FACC 6240 — International Technology Governance and Monitoring Strategies
This guide introduces students to resources of relevance for conducting research in the area of corporate governance with a special focus on the area of information technology governance. It highlights some of the key research tools available but it is not intended as a comprehensive list of sources. This guide is designed to enhance students’ information literacy competencies especially in terms of undertaking a literature review in preparation for the research proposal and research paper which form required elements in this course.
The PowerPoint slides for this library session are available.
The handouts for these sessions are available as well by clicking on the two links below:
FACC 6240 – Quick Links Handout
Using the Library Catalogue – Quick Search Tips
Guide to Using RefWorks 2.0 – Quick Tutorial with Screen Captures
The guide is divided in to the following main categories
- General library information
- Using the library catalogue (finding books)
- E-Book collections
- Finding articles and reports on a information technology governance topic
- Citing business articles (including using RefWorks and Zotero)
General Library Information
Bronfman Business Library Homepage
Graduate Student Library Guide: Includes information about the wide range of library services and resources available to graduate students at York including borrowing privileges, the graduate reading room at Scott Library, computing and printing, and online and in-person research help services.
Corporate Governance Research Guide: designed to provide an overview of key resources for research in the field of corporate governance. This includes both print and online library subscription resources as well as recommended freely available web resources. While this guide highlights many key information sources available, it is not intended to function as a comprehensive list of research resources for corporate governance.
Using the Library Catalogue
The YULibrary Catalogue is a tool you should come to rely on again and again when doing your library research. This is because it allows you to search for all the print and electronic materials owned by the libraries by title, author, keyword, and more. It’ll be the main tool you use to identify relevant books at the library (print and electronic) on topics of relevance to corporate governance and financial accountability. The catalogue can be used, however, to find materials other than books including journal titles (for both print and electronic journals), government information, legal materials, videos, and much more. It also includes reserve materials and reference items (these materials include sources such as dictionaries, company directories etc. which are for in-library use only).
Note: You cannot search for articles on a topic using the library catalogue. Where this is the research requirement you need to use articles databases instead.
Catalogue Tips
- Start with a keyword search e.g. ‘cloud computing’
- Find a title that is closest to your research topic e.g. Cloud Computing Principles and Paradigms
- Click on the book title to see the full record details and scroll down to ‘Subject’. Note that the official subject assigned is Cloud Computing. Click on this link to find all other books with this subject assigned to them.
- Note books make be available electronically, as is the case in this example.
E-Book Collections
Books 24X7: Access the BusinessPro, ITPro, FinancePro section to find electronic books relevant to corporate governance and financial accountability. In addition, lengthy summaries of key professional and popular business books are included in ExecSummaries. Please read this Web page for important information about appropriate use of Books 24 X 7 to ensure that you do not lose access privileges. http://library.books24x7.com/apphelp.asp?item=37
Includes 12,400 technology, digital media and business books and videos online Topics covered include: Ajax, Java, Javascript, Perl, C/C++, C#, DB2, SQL, HTML, XHTML, XML, UML, PHP Unix, Linux, Python, SAS, Windows Vista, and Rails. Microsoft applications and systems covered include: Access, ASP, Frontpage, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visual Basic, Photoshop.
Finding Articles on a Information Technology Governance Topic
Different Types of Articles
Different kinds of business articles in all the key areas of business including the area of corporate governance research e.g.:
1. Business articles in scholarly or peer-reviewed journals: These articles are written by academics and researchers, typically focus on original research, use specialized language, contain in-depth articles with specialized language and extensive bibliographies. Examples: Academy of Management Journal, Corporate Governance (Emerald), Corporate Governance: An International Review, Management Information Systems.
When might one use a scholarly or peer-reviewed article?: where an academic or scholarly perspective is required; where original research is sought; where interested in academic theory; where a review of the academic literature on a business topic is needed; where a professor has specifically stipulated that only scholarly articles may be used for a given research project.
Tip: Use Ulrichs International Periodical Directory to determine if a specific journal is refereed. You can search by journal name, and if it is refereed this symbol will appear beside the journal title:
2. Business articles in trade journals: Target members of a specific business, industry or organization. Written by practitioners or journalists who cover the field. Valued for currency. Typically focus on industry trends, new products or techniques, and organizational news. Editorial review quite common, may contain short bibliographies.
Examples: Corporate Governance Advisor, Directors and Boards, CIO Canada
When should you use an article from a trade journal?: where a practitioner perspective needed; where industry, company, or market research being conducted with emphasis on currency ; where seeking information on best practices, recent developments or other information relating to a particular profession or trade.
