Business & Economics Research Guide: Business Research
General resources and research tips for business research.
General Business & Economics Sources
These are sources where you can find general business information. For more detailed resources and research tips, see guides relating to those topics or course guides.
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Business Source Complete [EBSCO] Business Source Complete contains articles from Scholarly, popular, and trade journals in addition to company reports (public & private), industry reports, and country reports.
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IBISWorld IBISWorld contains reports on more than 700 industries. Includes industry summary, key competitors, segmentation, and more. Includes links to related industries. Searchable by keyword, company name, or NAICS code.
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Value Line Investment Survey Includes analyst opinions on 1,700 publicly-traded companies and full industry reports.
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Dossier [LexisNexis] A directory of public and privately held US and international companies. Includes contact information, a corporate tree, and brands. Use Advanced Search to find out who makes a brand or product.
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Nexis Uni (formerly Lexis-Nexis) Lexis-Nexis provides current and historical business information, including Hoovers reports and trade journals. Also includes country reports and extensive newspaper coverage.
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Value Line Fund AdvisorAn analysis of mutual funds. Monthly Fund Survey provides rankings, growth, and return on all funds listed.
Tip:Search by Fund Ticker or name to find more in-depth detail and analysis. -
EconLit [EBSCO]A database containing 1.5 million citations and abstracts to scholarly articles and other research from 74 countries relating to economics and economics history dating back to 1886.
Tip:Some items in EconLit only contain the citation. For best results, click on "Choose Database" and select both EconLit and Business Source Complete in order to search them together. -
Communication and Mass Media Complete [EBSCO] Includes journals that cover mass media, film, television, marketing, and business communication.
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Emerald Insight Contains more than 100 scholarly business journals and book series. Journals range from accounting to management.
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PsycINFO [EBSCO] Use to find scholarly articles about organizational behavior and interpersonal relationships. Can be useful when looking for information about work relationships and communication.
Type of Articles & Journals
You will often be asked to search for academic or scholarly articles and journals. What does that mean? How are they different from other articles and journals?
Academic Journals and Articles
- An academic article is created by academics for academics.
- The research and information is considered to be trustworthy and well-researched.
- Academic journals often have the word "journal" in the title, like Journal of Business Communication.
- Academic articles are long. A short academic or scholarly article is five pages long; most are 15 to 20 pages long.
- Academic journals rarely feature color picutres; most will feature charts and graphs, but not pictures.
- Authors often have an affiliation with a university or research institute.
General-interest Magazines
- General-interest magazines include titles like Time, Newsweek, Forbes, and Rolling Stone.
- Articles are often shorter and written for a general audience.
- Articles feature color images and the magaiznes are slick and glossy.
- Don't dismiss an article in a general-interest magazine, but be aware of who it is written for and where it is coming from.
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