Databases
Databases are collections of publications. Some specialise in academic research publications (scholarly articles and conference papers), others specialise in market research (market analysis, data and statistics).
A full list of electronic resources provided by Middlesex University.
A list of A-Z Databases - Open Access eResources (Permanent Free Access)
A video demonstrating how to use the Middlesex University databases (Business Source Complete).
A video demonstrating how to use the Middlesex University databases (IBISWorld, Mintel, Passport).
Access the Middlesex University library guides and choose your subject. For example, select: Business→Business: Core Resources→Industry/Market, Company and Country.
Click here to search for financial data.
Click here to search for healthcare data.
A list of useful business University databases:
Data on business (marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance)
Database with UK market data: trends, companies, industries and countries
Market research data on industries, economies, consumers and companies
Industry research (economic, demographic and market data)
Marketing case studies
For OpenAthens login, type Middlesex University and select the Middlesex University option. Registering as a new user to access your subscription, enter your University email.
Search techniques
Databases respond well to the following search techniques:
Use search terms (e.g. important words or phases), not sentences or questions.
Combine search terms using search operators (AND, OR, NOT), e.g. sole trader AND legal obligations.
Use truncation (* = substitute for any number of characters) to broaden the scope of your search (e.g. searching for market* will return results with market, markets, marketing etc.).
Use phrase search (search for a phrase in speech marks, “…”) if searching for a stable expression, particularly specific terminology or spelling (e.g. searching for “social media marketing” will ignore any results where these three words are not together).
Refining your search results
Databases contain lots of information and searches usually retrieve many results. You may wish to reduce the number of results by refining your search. Below is an example of how to refine search results:
Enter your search terms. Think carefully about which words you use as this will affect the results you retrieve (synonyms, alternative spellings etc.).
We recommend restricting your search to full-text documents and altering the date range.
You may wish to further limit your results by publication.
Remember, all databases will look different because they have different user interfaces, but you search them all in a similar way.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is an academic, multi-disciplinary database provided by Google. It is Open Access, meaning usernames and passwords are not required.
To improve the accessibility of articles, link Google Scholar to your university account. To do this, select the hamburger menu (top left corner) - select Settings - select Library Links - enter/select Middlesex University - Save.
Ejournals
An ejournal is an online academic magazine. They contain academic articles and are stored in databases.
To look for ejournals search in the databases.
University credentials will be required to access the university's academic journals.
MORE RESOURCES
Recommended: The Financial Times and The Economist