Writing a Business Research Paper: 5 Sources of Information You Can Trust
When writing a research paper – not just business related – reliable sources to support your arguments are one of the most crucial parts in order to build a successful and impressive research paper. Learning how to use information from other places and apply them to your work is a skill that will be useful throughout your entire academic life.
Reading the work of others for your paper will allow you to have a larger understanding of whatever topic you’re researching, it will enable allow you to develop your arguments, and maybe even guide your research in a direction you weren’t expecting.
However, how do you know that what you’re reading is authentic, reliable or academic? This article will help you distinguish between what a good resource is from a bad one, in order for your research paper to be as high quality as possible.
Table of Contents
1. Academic Journals
Especially if you are a student at a university, many academic journals will be available to you. Academic journals are probably the most reliable sources of information you can find to apply to your research and are also the most diverse.
The database such as EBSCO or ProQuest have thousands of research papers by acclaimed scholars which you will be able to use for your paper. The advantage of using academic research papers for support is that you can find an infinite amount of them.
In fact, you may find previous papers that are incredibly close to the title of your research, to ones that are relevant enough to include them. Furthermore, you’ll also probably find papers that contradict your main arguments; which will be good to incorporate as well as they will offer a different perspective and critical analysis for the research as a whole.
Among some of the most important business, academic journals are The Journal of Business, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business and Psychology and the Journal of Management.
Concerning business research papers, it would be a good idea to look up case studies on the company or topic you want to write about. Case studies are very good instances of information sources because they tend to shed light on issues and problems about a company or product that has would not necessarily be made available for the public, and would indeed look very impressive on your paper.
2. Library Books
Of course, if you’re going to look anywhere for information, the library is the right place to go to. Libraries (not bookstores) have an immense number of books, thesis, archives, and journals that are indeed very useful and trustworthy sources of information.
If you are having trouble finding the types of texts you’re looking for, ask a librarian or library staff for help. Librarians are highly qualified staff members whose specialty is exactly that: to help their customers find the most adequate sources which the find based on titles, genres or authors. Libraries are also ideal places to work.
You may find that working on your paper in a library will inevitably inspire you to develop your ideas and make your curiosity for reading another material blossom.
3. Television and Radio Shows
Television and radio shows can also be reliable sources of information – to an extent. The most effective and correct way to use these kinds of sources may be the way that social science students use them. The ideas, arguments, and images that come from television or radio broadcasts are most likely to be used as real-life examples to prove or support a theory or argument of a reliable and respected author.
Do not use television or radio programs as supportive material for your arguments – remember to think very critically in the material that is broadcasted from mass communication services.
For business research papers specifically, you may want to take advertisements, broadcasting schedules, use of celebrities, or material that is shared in these platforms as a basis or evidence for your arguments in your research but try to not use this information as a theoretical base.
The reason for this is that often the material that is covered is not academically or scientifically confirmed, and is unfortunately often used to manipulate large audiences. Therefore, much of the information provided may be false or unreliable.
4. Business Writing Services
For students who seriously struggle to write academic papers such as this one, it may be a good idea to hire a business research paper expert through a writing service like AdvancedWriters.com.
You can be completely trusting that the person who will write your paper is an educated professional; so that whatever the content turns out to be will be authentic and professional.
5. Interviews
Interviews are indeed reliable sources of information. However, you must be very selective and careful about who is interviewed, and what is talked about in order for it to be reliable.
More specifically, celebrity interviews are not the type of material that will help you succeed in your business research papers. Rather, particularly in business research papers, it would be interesting and creative for you to search for interviews that feature successful business owners or entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Steve Jobs.
Hopefully, this article has shown you different reliable information sources that you can integrate into your business research papers. Especially for mass media communications, remember to be very critical of what the material is about and contains.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box: there are many other reliable resources that you can use that do not have to necessarily be literary works. Make sure to ask your lecturers what their preferred referencing structures are.
There are many ways to cite references and scholars in your work, so ask your supervisors before you hand them in.
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