Objective: Finding a Case Study

I. Select your search terms

• State your research topic:
  How do scholars use case studies in the study of organizations?
• Identify the separate concepts that make up your topic:
  case studies; organizations
• Make a list of search terms for each concept.  Be sure to include synonyms, related terms, and terms that may be broader or narrower:
  case studies: case study
  organizations: institutions, schools, businesses, govenment, churches, stores, universities

II. Devise your search strategy

Based on your list(s) of search terms, devise your search strategy:

• use boolean operator OR; this tells the computer to search for all the terms at the same time:
  case studies or case study; organizations or institutions
• use boolean operator AND; this tells the computer to restrict retrieval to both concepts:
  case studies and organizations
• use truncation (*) to broaden your search to include variants of a term:
  business*: business, businesses
  school*: school, schools, schooling
• use parentheses to group terms combined using OR :
  (case studies or case study) and (organizations or institutions) [sample general search]
  (case studies or case study) and (school* or education*) [sample search for specific type of organization]

III. Conduct a search

An article database is a searchable database of references to magazine and journal articles. Some article databases also include the full-text of the article.

To find case studies in sociology and related fields, the best place to start is Academic Search Premier. This article database contains thousands of full-text articles from hundreds of magazines and scholarly journals, including many in sociology, social work, psychology, and related disciplines. You will need your WSU ID Number (W number) to access this database from home. For this assignment, you should limit your search to scholary journal articles in Academic Search Premier by clicking the box next to Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals. You may also limit your search to articles available in full-text on the computer by clicking on the box next to Full Text.

IV. Locate the article

If the article is available in full-text in the article database you are using, download and/or print the article.

If the article is not available in full-text in the article database you are using, check the library's EJournals list to see if full-text for the journal containing the article is available in another article database. This list will also tell you if we subscribe to the journal in print format.

If the article is only available in print, do a Journal Alphabetical search in our Online Catalog to identify the call number for the print journal. Recent issues of print journals are shelved by call number in the Current Periodicals area on the Middle Level of the library at the south end. Earlier issues are shelved by call number in bound volumes on the Top Level of the library.

If the article is not available either online or in print, use ILLiad (our online Interlibrary Loan system) to request a copy of the article from another library. This usually takes 2 to 4 days.

V. Verify that the article is scholarly

Use the following criteria to determine if the article represents scholarly research:

• Does it include a Methods section that describes such things as the independent and dependent variables; the population studied; and the methods used?
• Does it include a Literature Review that discussed previous research on the topic?
• Does it include a Results section that provides detailed information on the results of the research, including tables, charts, etc.?
• Does it include a Discussion section that discusses the results of the research?
• Does it include an extensive Bibliography or list of References Cited ?

You can also use the general criteria found on the library's Scholarly vs. Popular Articles guide to determine if the article is indeed scholarly. You should also verify this with your instructor.

Need more help?

• Visit the Reference Desk or call  626-6415 and speak to a reference librarian
• Send an email to Dr. Wade Kotter, Social Sciences Librarian: wkotter@weber.edu
• Online reference help via email: Ask-A-Librarian Service