MIS Beyond Google

This course is talking about beyond Google to be used if you got a research paper or thesis to write. 

Google, the largest search database on the planet, currently has around 50 billion web pages indexed. That’s a lot of information. But it’s nothing compared to what else is out there. 

Google can only index the visible web or searchable web. But the invisible web, or deep web, is estimated to be 500 times bigger than the searchable web. 

The invisible web comprises databases and results of specialty search engines that the popular search engines simply are not able to index. 

Beyond Google

Google (or Bing or Duck Duck Go - - search engines, in general) make it incredibly easy to start digging into information that's out on the web. Sometimes you don't even have to click any links to get the answers you want:

This is great when you need quick answers: defining a word, looking up cold vs flu symptoms, basic math calculations, or trying to get a restaurant menu. When you're just starting out on a research problem for a class assignment, this can also be a good way to start feeling out your topic.

HOWEVER:

A basic Google search gets you shallow, easy-to-find answers. College-level/ University Level research, on the other hand, is about going deeper and thinking critically and really exploring your topic beyond picking out five articles that came up on the first page of results and stopping there.

What's Wrong With Google:

How does Google decide what results to put at the top of the page? Why is that #1 link where it is? Think about it.

Does Google realize you're looking for an article for school and therefore it really needs to be good and adjusts what it's showing you accordingly?

Is that #1 result really the actual, literal best result of the entire Internet?

Probably not, right? Search engines algorithms up results based on a very complex balance of relevance, currency, popularity, site structure, details about your location, browser, and computer system, and even what kind of pages you've looked at in the past. Generally, this works out pretty well and you don't have to dig deeper. Unless, of course, you have a more complex problem to solve, or you're looking for something from a certain time period, or otherwise falling outside Google's assumptions about you.

•Despite the millions of pages Google says it can bring back for you, it does not have the entire Internet indexed. See the screenshot above defining the "deep web," or the part of the web that is not discoverable through the usual search engines. A lot of this content is behind paywalls or passwords, including the really good scholarly articles your professors will expect you to find. In the meantime, it does have indexed a lot of useless blogs, wikis, satirical sites masquerading as legitimate, and more and more and more. 

"Scholarly sources" are hard to get into through the Web. They're enmeshed in a web of publishing restrictions and standard practices. They're expensive. Google may be able to find them for you, but that doesn't mean you'll actually be able to access them, and if you can't read an article, you shouldn't be listing it as a source. (By the way, there are practically 0 websites that count as scholarly. Scholarly and authoritative are very related but not synonymous concepts!) Google Scholar helps a little, but not enough. 

Where To Look Instead:

University / Public Libraries ( Exp. https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/databases/ ) , These databases collect authoritative, credible sources, including articles from expensive scholarly journals, and make them searchable to you. Searching can be a little more complicated than using a regular searching engine, but a librarian can help show you what to do. The upside is that you can put together much more specific searches, which means you have fewer results to wade through, and the ones you get are more likely to be relevant.

If your assignment says to use scholarly sources, the databases should be your first stop!

Next step ( depending on your research topic ) may be to choose from Top Business Journals

https://hbsp.harvard.edu/information-technology/

1. Academy of Management Journal

Published by Academy of Management. For the publication of empirical work in the field of management, with particular focus on findings which contribute directly to the practice of management.

2. Academy of Management Review

•Published by Academy of Management. For the publication of theoretical insights and developments, covering the conceptual aspects of management practice and with a particular focus on challenging the conventional wisdom of the field.

3. Journal of International Business Studies

•Published by Springer. An interdisciplinary journal which covers the strategies of multinational enterprises and their interactions with other organizations and institutions.

4. Journal of Management

•Published by Sage. Accepting both empirical and theoretical research articles, this journal covers all topics in the field of management, including business strategy and policy, organizational behavior, human resource management, and organizational theory.

5. Journal of Business Ethics

•Published by Springer. With a focus on ethical issues that are related to business, such as the moral aspects of systems of production, consumption, marketing, advertising, or social and economic accounting. Encourages a jargon-free style to promote dialogues between different fields.

6. Review of Accounting Studies

Published by Springer. For the publication of all aspects of research in the field of accounting, including theoretical, empirical, and experimental work.

7. Accounting, Organizations, and Society

Published by Elsevier. A journal focused on the relationship between accounting and human behaviors, such as the importance of organizational structures and the way in which enterprises fit into the social and political environment.

8. Administrative Science Quarterly

Published by Sage. For the field of organizational studies, this journal publishes empirical and theoretical papers from both new researchers and established scholars, plus interdisciplinary work on organizational theory.

9. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics

Published by the American Statistical Association. A journal which publishes materials related to the statistical analysis of problems in economics, forecasting, business, and finance. It also welcomes general papers in statistics and econometrics which are related to the journal's topics of interest.

10. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

Published by Wiley. For the field of entrepreneurship studies, this journal publishes conceptual and empirical articles which would be of interest to entrepreneurs as well as researchers, consultants, and policymakers.