It’s 2012, we’re back, and we mean business! Well actually, we mean business no matter the year, so what better way to start 2012 than with one of the most fundamental business research tools: The Business Source Complete Database, or BSC as well affectionately call it. BSC is just one subject-specific database from a vendor named EBSCO, and EBSCO’s full repertoire of subject databases spans practically every major field of study. I looked up EBSCO in its own database (not unlike Googling for Google) and the first result, an August 2011 Datamonitor360 report says EBSCO Publishing is, “the world’s most used for-fee internet research service.” EBSCO is so ubiquitous of a research tool that the odds of your local library having a BSC subscription are pretty good. (Public libraries may have several useful tools beyond BSC, e.g. Reference USA.) If they don’t, you might check with your local college/university and see if they allow guests to access their databases.
Simply put, we use BSC all the time for business research. While it might not be updated up-to-the-minute as some other databases like Factiva, its sheer breadth of scope spans a bit of everything: all manner of trade and popular news, industry reports, popular publications like Harvard Business Review, and scholarly articles. BSC is generally our second stop after Google.
Tips:
1. As a friendly reminder BSC is not Google; try searching with fewer keywords at the onset, and then limit your results.
2. If you’re doing research that spans multiple topics and your library/university has subscriptions to many EBSCO subject databases, you may see the Choose A Database button which lets you search across them.