Buyer Behavior

Choose Quality Publications

The top journals for buyer behavior are:

Journal of Consumer Psychology

Journal of Consumer Research

To identify other high quality scholarly business journals check well respected lists such as the 45 Journals Used in the Financial Times Research Rank or impact factor or eigenfactor in Journal Citation Reports. 

Know how to tell the difference between scholarly and trade  or popular journals. 

Quick techniques for identifying scholarly articles & journals. 

• Look for the editorial page of the journal.  Does the editorial board include many academics?  Are there detailed instructions for article submissions?  --> Scholarly Journal.
• Do an internal evaluation of the article.  Are there sections related to the statement of the problem, hypothesis, methods, data and results? Are their many references included?  Are the authors credentials academic-->Scholarly Article.

Use the Best Databases for Buyer Behavior Research

Document Your Sources With APA

There are many tips and online tools to help you write your reference list and in-text citations in APA style.  Whichever you use you will still have to know the basic rules of APA citation because the online apps are not foolproof.  They sometimes generate faulty citations.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association  In print only.

Research & Documentation Online by Hacker Reliable but not authoritative guide to APA style

APA Style Online tips and tools for learning the style

Practice

Your objective is to find research similar in topic to the sample abstract:

SAMPLE ABSTRACT

            An impressive body of research supports the view that individuals use products to create, communicate, and manage their identities.  Despite the abundance of research, virtually no attention has been paid to how or why consumers begin to make connections between their self-concepts and consumer products.  In this article, we address these developmental issues by examining changes in self-concepts from childhood to adolescence, focusing on the emergence of connections between consumer brands and self-concepts (self-brand connections).  In two studies with 8-18 year olds, we find that self-brand connections develop in number and sophistication between middle childhood and early adolescence. 

What keywords will you search?

What Subjects Terms are related to the keywords you used?

How can you limit your search to scholarly journals?

What steps did you have to take to get the full text of an article?

Get Full Text

Use the Find it button in databases, the Journal Finder, the DOI or Interlibrary Loan to get full text.

Video's on Finding Full Text