1. Identify Search Terms

The first step in searching for information for your topic is identifying keywords/search terms. Library databases require you to enter keywords into the search box because entering an entire essay topic/question will not be as effective and may likely return poor or even no results at all. The keywords/search terms you use are critical in determining the relevance of the results that you will retrieve. Examples of the keywords/search terms you may use are:

"Financial statements"

"International Financial Reporting Standards" OR IFRS

"Corporate Governance"

"Capital Requirements"

2.  Creating a Search Statement 

To retrieve the most relevant search results, you will need to construct a search statement.

A search statement is a combination of the keywords/search terms that you enter into the search box of a database. You use Connecting Words to link the keywords/search terms. Connecting Words are AND, OR and NOT. 

Connecting keywords/search terms & using phrases to improve your search:

1. AND:  (e.g. "South Africa" AND "corporate governance") retrieves only results containing both terms.
2. OR: Searches for similar words and related terms. Note:  the keywords must be in brackets. E.g.: ("International Financial Reporting Standards" OR IFRS)
3. Phrases: should be in quotation marks (e.g. “corporate governance” retrieves the phrase corporate governance)
4. Combining Phrases:  (e.g. “South Africa” AND “financial statements") will retrieve articles which contain both phrases.

Use * to replace a letter or shorten a word to retrieve all versions of the word.

• Eg. inventor* = inventory and inventories
• Organi*ation = organisation and organization (SA/British or American spelling)
• Account* = account, accounts and accountant

Search statement examples:

"capital requirements" AND finance

"South Africa" AND "financial statements"

(account* OR "financial statements") AND compan* AND "South Africa"

3. Using Search Statements

These Search Statements can be used to find appropriate textbook sources and articles on Search All as well as on relevant library databases and websites.

To find the information that you need for your writing tasks and course portfolios, try some of the websites suggested on the Accounting Subject Guide

Useful websites will include:

Quarterly Bulletins of the South African Reserve Bank

South African Revenue Service

South African Reserve Bank

Printable Quick Guide to the Anglia Ruskin Harvard System in PDF format

For further queries please contact edtech@ru.ac.za 

Have a look at the Find books, e-books & theses tab on your Accounting Subject Guide

to find out more about finding and using E-Books on ProQuest Ebook Central,  EBSCO eBooks  & Search All

You can also search for e-books using the Search All option on the library webpage. Click on More Search Options, select All Fields & enter your keywords. Limit the Content Type to Book/eBook & click on  Search. (You can refine your search results further by selecting the options on the left hand side if necessary).  Select Full Text Online & follow the link.

Remember and Take Note: Different E-books vendors/Publishers have different Loan policies.

More Information can be found on the E-Books Guide.

Please Note: Although these resources are freely available, it is important to take note of the Creative Commons statement for each resource which specifies the terms of use for the material.

The links listed below are just a sample of what can be found under Accounting  at http://www.oercommons.org. There are many more, so please look at the site...

Introduction to Financial Accounting

Financial Accounting Videos by Professor Alldredge

A comprehensive video series covering principles of financial accounting starting with financial accounting for sole-proprietorship, then partnerships and finally corporations.

Creative Commons Attribution 

Financial Accounting Videos by Tony Bell

Comprehensive series of videos for introductory financial accounting courses featuring sample problems and solutions.

Creative Commons Attribution 

Basics of Accounting

This course introduces the viewer to the most important principles in accounting. This course is also designed for corporate or legal professionals to be able to better work with corporate accounting departments.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA

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