3. Business articles in popular business magazines: Target audience is general public and/or business professionals. Focus on general business information especially current trends and news.
Examples: Canadian Business, Forbes.When should you use an article from a popular business magazine?: where general background information is required on a business topic and information source need not be academic, specialized, or in-depth in focus; where currency is important as many popular publications are published weekly and cover business news events and recent developments.
4. Business articles in newspapers or newswires: short articles written by business columnists/journalists. Focus on current news in business. Examples: Wall Street Journal, BusinessWire.When should you use a newspaper or newswire business article?: typically the best (and often only!) source for very recent business developments or events; useful source of political, social, economic and public commentary; useful in order to determine how an event was reported on at a particular point in time; where regional research being conducted local newspapers may be the only, or one of few, sources of information available.
Finding an Article When You Have a Citation or Reference
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Click the camera to watch a video on finding articles at York when you have a journal citation. |
When you have a reference or citation to a specific article, you can use the main search box available on the library home page to determine whether the journal/magazine is available online from the Libraries. This can be found on the libraries’ home page at www.library.yorku.ca. Click on the “eResources” tab to get here.
Here is an example of a citation:
De Haes, S. & Van Grembergen, W. An exploratory study into IT governance implementations and its impact on business/IT alignment. Information Systems Management, 26(2), 123-127.
Make sure to enter the title of the journal or magazine in which the article appears i.e. Information Systems Management and not the title of the article. Select “Periodical Title” from the drop-down menu which appears beside the search box. Then check to see if the libraries’ have the volume and issue you need, which in this case they do.
Finding Articles When You Know Which Articles Database to Use
If you know which database you want to use (i.e. Proquest Business), simply go to the libraries’ home page at www.library.yorku.ca, select the “eResources” tab, and type “Proquest Businessl” into the Search Box, like this:
Accessing Articles Databases from Home
Once you look up an eResource like an eJournal, or an articles database, you will be prompted for your Passport York account. For more information on getting a library card please consult the libraries’ web site.
Finding Articles & Reports When You Don’t Know Which Database to Use
The index you choose depends on your topic. Many indexes are discipline specific e.g. Business Source Premier focuses on business, finance and economics while some are multi-disciplinary e.g. Scholars Portal Journals, which has scholarly articles from a variety of disciplines.
Articles databases contain article citations (e.g title of journal article, author(s) of journal article, title of journal, volume no., issue no., pagination etc.) and often the article’s full-text, as well. Many databases provide abstracts or summaries of articles as well. These electronic databases can be searched in a variety of ways, including by keyword.
In addition to articles several of these databases include industry and company reports.
For a guide to databases which can help with research relating to information technology governance consult the table below.
Information Technology Governance
Many corporate governance topics or issues can be interdisciplinary in nature. This extends to the field of information technology governance. There are often business, legal, policy, technical and other angles associated with information technology governance research.
Thus when researching information technology governance topics it may be important to think beyond the databases providing access to articles and reports published in business journals and magazines. For this reason, the list below highlights databases which offer coverage from various disciplinary perspectives. These are angles which are especially relevant in the context of the research project assigned for this course.
Subject |
Resources |
| IT Governance
Business Literature |
Proquest Business Simultaneously search all business & industry periodicals available through Proquest Central, including the ABI/Inform databases, concentrated publications on the pharmaceutical, banking, computing and telecommunications industries and Canadian, Asian and European business news. Includes wide coverage of corporate governance topics. Specific databases included in the Proquest suite of business databases at York University are: ABI Inform Global, ABI/Inform Trade & Industry, CBCA Business, CBCA Current Events, Proquest Asian Business and Reference, and Proquest European. CBCA Complete (Proquest) : Provides interdisciplinary coverage of Canadian topics including the areas of business and current affairs. Offers references, and many full text articles, from Canadian journals, magazines, newspapers, and newswires. Dates of coverage vary by title but many full-text titles available from early or mid-1990s, while citations for many publications available from early 1980s onward. Consult CBCA Business, a sub-component of the CBCA Complete database, in order to limit search specifically to Canadian business journals and magazines, but note that newspaper and newswire coverage are not offered by this product, and coverage of business topics in non-business publications is also not available.
