ABI/INFORM Global

Printable version

Introduction | Accessing | Searching | Search Results | Managing Search Results | Search Tips | Additional Features

Introduction

ABI/Inform Global, from ProQuest, provides business, trade and industry information from more than 2800 publications, including over 1800 full-text publications. It also includes EIU ViewsWire, Going Global Career Guides, business dissertations, and business cases. It provides information on every major industry, including finance, insurance, transportation, construction, and many more. ABI Inform Global also provides in-depth coverage of business conditions, trends, corporate strategies/tactics, management techniques, product information, and a wide variety of other business topics. ABI/Inform Global can be your first stop for most business research.

Accessing

This database may be accessed from the Databases page of the Electronic Resources section of the NSU Alvin Sherman Library website. For more on how to access databases visit http://www.nova.edu/library/dils/lessons/electroniclibrary/

Searching

The default search in ABI/INFORM Global is the Advanced Search mode. To choose one of the other search modes, click on one of the tabs for Basic Search, Advanced Search, Topic Guide, or Publication Search. To construct an Advanced Search in ABI/INFORM Global type your search term(s) in the search boxes to get full text results click in the checkbox next to "Full text documents only" to get peer reviewed articles click in the box next to "Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed" click on Search to obtain a list of records Advanced Search screen in ABI/INFORM Global.

Search Results

Search results will vary. If you get: No records matched your search, then check your spelling or the fields you searched in. Too many, then go back and limit your search. Sometimes a search needs to be modified with: additional search words, searching only a specific field, adding date limitations, or type of materials. Too few, then go back and expand your search. Consider synonyms for your search words or concepts. Try to use professional language or terminology. Irrelevant results, then try new search terms. Consider synonyms or related concepts. Identify and search using descriptors. Try a different database. Results lists Your search results will not indicate if other ProQuest databases or non-ProQuest databases contain the full-text of the article. Here is a sample of the results for a search using the words Leadership and Vision. Search results ProQuest. Records To view a record (article) in the best-available format: Click on the article title. ProQuest observes the following order to determine "best-available format:" Text+Graphics, Full Text, Page Image, Citation/Abstract. To view a record (article) in a specific format click on the icon corresponding to the format you want The information in the record, especially the title of the item and the abstract, if available, will help you determine if you need the item. For articles available in PDF format, Adobe Reader software must be installed on the computer to view the document. Adobe Reader allows the article to be viewed and printed exactly as it appeared in the original publication. This is free software, but is not supported by NSU. It can be downloaded at www.adobe.com.

Managing Search Results

Databases typically allow you to manage your search results by marking or tagging records to select only the records that you want from your search results from later printing, emailing and/or saving printing the search results list and/or specific records emailing the search results list and/or specific records to your email address saving the search results list and/or specific records–some databases may allow you to save your file for export into commercial bibliographic citation manager software, such as EndNote or ProCite Not all search management features are available in all databases. Marking The “mark” feature allows you to select records from within your search results. By marking items, you can print or email records at one time. To mark a record in the Search Results list, click in the check box to the left of a title in an Article Display, click in the check box labeled Mark article–top of screen To view your list of marked records click on the Marked list tab You may then email, print or export the items you have selected. Full-text will not be printed or exported for marked items–even if the full-text is available. Full-text can be emailed. Printing To print a record, including full-text if available click on the Print button – near the top of the Article Display the article will be reformatted without navigation when the Print dialog box appears, click on Print or OK Emailing To email a record, including full-text if available click on the Email button – near the top of the Detailed Record select the citation style and format enter an email address click the Send Email button use your browser’s back arrow to return to your results Use your complete email address and include an optional subject and note about what you are sending in the comment box. Saving To save a record click on the Print button - near the top of the Article Display the article will be reformatted without navigation when the Print dialog box appears, click on Cancel in the browser tool bar, click on File menu, then Save As enter a filename save as a Text file with extension .txt click Save use a notepad or word processing program to open your file.

Search Tips

Phrase or proximity searching Use advanced search features to modify a search to obtain more successful search results. You can combine advanced search features to modify and improve your search. Advanced search features often include: phrase or proximity searching field searching date document and/or publication type Boolean operators plurals and truncation One useful tip when searching any electronic database is to leave out articles, prepositions, and very abstract or general terms–they confuse the database's search engine. For example, if the paper is on "The Impact of Mainstreaming Students in Math Classes,” use the most precise terms like mainstreaming and mathematics and skip impact, the, of, and in. In ProQuest, there are two ways to search for a phrase if the phrase contains more than two words, put the phrase in double quotes, such as: "world wide web" "english as a second language" if the phrase contains two words, ProQuest automatically searches the words as a phrase, such as: higher education curriculum development Field searching To limit your search to a specific field in the record click on the pull-down arrow–to the right of the box that says “Citation and article text” click on the specific field name you wish to search Date To limit a search to specific years go to the date range section of the screen click on the pull-down arrow select a predefined range: All dates, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, etc. or select a specific date or range by clicking on On this date, Before this date, After this date, or Specific date range. Enter the desired dates in the date box(es) as mm/dd/yy Publication type To specify a publication type click on More search options click on the pull-down arrow for "Publication type" select the desired publication type ProQuest searches may be limited to peer-reviewed (refereed) publications go to the Limit results to section–below the entry boxes click on the check box for "Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed" Boolean operators Use AND to narrow a search. AND looks for both terms in the same record. leadership and vision; mainstreaming and science Use OR to broaden a search. OR looks for either term in the same record. mainstreaming or inclusion; elementary education or secondary education Use NOT to eliminate records with a certain term. Saturn not car; Venus not planet Plurals Use the following symbols in ProQuest databases to locate plural forms, truncate search terms, or replace characters: * Any number of characters at the end of a word. leader* retrieves leader, leaders, leadership ? One character anywhere in a word. defen?e retrieves both defense and defence   Additional Features Users of ProQuest may already know what journal, newspaper or magazine they want. A quick way to access a periodical title without redoing a search is to use the Publication search. click on the Publication Search tab type the name of the periodical you want to find click on the Search button click on the name of the periodical you want to display a list of the currently issues available select the issue you want to display alphabetical list of the titles of the articles in that issue select the article you want to view The above search will retrieve only publications in this particular database. To locate periodicals in all ProQuest Direct databases, follow these steps first: click on Databases selected below the tabs Click on Select all databases Click Continue button click on the Publication Search tab continue Publication search as described above