Northeastern State University Libraries

This guide is designed to help students begin to find articles on demographics and psychographic variables for market segmentation with the use of three primary periodical indexes. The discussion will include suggested search approaches and proposed terminology. The guide will conclude with information on how to obtain full text articles not found on a particular database.

The NSU John Vaughan Library provides access to several online periodical indexes and full text databases which are useful for finding marketing research articles on demographics and psychographic variables. ABI/Inform, Wilson Omnifile's Business index, and Business Dateline may be particularly useful for finding article citations and full text articles on these topics. These databases, and others, can be accessed by clicking on the following link: Alphabetized List of Databases. Below are individual links to each of these three databases, and an explanation of how each one can be used to find articles pertaining to these topics:

1) ABI/Inform (ProQuest)

To best search for articles on these topics, click on the "Advanced Search" tab at the top of the ABI/Inform "Basic Search" screen. Once the "Advanced Search" screen has loaded, click on the arrow in the top box which reads "Citation and abstract" in order to change the selection to "Subject". In the search box immediately to the left enter market segmentation, which is a valid ABI/Inform subject term. In the second search box change the selection to "Subject" and type demographics, which also is a valid subject term in ABI/Inform. The search results will include more than 700 citations and full articles which have been indexed with these subjects.

 

Concerning the second topic, there are several ways to approach searching for articles in ABI/Inform on psychographic variables and market segmentation. To begin, since "psychographic variables" is not a valid subject term in this database, try entering any of the following terms as a subject, in combination with market segmentation as a subject. Be sure to enter market segmentation as a subject in one search box, and another term representing "psychographic variables" in another search box. In place of using "psychographic variables" try using psychological aspects, consumer behavior, consumer attitudes, psychology, decision making, attitudes, perceptions, lifestyles, or other similar terms, one at a time in the search box. To potentially broaden the search, which may result in slightly less targeted results but with additional entries, try searching these terms with "Citation and Abstract" selected. However, remember to always type phrases such as "consumer attitudes" with the use of quotation marks when not selecting the "Subject" mode search on the advanced search screen. In other words, when entering consumer attitudes in the "Citation and abstract" field, enter it as "consumer attitudes". This will tell the index that you wish the two terms to be searched together as a phrase, and not as individual words.

2) Wilson Web (Omnifile)

To access Wilson's Business index log onto Wilson Web, and then select "Business" from the "Subject Area" menu at the bottom of the Wilson database page.

 

Once the Business index has been selected, try searching for articles on demographics and market segmentation by entering each word and phrase separately in two different search boxes. Be sure to enter "market segmentation" as a phrase with the use of quotation marks.

 

If running a search on psychographic variables and market segmentation, enter both of these two word topics with quotation marks in two separate search boxes. Actually, this last search may retrieve few articles. To broaden the number of articles retrieved, try running the search again with some of the terms listed in the discussion above on ABI/Inform. Remember to include phrase quotation marks as needed.

3) Business Dateline

Business Dateline is a FirstSearch, full text periodical database. Business Dateline can be used to find articles on both of the topics discussed in this guide, but it may be most useful for retrieving articles on demographics and market segmentation. More than one search strategy could be used to successfully find articles on this topic. One approach is to enter each of these terms in separate search boxes, after changing the search field options from "Keyword" to "Full Text".

 

This change will result in Business Dateline searching for the words in the text of articles, which actually is a broad approach. The phrase "market segmentation" could be entered with quotation marks in one search box, but in Business Dateline this may result in a smaller set of articles than can be achieved by not placing quotation marks around the phrase. (This is a good illustration of the fact that each of the databases may search differently.) Business Dateline may retrieve fewer articles on psychographic variables than ABI/Inform or Wilson Omnifile's Business database, but some additional, unique articles should be found. In addition, Business Management, another FirstSearch database, may be useful for finding other articles on demographics and psychographic variables for market segmentation.

As indicated above, there are other periodical indexes which could be useful for finding material on demographics and psychographic variables for market segmentation. Additional indexes are found on the alphabetized databases list, which is linked above. However, it should be noted that some duplication may be seen when comparing the search results from any two databases.

When using many of the periodical databases it is probably that you will find that some articles are not accompanied by full text. While it is possible to force some databases to retrieve only full text articles in the search results, by checking the appropriate box on the search screen, it is important to note that in doing so you may not see some very valuable article citations. There are at least three possible approaches for obtaining a full text article which is not immediately found on a particular database:

1. An article which is not in full text on one database may, in fact, be found in full text on another database. To find out if another database provides an article in full text, search the periodical title (not article title) in the "Title begins with" search box on Serial Solutions:

 

2. If Serial Solutions fails to lead to a full text version of the article on another database, check the periodical title in the online catalog to see if the library owns a hard copy of the item.

3. If the library does not own a hard copy, it is likely that Interlibrary Loan will be able to obtain a free copy of the article for you. To learn about interlibrary loan policies and procedures, and for information on how to utilize this service either on campus or as a distance education student, please contact the Interlibrary Loan office or the resource coordinator listed below. One key to using interlibrary loan successfully is to start your research early so that interlibrary loan requests will arrive in time. On average, it takes about ten business days to obtain material through interlibrary loan.

---

• Contact the Subject Librarian for Business - cheatham@nsuok.edu
  
• Gary Cheatham's Home Page
  
• College of Business & Technology Web site
  

Department of Business Administration Web Site