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Business Law Classes

ATTENTION: This research guide was last modified on September 09, 2008, before the January 2012 redesign of the library's home page. Information on how to access journal articles, databases, and other library resources may be inaccurate or outdated.

For up-to-date instructions on accessing materials, please visit our tutorial pages instead.

Contact Information

Naomi Moy
nmoy@csudh.edu
(310)-243-2086
LIB SOUTH 2037L

Navigation

Getting Started

Books

Finding Journal Articles at CSUDH

Off-Campus Access

Databases

Scholarly Internet Research

Citing your Sources

Getting Started

To start your research, use the resources below or begin with the the CSUDH Library web page found at : http://library.csudh.edu/

The resources listed under the category of Online Article Indexes are available from on-campus computers or by remote access CSUDH students who have registered for access. To register, please bring your CSUDH picture ID along with proof of current registration to the Library Circulation Department on the 2nd floor of the library. Distance students may register online at http://library.csudh.edu/services/circ/patronreg.shtml, but please allow 5 working days for the completion of the online registration process.


Books

Books are located using the Library's ToroFind catalog. Here you can search for books by author, title or subject. In addition to finding materials available in the CSUDH Library, you will find links that allow you to directly request books from other libraries (All CSUs Catalog and LINK+ buttons). Links are provided below for other local libraries and libraries worldwide.

  • ToroFind : CSUDH Online Catalog is used to find books and other materials available in the CSUDH Library.
  • Ebrary is a growing collection of electronic books on a variety of topics geared to academic libraries and college students. Use the link to access this database. Ebrary books available are listed in the ToroFind Catalog. If you are using this database for the first time, download the eBrary reader.

If you are unable to locate a book in the CSUDH Collection, try these links:

  • Link+ allows you to request a book using a union catalog of participating libraries in California and Nevada. If a book is found and available, this is the fastest method of having a book sent to the CSUDH Library for pick-up. You must be registered with the CSUDH Library to use this service.
  • ToroFind has an "All CSU's Catlog" button for books availabe in the 23 libraries of the California State University. Search for the book and click on this button. Highlight a library name and click on the "Request This Item" button. You must be registered with the CSUDH Library to use this service.
  • Interlibrary Loan a book using a request form . You supply us the information, and the Interlibrary Loan Department will search for the book. Since books may be requested from libraries in other states, this can be the slowest method.
  • Library of Congress Online Catalog
  • LIBWEB (includes links to libraries in over 125 countries)

Finding Journal Articles at CSUDH

You can get journal articles by going to the library home page and clicking the Journal Articles & Electronic Resources link under the "Find Journal Articles Now" heading. Click the heading that sounds the most like your situation.

Once you are in a database, you can start to search for your article. All databases' search options are slightly different, but they usually include several search boxes you can fill out. Most databases will also let you search only for peer-reviewed or scholarly journals. For your research papers, you will want to make sure you check this option!

Articles which you can read in that database will have a link to the PDF full text or the HTML full text. Click on that text link to read the article. Some databases also let you e-mail yourself the files by clicking on an e-mail link.

Some articles will say "Check Availability of Complete Article" instead of having links to the full text. If you see this, it means the text of that article is not in the database you are searching. But don't worry! By clicking the link which says this, you can see a list of which databases do have the full text. If there are no databases containing the article you want, you can request it via Inter-Library Loan .


Off-Campus Access

If you are using a computer that is on campus, you can access all of our electronic databases and ebooks without any further steps. Just click on the database name in the Database List and you will be sent immediately to the search screen.

If you are off campus, you will need to log in using your last name and student ID number . Your student ID number is located on the front of your student ID card. It is not your social security number ! When you click on a database name from off-campus, you will see a screen asking you for this information.

After you enter your last name and ID number, you will be able to access any of our electronic databases and ebooks just like you would on campus.


Databases

Legal

  • CQ Weekly can be used to find out about federal legislative news.

  • LEXIS/NEXIS has several components including business and law. The legal section includes news, law review articles, state and federal case law, and federal and state codes.

Business

  • ABI/INFORM Global includes indexing and articles for nearly 1,800 in business, finance, economics, management and other business-related topics. It includes the Wall Street Journal.

  • Business Full Text indexes approximately 850 business magazines trade journals, and scholarly journals.

  • Business Source Premier covers all areas of business and includes full text articles from over 8,000 publications. Use this database for scholarly journals.

  • Factiva contains U.S. and international newspapers, newswires, magazines and industry-specific journals and is global in content.

General Databases

  • Academic Search Premier is a multi-disciplinary database that can be used to search for articles in a wide range of subject areas. Use this database to find articles in journals that are not specific to business and finance.

  • Newpapers (Proquest) is a database of 150 local and international newspapers. It includes the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and London Times, to name a few.

  • OmniFile Full Text Mega is a multi-disciplinary database that includes the Business Full Text file and a small Legal Index. To search these files, be sure to highlight these subjects in the Subject Area menu. To highlight the two subject areas, use the “CTRL” key on your keyboard when making your selection.


Scholarly Internet Research

Remember, not all web sites are created equally. Some sites can be valid sources of information, but others are filled with opinion represented as fact. While there isn't a 100% effective way to figure out what kind of site you're looking at, here are some guidelines to follow when using the internet for research:

  • Check Credibility - Is it easy to figure out who's behind the information? Does whomever it is know what they're talking about? Do they have qualifications in the field or some other reason to be trust-worthy in it?
  • Check Accuracy - Are the sources cited well? Is the information up-to-date? Are there any broad, sweeping generalisations that are impossible to verify?
  • Check Reasonableness - What is the page's point-of-view? Is it a corporate page trying to sell you a product? Is it a government or educational site where the main purpose is to educate people?
  • Check Support - Is it possible to double-check the information in another location?

Useful Scholarly Websites

INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It contains useful Internet resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and many other types of information.

The Librarians' Internet Index aims to provide a well-organized point of access for reliable, trustworthy, librarian-selected websites, serving California, the nation, and the world. All links on the Index are selected and approved by librarians before inclusion.

For more information, check out our guide on Evaluating Web Resources


Citing your Sources

What is plagiarism? - Plagiarism is "The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft." (OED)

In essence, when you quote or paraphrase from somebody else's work without citing it, you are plagiarizing their work. Plagiarism is a serious matter, and could result in a lower or failing grade and even in your expulsion from university. Just rewording your work isn't enough to avoid plagiarism. Since you are still borrowing information heavily from another writer, you still need to include a citation.

But I didn't know! - Ignorance of the law is unfortunately no excuse. You can commit plagiarism without meaning to, and it's just as serious a problem if you do.

How can I avoid it? - You can avoid plagiarism by always citing your sources . Whenever you put a quotation or borrow information heavily from a source, be sure you include a citation in the proper APA style. This will let your professor know you aren't trying to pass the idea off as your own. Taking detailed notes on where you get your information helps a lot with this, since it prevents you from forgetting which is your own work and which is borrowed from others.

For more information, see your student handbook and this handout by Sheela Pawar at CSUDH

Click here for our tutorial on citing sources.