Business

Research Centers and Government Websites

• Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies
• Knowledge at Wharton: Human Resources
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Trade Publications

• Human Resource Executive Online
• The HR Digest
• HRZone
• HR Magazine: available through Business Source Complete

Professional Organizations

• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

Thesaurus

Some databases use controlled vocabularies, which are lists of predetermined terms that are assigned to items within the database. This helps ensure uniformity when users search the database for particular topics. To find these terms, we use the Thesaurus, linked at the top of the database pages.

The Thesaurus has a separate search bar within it that can be used to locate terms. To search and select terms, follow these steps:

1. In the secondary search bar, located under "Browsing: Business Thesaurus," type the word or term that you want to search. Select the "Term Contains" option. Click Browse.
2. Click the term in the results list that you think matches what you want. Do not click the checkbox.
3. Each term is defined in the Scope Note. You can select the various Broader, Narrower, and Related Terms to see which fit your search.
4. When you want to add a term to your database search, click the checkbox next to that term. Then click the Add button above the term list. Your chosen terms will populate the search bar at the very top of the page.
5. After you have selected all of your terms, click Search at the top of the page.

Select Journals

Business Source Complete is a database containing resources from many different kinds of business journals and other sources. Not all may pertain to your research on human resource topics. To obtain more specific search results, it can be helpful to select only those journals which are most pertinent to your topic.

You can select specific journals a few different ways. We will review the most specific way here. To discover journals using the Publications list, follow these steps:

1. Click the Publications link at the top of the page.
2. In the secondary search bar, located under "Browsing: Business Source Complete -- Publications," type the main subject you want the journal to cover. For research in this area, typing "human resource" is the best option.
3. On the results page, click the title of any journal to find more information about it, including a description of the journal, the publisher, and whether the journal is peer reviewed.
4. Click the checkbox next to each journal that you would like to search. Then click the Add button above the journal list. Your chosen journal titles will populate the search bar at the very top of the page.
5. After you have selected all the journals that you want, click Search at the top of the page.
6. To add your search terms, you will have to click Advanced Search under the search bar on the results page. Use the additional search lines to add your other terms.

Gathering statistics on employment numbers and wages, including in specific industries, can be tricky. Peer reviewed journals and trade publications are not going to have those sorts of statistics, but the government does collect that information in many cases. Navigating government websites is not always intuitive, however, so let's review how to find some of the information we might need.

A good entry point for statistical information is Google, through the use of a search tool available there. When you run your search, perhaps with a general term like "employment numbers," you will get both government websites (denoted by a .gov domain) and popular websites (denoted by a .com or .org domain). To retrieve only government websites, add SITE:gov in the search bar and execute another search. You will notice that all of the results now end in a .gov domain. Included will be all United States based government websites, at the federal, state, and local level.