimes used rather than Harvard style. This is because Harvard is an author date referencing approach that allows a good deal of flexibility on the detailed formatting of references. It is not described in the detail of styles such as APA, Chicago, MLA, and Turbian.)
We have updated some FAQ entries related to literature searching:
A standard literature search involves an actively searching e-journal databases. An alternative approach is to use current awareness services: set up one or more alerts or RSS filters for your topic and get the latest research sent to you.
Whatever the scale of your literature search you need to consider how you are going to manage the references you gather. You can use a reference management software package (e.g. EndNote, EndNote Web, Zotero, …) or keep your own “master file” with the full citation information for all your references.
If you have suggestions for making literature searching more effective and efficient, please leave a comment.
Additional notes:
It has proved surprisingly hard to find journal articles about literature searching for business and management. A couple are included in the answer, “Where can I find information about doing a literature search?“ If you are looking for something short and readable, the article “Conducting a literature review” (Rowley and Slack, 2004) aims to provide pragmatic guidance to students rather than contribute to academic research on literature searching.
Rowley, J. and Slack, F. (2004) Conducting a literature review, Management Research News, 27 (6), 31 – 39. Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170410784185 [Accessed 09 Nov. 2010].
Journal rankings are often used to identify the top research journals in a field.
We have updated the FAQ answer:
Where can I find a ranking and rating of business and management journals?
to make the distinction between general rankings and those specific to business and managment clearer.
Journal ranking is not perfect and there is significant research into its effectiveness. For example, the Journal Citation Report (JCR) rankings are strict in terms of the journals covered (with natural and life sciences better covered than social sciences) so journal focussed on new emerging areas do not score well.
Brief demo video http://screencast.com/t/gHdnrEvcwH accessing JCR rankings
The Sainsbury Library for Said Business School at Oxford is using delicious.
One set of delicious bookmarks that are relevant to any business school are for referencing : http://delicious.com/SainsburyLibrary/referencing
Since EndNote is the reference management software most recommended at University of Manchester, the EndNote tips link is probably the most relevant. However, the delicious bookmarks will be of interest if you want to investigate alternatives.
EndNote related questions:
Manchester Business Answers 24/7 service EndNote questions
As part of our commitment to supporting you with all your research needs, over the last few months we’ve been recommending some useful business apps for you to download to your tablet devices, some of which are for accessing our databases and some which are for useful external sources.
