Business Source Complete

Summary

In addition to the searchable cited references provided for more than 1,300 journals, Business Source Complete contains detailed author profiles for the 40,000 most-cited authors in the database. Journal ranking studies reveal that Business Source Complete is the overwhelmingly superior database for full text journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Additional full text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more.

Regional Business News is a supplemental database for customers of Business Source Complete. With daily updates, Regional Business News provides comprehensive full text for regional business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). Regional Business News has full text for nearly 100 sources.

Inclusion Policy

With regard to Business Source Complete, EBSCO provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts, regardless of article length or content, for all magazine or journal articles as well as cover-to-cover full text for all magazine or journal articles for which we have rights, with the following exceptions:

• Advertisements: EBSCO only covers ads when creating a PDF (full-page) image of an article that may include an advertisement on that same page. EBSCO does not index or abstract advertisements, and does not offer them in our Compound (text + graphics) Documents.
• Supplements: EBSCO only covers supplements when they are not sponsored or advertising supplements.
• Images: For PDF titles, EBSCO covers the entire magazine or journal, including any advertisements that may appear (only if on a page that contains text for an article). In Compound Documents, EBSCO will process all images in the most popular and widely used magazines in our services. This includes charts, graphs, line art and drawings. EBSCO does not process images smaller than 1.5 inches per side. Some publications have no images processed due to contractual issues with the primary publisher.
• Charts, Tables and Graphs: EBSCO processes the charts and graphs as part of the image policy mentioned above. EBSCO also provides ASCII versions of key charts, tables and graphs. This allows users to access information within the chart, table or graph via a keyword search. The ASCII presentation also allows users with non-graphic capabilities to access tabular data.
• Newspapers and Newswires: Comprehensive full text is provided for specified newspapers. Selected full text and/or abstracts & indexing, is provided for some other newspapers and newswires. With comprehensive or selected coverage, EBSCO does not cover sports scores, movie and television listings, or obituaries (unless greater than 1/4 page).

Gap Fill Policy

EBSCO's goal is to provide complete coverage for advertised date ranges. Because we have done an enormous, unprecedented "backfile" project to expand the archival coverage of Business Source Complete, there are instances where difficulty exists in obtaining the particular issues of a given journal. Though this is rare, this exists only because titles have been brought back to volume one, issue one on many occasions, and even the publishers do not have some of the older issues for EBSCO to process.

To fill these random gaps in coverage, EBSCO has a dedicated Sourcing group that manages borrowing relationships with established libraries. Material is identified, borrowed within a specified time period and returned in its original condition. The generosity of these libraries makes it possible for EBSCO to process very old and rare material which may not otherwise be found. EBSCO will also purchase material from fulfillment facilities based on availability. To conclude, gaps in coverage are not prevalent, and would only be associated with "difficult to obtain" titles for which EBSCO has expanded backfile coverage. Our efforts to fill any holes are ongoing.

Archive Policy

EBSCO provides the most comprehensive PDF backfiles for scholarly business journals. EBSCO establishes licensing rights with publishers in order to process content for its publications. EBSCO has been very successful in gaining the rights to provide coverage of key journals back to volume one issue one. Although it is near impossible for EBSCO to provide complete backfiles for all titles in the database, EBSCO's goal is to provide the deepest possible archival coverage for the most highly-ranked business journals. EBSCO's efforts in this area have resulted in the availability of complete backfile coverage for hundreds of titles, including the most renowned publications.

Embargo Rules

Embargoes are part of the landscape when it comes to academic aggregated databases. These publisher-imposed delays are applied to preserve print and e-journal subscriptions against possible cancellation at the discretion of the individual publisher. As such, embargoes are almost always identical across competing databases - unless one database does not provide full text access to a given journal at all. Although embargoes are sometime viewed as a hindrance to full text access, the fact is that if not for embargoes, full text for many journals would not be available in databases at all. The question to consider is: Is a researcher better off having deep indexing, abstracts and full text coverage of a journal, including current indexing and abstracts, but with a delay on the current full text - or is the same researcher better off having no full text at all for said journal?

