Tips for Searching Fee-Based Business DatabasesInformation compiled by Lily Griner and Zaida Diaz |
| Name | Content | Strength/Weakness | Boolean | Proximity | Truncation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABI/Inform (Proquest Direct) 1996- 1979-1996 Backfile Focus on managerial issues in a work setting. Information on over 60,000 companies. |
Over 75% full text. Covers magazines, journals, dissertations. |
Strength: Academic, research, theoretical focus Good place to look for topics on leadership, glass ceiling, ethics, downsizing, etc. Weakness: Little coverage of the trade literature. |
AND, OR, NOT | W/N Not W/n PRE/n, W/doc |
Truncation: ? Ex. Manag? Retrieves all words containing same root. Wild card: * Ex. Wom*n |
| Academic Universe Lexis/Nexis Time covered varies by source. Covers the gamut of business and related topics. |
Almost all full-text. Covers business topics from local, regional, national newspapers, some trade publications, business magazined, SEC filings, some reference sources | Strength: Updated hourly. Broad focus. Foreign language sources. Weakness: Broad focus. Little academic, research oriented coverage. |
AND, OR, NOT | W/n, W/p, W/s, PRE/n ATLEAST# | Truncation: ! Ex. Manag! Retrieves all words containing same root. Wild card: * Ex. Wom*n |
| Business & Industry (Responsive Data Services) Indexing 1994-Present. Broad-based business information database that focuses on facts, figures, events, market information about companies, industries, products and markets. |
BI covers all industries and is international in scope. Draws content from over 1000 trade and industry publications, regional, national and international newspapers, business dailies and newsletters. | Strength: Covers the trade literature. Good place to look for topics dealing with: market share, market size, new products, or developments, trends. Weakness: No academic, research, theoretical coverage. |
AND, OR, NOT | W(ith), N(ear) Ex: Market w share Market w3 share (only in the order typed) Market n share Market n3 share (in any order within n words) |
Truncation: * Ex. Manag* Manage, management. # wom#n,? colo? r (color, colour, colonizer) colo?lr |
| Business & Management Practices (BaMP) (Responsive Data Services) Time coverage varies by title. Focuses on practical approaches to management processes and methods, and real-life applications, case studies, and explicit “how-to” guidelines. | Highly focused coverage from more than 300 professional and trade journals containing information relevant to the fields of management, planning, production, marketing, information technology, and human resources. | Strength: Focuses on real-life applications, and searches can be customized by company, department, industry, type of document, SIC code, geographic region, and source. Weakness: No data coverage is provided for each source. | AND, OR, NOT | W/#, NEAR#, ATLEAST#, PRE#, ADJ# | Truncation: * Ex.: Secur* Retrieves all words containing same root: Secure, Security, Secured, Securities, and Security |
| Business Reference Suite (BizSuite) (Responsive Data Services) Time coverage varies by title. Combines Business Industry, Business Management Practices, and TableBase. The three databases can be searched individually or simultaneously. | Contains extensive full-text information about the companies and/or industries. The content of each database is highly complementary. Searching BI and TableBase together produces results which include the textual content from BI, supported by the tabular content of TableBase. | Strength: Simultaneous searches from three complementary databsases. Weakness: No data coverage is provided for each source. | AND, OR, NOT | W/#, NEAR#, ATLEAST#, PRE#, ADJ# | Truncation * Ex.: Legal* (Legalized, Legality) |
| Business Source Premier (OCLC-EBSCO HOST) Indexing 1990-Present. Topics covered are: management, economics, finance, accounting, international business, etc. | Covers mostly in full-text nearly 1520 general business periodicals as well as academic business journals. Also includes Country Monitor and 35 country reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit. | Strength: Can be searched simultaneously with the other EBSCO Host interdisciplinary and subject-related databases. Weakness: Subject headings are not very helpful. | AND, OR, NOT | W/#, NEAR#, ATLEAST#, PRE#, ADJ# | Truncation: * Ex. Secur* (Security, Securities, Secured) |
| Dow Jones Interactive (Factiva) Time coverage varies by title. Covers business topics in all types of business and related sources. | Covers mostly in full-text over 6000 titles including top national newspapers, Dow Jones Reuters newswires, business journals, SEC filings; evaluates business focused web sites. | Strength: Focus on broad array of business sources that can be searched individually by industry group, or by setting own criteria. Weakness: Not easy to maneuver. | AND, OR, NOT | W/#, NEAR Ex. Hillary w/1 Clinton Ex. Market near3 share ATLEAST# Ex. Atleast3 intel Ex. Chocolate SAME (hugs or kisses) | Truncation: $ Ex. Manag& Retrieves all words containing same root. Wildcard: ? Ex. Wom?n |
