General instructions
Scout is a discovery service that allows you to search across the University Libraries' holdings of books and journals as you simultaneously search numerous full-text databases. You can use it to find out whether the library has a copy of a specific item or to explore the range of materials available on your topic.
Tracking down specific items
Use Scout to get the call number and location of a printed book or journal. Scout also contains links to thousands of ebooks and electronic journals. For specific electronic journals, you might have more success using the "E-Books & E-Journals" page on the library's website. Look for it in the Research Tools section shown on the red bar at the top of each page of the library's website.
Getting items our library doesn't own
Can't find it in Scout or on the E-Books & E-Journals page? Request the item through Interlibrary Loan. The form is available on the library website under the Using the Library section shown on the red bar at the top of each page. Just login with your Bama account credentials and fill out the request form.
Accounting articles, dissertations, and working papers
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Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Business Source Ultimate gives access to full-text business journals, covering current trends, historical data, and global perspectives from 1886 to present. It includes essential journals like Harvard Business Review and Forbes.
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new windowThis database contains the full text of many dissertations from 1995. Use it to check out accounting dissertations originating from universities around the country.
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Dissertations and Theses at University of Alabama This link opens in a new windowWant to see the accounting dissertations produced by University of Alabama students in prior years? Use this subset of the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database to search only UA dissertations.
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SSRNUse the Accounting Research Network in SSRN to follow the very latest research being done in your topic, as reported in working papers from faculty and scholars worldwide. Access is free, but you should create an account if you want to use all the features of the site. The subscription fees for the accounts are paid by the Culverhouse College of Commerce..
Citation searching
One of the ways to find relevant and interesting articles in your topic is to check the literature reviews of articles you have already found, using the references list to get the complete citation information. However, this also works in the other direction. If you find a great article on your topic, you might also find it helpful to discover who else has cited that article. What new directions did the citing author take? Did they improve on the methodology? Propose a new method of data collection? Apply a new concept or develop a new theory? Use the databases below to follow the citation trail.
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Web of Science with AI Research Assistant This link opens in a new windowWeb of Science has the best reputation for tracking citations and analyzing citation patterns. However, it covers only journals that meet its standards, so it won't pick up everything.
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Scopus with ScopusAI This link opens in a new windowScopus is a competitor of Web of Science. It doesn't have Web of Science's long history, but it has broad coverage and is easy to use.
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Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowGoogle Scholar is very popular for searching for research articles and tracking citations. There is no apparent limit to what Google Scholar will include, so expect to find all kinds of materials in the citation lists--research articles, dissertations, master's theses, course syllabi, conference proceedings, working papers--in multiple languages. Unfortunately, Google Scholar contains lots of errors, so proceed with caution. Be sure you set it up to give you full text access to articles that our library subscribes to.
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SSRNSSRN (described above) also includes "cited by" information for each entry in the Citations tab. This information is probably incomplete but could be helpful.