In terms of embargoes in Business Source Complete, please refer to EBSCO's coverage list for specific titles with an embargo, including the length of said embargo. All embargoed content in Business Source Complete provides current indexing and abstracts to enable linking to current full text in an e-journal under subscription, etc. Business Source Complete provides full text coverage for more sources than any other competing business database. As a result, EBSCO offers more current full text than competing databases, and more titles with embargoes. EBSCO is constantly working with publishers to not only add new current content to databases, but also reduce embargo periods where applicable.

(Please note: When conducting comparisons regarding embargoes, databases should be compared based on total numbers, not on percentages. For example, if a database has 2,000 titles in full text, with 500 having an embargo, while another database provides full text for 1,000 titles with 200 having an embargo, the latter has a lesser percentage of embargoed titles, but fewer full text titles overall.)

Update Frequency

Daily

Content Classification

Business Source Complete classifies content on multiple levels, including publication type and document type for the ability to narrowly refine searches. Classifications used include:

Publication Type

Academic journals, Books and Monographs, Company profiles, Country reports, Industry profiles, Magazines, Market research reports, Product reviews, SWOT analyses, Trade publications, Working papers

Document Type

Article, Bibliography, Biography, Book Entry, Book Review, Case Study, Company Report, Directory, Editorial, Erratum, Industry Overview, Interview, Letter, Obituary, Proceeding, Product Review, Report, Speech, Working Paper

Keywords and Indexes

Business Source Complete supports keyword searching. It allows users to search the database using their own words and phrases via keyword searching. Indexed Fields that may be keyword searched include: author, title, subject, publication name, abstract (including author-supplied abstract), accession number, geographic terms, people, reviews and products, ISSN, ISBN, Company entity, NAIC code & Description, DUNS number, Ticker symbol, Author-supplied keywords, and Complete full text. Also, as an alternative to keyword searching, browse searching is also available via the Subjects and Publications tabs located on the Sub-Toolbar.

Furthermore, Index browsing on EBSCOhost provides users with the option to search from specific indexes in Business Source Complete from a drop-down menu of indexed fields. Once an indexed field is selected, users can browse an alphabetical list of terms in each indexed field or browse for a specific term within the chosen field. The number of times each term appears in that field in the database is also displayed.

From this point, users can build a search by selecting one or more terms from the index and choosing the desired Boolean operator for multiple terms. Users would click 'Add' to move search terms into the search display box. Once a set of search terms has been added to the search display box, the user can choose another index field to browse for additional terms. When the search query is complete, users would click 'Search' to retrieve a list of relevant results. This functionality can be found on the toolbar button labeled 'Indexes' on the Advanced Search screen; however, via EBSCOadmin, the library administrator can configure index browsing to appear on the Basic Search screen as well. The following are the browsable index fields in Business Source Complete: Author, Author-supplied keyword, Company entity, Document type, DUNS number, Entry date, Geographic Terms, Headings, ISBN, ISSN, Language, NAICS code or description, people, publication name, Reviews & products, Thesaurus terms, Ticker symbol and Year of publication.

In addition EBSCO has launched "Visual Search" as an additional graphical search option to enhance the user experience. for more information please see: http://www.ebscohost.com/thisTopic.php?marketID=1&topicID=976

Also "Smart Text Searching" has also been added to allow the user to import entire articles into the search box and using propietary software which analyzes the content and words, applies weighting to the content and delivers appropriate results to the results page.

Authority Files

EBSCO uses a hierarchical authority file to ensure that all issues of a publication fall within the larger heading for that publication. With regard to author names and affiliations, EBSCO uses the content of a given journal to determine how an author's name or affiliation may appear (we do not change content from the original publication). However, to ensure that a researcher will find all information in Business Source Complete written by a given author, the "index browse" option is available. This allows users to find all works by a given author despite the fact that this author might be published under slightly different names (e.g. John Michael Smith, John M. Smith, J.M. Smith, etc.)

Furthermore, Business Source Complete provides author profiles for more than 25,000 of the most prolific authors in the database.

Citation Linking

Business Source Complete offers searchable cited references for more than 1,200 journals, allowing users to quickly locate additional information related to an article of interest, and present authors with an easy way to assess the impact of their articles. When a user initiates a Basic or Advanced keyword search, any 'Cited References' or 'Times Cited in this Database' links that are available are presented with the search results. If a user clicks the 'Cited References' hyperlink on a result, the 'Cited References' sub-tab will present a list of records cited in the original article. If a user selects one or more references and clicks the 'Related Records' button, then the References sub-tab will present a list of records related to the original article.