| Ebsco Host Academic Time covered varies by title, many go back to 1990. Very broad coverage, includes topics of interest to business researchers. | Full text for 1200 journals, abstracts for 3000/ Covers WSJ, NYT, Christian Science Monitor. Over 1700 journals are peer reviewed. | Strength: Broad coverage – 3000 sources; 1700 peer reviewed sources Weakness: Broad subject coverage, no business focus. | AND, OR, NOT | NEAR: N# (words appear near each other in either direction) Ex. Market n5 share W# car w5 buy Words appear in specified order within # words | Truncation: * Ex. Manag* Wildcard: ? Ex. Psych???y (psychiatry or psychology) |
| Gale Business Resources (Gale) Current Incorporates directories, handbooks, other major business reference sources published by Gale | Full text data from the major Gale business sources Ex. International Directory of Company Histories, Market Share Reporter, Wards Directory of Public and Private Companies; Encyclopedia of American Industries, etc. | Strength: Full text information from the Gale sources searchable electronically. Good place to go for: company histories, market share tables, associations, industry overviews & statistics. Weakness: Covers only Gale sources. | AND, OR, NOT | W# Market w3 share Words must appear in specified order within # words NEAR# Market n5 share Words appear in any order within # words | Truncation: * Retrieves all words containing same root Manag* Wildcard: ? ? replaces a single letter wom?n ! adds 1 letter per !! |
| General Business Index ASAP (Gale) 1995-Present Backfile 1980-94 Varied business coverage. Advanced Search includes 3 other business files: Investext, Company ProFiles, SIC Descriptions. | More than half of the info is available full text. Covers about 1000 business magazines, local regional newspapers, some journal and trade literature. Investex covers brokerage house reports; Company ProFiles provides brief directory type of company profiles; SIC Descriptions provides definitions of SICs. | Strength: The 4 files are linked allowing easy moving from one file to the other. Good place for analyst reports, quick company profiles, SIC definitions. Weakness: Little academic research oriented, theoretical coverage. | AND, OR, NOT | W# (must appear # words after the word that precedes the W) Ex. Market w3 share NEAR# (words appear near each other in either direction) Ex. Market n5 share | Truncation: * Retrieves all words containing same root Manag* (manager, managing, management) Wildcard: ? Ex. Psych???y (psychiatry or psychology ! for plurals. Ex. Horse! (horse or horses) |
| Predicasts PROMPT (Predicasts) 1995-Present Predicasts Overview of Markets Technology (PROMPT) covers industries, company products, technology they produce and markets in which they compete. | Full text for about half of the 1000 sources covered. Focus on trade journals, magazines, newsletters, and newspapers, market research studies, investment and brokerage house reports. | Strength: Focus on trade literature. Good place to start search on topics such as market share or size, new products, trends. Weakness: No academic, research-oriented or theoretical coverage. | AND, OR, NOT | W# (must appear # words after the word that precedes the W) Ex. Market w3 share NEAR# (words appear near each other in either direction) Ex. Market n5 share | Truncation: * Retrieves all words containing same root Manag* (manager, managing, management) Wildcard: ? Ex. Psych???y (psychiatry or psychology ! for plurals. Ex. Horse! (horse or horses) |
| TableBase (Responsive Data Services) Data coverage varies by title. Database comprised of tabular information of a strategic nature. Every record has a unique table title that meets a searching criteria. Many of the table records also have textual content which supports the data in the table. | The tables provide information such as: market share, market size, capacity, production, imports, exports, sales, product and brand rankings, forecasts, healthcare statistics and demographics. Tables are drawn from more than 1000 sources that go into the BI database and from statistical annuals, brokerage reports, trade association reports, and government reports. | Strength: Tables are easy to find, since they are the focus of the search, and also because the contents of the table are indexed. Weakness: Although the tabular information data is in most cases extremely accurate, it night not always match your search criteria. | AND, OR, NOT | W/#, NEAR#, ATLEAST#, PRE#, ADJ# | Truncation: * Ex.: Market* (marketing, markets) |
| Wilson’s Select – Full Text (H.W. Wilson Co.) Dates covered: 1994-Present. Database contains full-text articles in science, humanities, and business. | Provides indexed and abstracted records with accompanying full-text in periodicals from Wilson General Science Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, Reader’s Guide Abstracts, and Wilson Business Abstracts. Includes U.S. international professional publications, academic journals, and trade magazines. | Strength: Links to full-text articles. Weakness: Limited only to certain business topics. | AND, OR, NOT | W#, NEAR#, ATLEAST#, PRE#, ADJ# | Truncation: * Ex.: Econ* (economics, economy, econometrics) Wildcard: ? |
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