New research starting point: Management section in Oxford Bibliographies Online

I'm a simple man with simple needs — ask anyone who's heard me enthuse at length about the joys of a well-made egg sandwich. No fancy restaurants for me... just a boiled egg, lots of green onion, some coarse black pepper, and a handful of nondairy shredded cheese, all on a Turkish bun. 

When I'm starting to research a topic that is new to me, my simple need is to quickly get a sense of the topic overall, answering such questions as...

• How is the field of research structured? What are the major subtopics and how do they interrelate?
• What have we learned so far, and what are the gaps in our knowledge on the topic?
• What are the major articles and books about the topic — the ones that confirmed long-suspected theories or broke new ground and that now serve as the foundations upon which new research is building?
• What are the key journals and who are the key people? That is, where should I start searching for newer information on the topic? 

That's not too much to ask, right? Yet finding a deep and clear overview of a subject is often far from simple. You might be able to find literature reviews on the many facets of organizational behaviour via PsycINFO or the factors involved in coping & success of international skilled migrants via Business Source Complete, but that approach is a bit hit-and-miss, and is unlikely to quickly unearth big-picture overviews of all categories of management research.

That long preamble is to help you understand why I'm so pleased to announce that SFU researchers now have access to the Management section in Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO). 

Oxford Bibliographies Online "offers exclusive, authoritative research guides across a variety of subject areas. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource directs researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects."

The Management section of OBO gives us a single starting point for research on 214 management topics such as Organizational Theory, Corporate Venture Capital, and Diversity. 

Sometimes we tend to overcomplicate research and make our own lives difficult. Asking for a solid understanding of what's known in a branch of management is actually a simple need, and now we have a simple answer... Oxford Bibliographies Online: Management.

Bonus: For even more simple, straightforward introductions to research topics, read my blog post from last fall — Read-on-a-bus books to get the basics of core topics & theories — or check our Annual Reviews resource, starting with these sections:

• Annual Review of Economics
• Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior
• Annual Review of Financial Economics
• Annual Review of Resource Economics
• Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application
• Annual Review of Sociology 

Good luck with your research!

-- Mark
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Mark Bodnar
Business & Economics Librarian
mbodnar@sfu.ca

P.S.: Can you tell I started writing this post while I was making lunch? Such a good sandwich... simply the best!