These records are sorted by relevance, based on the greatest number of shared cited references. If a user clicks the 'Times Cited in this Database' hyperlink on a result, the 'Citing Articles' sub-tab will present a list of records that cite the original article. 'Cited References' and 'Times Cited in this Database' hyperlinks are also displayed on the article detail page. Additionally, users can search by Cited References. This functionality can be found on the toolbar button labeled 'Cited References' on the search screen. On the Cited References search screen, users can enter search terms next to Cited Author, Cited Title, Cited Source, Cited Year or All Citation Fields, and conduct a search.

Full Text Linking

With sophisticated linking abilities associated with EBSCOhost databases, and through OpenURL, the interoperability and connectivity between EBSCO resources and other resources continues to escalate. EBSCOhost allows for a myriad of customizable, bi-directional linking. Some of the common EBSCOhost linking options used in libraries and other research facilities include:

• Links to full text databases - Users may link directly from an EBSCOhost citation-only search result to the corresponding full text in another databases (e.g. - Linking from a PsycINFO record to the full text article in Academic Search Premier).
• Links to e-journals in the library's collection - Users may link directly from an EBSCOhost citation-only search result to the corresponding full text of an e-journal (e.g. - direct to publisher site, or EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service or via CrossRef to contributing publishers).
• OPACs and A-Z Lists of E-Resources - Seamless linking is available from EBSCOhost to more than 30 Integrated Library Systems, OPACs, and union catalogs, providing instant access to library holdings information. End-users may also link from a journal record in the library catalog to full text articles from that journal in EBSCOhost full text databases. To enable this feature, EBSCO provides MARC records for journals in EBSCOhost full text databases for loading into the library ILS system. These records, which conform to industry guidelines, include a URL to EBSCOhost in the 856 field as well as coverage dates and embargo information when applicable. HTML and Tab-delimited versions of these files are also available to simplify updating of a library's A-Z lists of journals. This allows libraries to link to external sources of local library holdings data. Holdings information would be displayed in the context of the catalog or finding-list in which they are maintained.
• Document Delivery Systems - Linking is available to major document delivery services, including Infotrieve®, CISTI, and the British Library. Depending on the service accessed, content can be delivered in a PDF file directly to the end-user's desktop, or via mail, fax, or courier.
• Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Services - An Interlibrary Loan request module can be configured to allow a user to e-mail requests for articles to the library's ILL system. Libraries with Web-based Interlibrary Loan Systems can configure links from EBSCOhost search results to the library's own ILL system.
• Book Vendors - Libraries can set up links from books and book review records in EBSCOhost databases to relevant results in various online book vendor services.
• Search Engines - Various search engines, including Yahoo!®; and Google can be easily set up as linking targets. When such links are activated, search engines launch their own searches behind the scenes, and end users are presented with a list of relevant results.
• Linking Servers - EBSCOhost is compatible with all existing commercial linking servers. Not only can users link from EBSCOhost to a linking server, but linking servers can also provide links to full text on EBSCOhost databases or e-journals managed by EBSCO. This interoperability allows EBSCOhost customers who search non-EBSCO reference sources to be able to link to full text in their EBSCOhost databases and e-journals.
• Federated Search Tools - Systems like MetaLib from Ex Libris, that offer standardized interfaces and portals for users of hybrid information systems, can now provide their users with simultaneous searching of various library resources, including EBSCOhost databases. Search results can seamlessly link to full text from EBSCOhost full text databases or e-journals available through the EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service.
• Bibliographic Databases - With its OpenURL interface to articles, EBSCOhost has become a provider of full text for external bibliographic services including PubMed from NCBI. As a result, eligible users can link from PubMed records to corresponding full text in EBSCOhost biomedical databases as well as e-journals available through the EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service.

Other Information

EBSCOhost features include mouse over technology, additional searching techniques such as "Visual Search" and "Smart Text searching" to enhance the user experience, as well as the "Image Quick View" which delivers relevant images from the PDF of the article directly into the results view. With over 4 million images already available it provides graphs, photographs, formulae and other images to allow quick assessment of the content in the database.

For further information please see: http://www.ebscohost.com/thisTopic.php?marketID=1&topicID=969