Business Source Premier (Ebsco) Contains full text for over 7,500 business periodicals and other sources, including scholarly journals, trade and general business magazines, monographs, country economic and industry reports, industry yearbooks, and market research reports. |
| IT Governance : Legal Literature | Lexis Nexis Academic: Lexis-Nexis Academic makes available over 30,000 news, business, and legal information sources. There are over 900 legal journals and reviews, as well as trade and marketing reports, patent details, merger and acquisition analysis, country reports and industry and legal publications. Lexis-Nexis also provides access to numerous reference tools, including biographical information, company directories, quotations and Who’s Who titles.
QuickLaw : has been the premier Canadian legal research database since its development in the 1970s. It is the principal research tool for Canadian lawyers and judges and includes the full text of decisions from all Canadian courts and tribunals as well as federal and provincial legislation. It also includes the full text of many Canadian law journals and other law-related publications and commentaries and the main Canadian law journal index – Index to Canadian Legal Literature. Quicklaw users can choose to customize access by registering; however, this step may be skipped for casual use. (i.e., click on Register later and then Accept to get into the database).
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| IT Governance: Information Technology Literature | Gartner Intraweb:Reports and news that provide a valuable source of global market knowledge for IT and telecom industries (not the complete database). Covers topics such as cloud computing, mobile technologies, web 2.0 technologies and more.
ACM Digital Library : Complete full text of all Association for Computing Machinery journals, magazines and conference proceedings since 1954. IEEE Explore : Complete full text of all IEEE/IEE journals, conferences and standards since 1988. |
| IT Governance: Interdisciplinary Databases | Proquest: A single search screen that provides access to multiple databases for searching literature in a number of disciplines. It is possible to search across all 50 + Proquest databases or to limit searches to subject areas including business, health and medicine, history, literature and languages, social sciences and more. Research Library : An interdisciplinary database covering a broad range of subjects including arts, business, children, education, general interest, health, humanities, international studies, law, military, multicultural studies, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and women’s studies. Coverage: 1971 – present. |
| IT Governance: Newspaper Articles Databases | Canadian Newsstand – Major Dailies : A full-text database of major Canadian daily newspapers. Select the Publications tab for a full listing. There may be a 2 – 7 day delay for the most recent issues.
Factiva: Includes nearly 9,000 sources from 118 countries in 22 languages, including full-text articles from international newspapers including The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and The Toronto Star, and continuously updated newswires and general business news publications like The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Finanz & Wirtschaft, Satellite News, BusinessWeek. Lexis Nexis Academic: Lexis-Nexis Academic makes available over 30,000 news, business, and legal information sources. There are over 900 legal journals and reviews, as well as trade and marketing reports, patent details, merger and acquisition analysis, country reports and industry and legal publications. Lexis-Nexis also provides access to numerous reference tools, including biographical information, company directories, quotations and Who’s Who titles. |
Citing Business Articles (including using RefWorks)
About Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Once you have selected relevant business articles for your research, one important final step involves compiling an accurate list of references or citations to incorporate within your essay or project. Referencing the items you used for your research is an important part of academic work, and is paramount to avoiding plagiarism. To learn more about plagiarism and the importance of academic integrity, see the Academic Integrity Tutorial available on the library’s website.
Guides to Different Citation Styles
York Libraries’ web site offers a very useful guide to citation styles including APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard and more. A specific guide for citing Internet resources is also available as part of the Libraries’ Web Research tutorial.
Citing Business Resources
When it comes to business it’s often necessary to cite a wide range of resources, e.g. books, articles, annual reports, industry reports found in a specific library database, company financials found in a specific library database etc. Bronfman Library offers access to two guides to help you out. For an APA citation guide the one put together by McGill Library is recommended. For an MLA citation guide to Bronfman Business Library eResources use How to Cite Business Sources in MLA.
RefWorks 2.0 Access and Help Resources
Note that RefWorks 2.0, a citation management software supported by York University Libraries, may also be used free of charge to build a personal database of references and to create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA style. Go here to sign in and get an account. More information about RefWorks is available on the York University Libraries’ Web site.
Quick Tutorial: This is an excellent tutorial which will help you learn RefWorks 2.0 fundamentals quickly.
Zotero Access and Help Resources
Zotero is a freely available software (Firefox plug-in) which can help you import citations from your favourite databases and websites, build and format bibliographies, format citations for papers, take notes about articles and save them in your collection of citations, and save and organize pdfs, screenshots and more.
Download Zotero. Quick Start Guide
A wide range of helpful tutorials outlining the features and functionality of this software is available at the zotero.org website.
Web guide created by Sophie Bury. September 2011
