If you are at the beginning of a task, and want to learn about a subject quickly and discover current trends in culinary arts and/or hospitality, magazine articles are a good starting point. Articles in magazines are often shorter, presenting their information in an info-graphic style, identifying and writing about the salient ideas in an easily consumable style.
Example:
Creating an Environment for Innovation (in the candy industry)
Tips:
►If you take a look at the Creating an Environment for Innovation article, published in the Candy Industry magazine, you quickly get the flavor of magazine delivery. The first page is dominated by the title, leading paragraph, and a complementing innovation graphic. At the outset, six key ideas are showcased, including investing in innovation, making time and space for innovation, and rewarding innovation. Reading through the article, the six key ideas are commented upon by profiled executives in the candy industry and related industries. This description characterizes the typical magazine article. It is the perfect way to begin learning about an issue quickly!
►Getting to magazine articles may be as simple as limiting the number of pages in an article that each search must conform to. Usually located in the Advanced Search features, page limiters (2-5 pages, for example) will return most magazine articles on a given search topic.
►Exclude results that are a single page. While some articles are in fact just one page, the effort of sifting through these single pagers may outweigh the benefits of short article searching. Single page returns may include notices of changes in corporate executives, letters to and from the editor(s), and abstracts to longer articles, among other less helpful information.
►Infographics can be a fantastic way of synthesizing information, bringing the words on a page to an instant understanding. The Advanced Search features in a database often allows you to select articles that have at least one graphical element, such as a chart, graph, diagram, photograph, map, or an illustration.
►Taking the time to combine Advanced Search elements can economize your research. For example, Business Source Complete shows over 374,000 results on a search for wine. Using the short article search tips of limiting the number of pages and selecting "chart" as a "must have" brings back fewer than 700 results, and quickly opens up a window into the wine industry.