Journal articles are a familiar source of information to librarians and researchers, but they are often overlooked in the hunt for business information. Articles from news and trade publications provide useful clues and other information about all manner of business research questions about a company, industry, product, or person. While other business databases cover only certain industries or types of companies, databases containing articles allow one to search at a much more granular level and can yield historical information alongside current news.
Anyone seeking scholarly business journals and trade publications will find ABI/INFORM Complete an excellent starting point. Produced now by ProQuest, the ABI/INFORM product line is made up of several databases, licensed separately: ABI/INFORM Dateline, focused on regional business news sources; ABI/INFORM Global, which includes company and industry information with indexing and full-text access to over three thousand academic business and professional trade publications; and ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, covering various newsletters and other industry publications.
Primarily known as a business journal database providing full-text journals in marketing, management, accounting, finance, and economics, EBSCO’s Business Source suite of databases contains much non-journal full-text content, including thousands of MarketLine company and industry profiles, country economic reports, financial data, and more. EBSCO’s Business Source Complete builds on its Premier product, offering additional investment reports, conference proceedings, and expanded historical journal coverage. EBSCO’s exclusive licensing agreement with Harvard Business Publishing allows some subscribers access to the full text of the Harvard Business Review, their e-books, and other content, although strict copyright restrictions apply regardless of subscription level. EBSCO offers other lines of business database products, including Business Abstracts with Full Text (following a 2011 merger with H. W. Wilson).
Besides being a great source for full-text journal articles from trade and industry publications, Factiva produced by Dow Jones provides full-text access to local, national, and international newspapers in twenty-eight languages, including its notable business daily, the Wall Street Journal. Factiva features a company report builder that pulls together news and financial information from a number of content providers. Factiva includes global market indexes, historical stock prices, and country information.
LexisNexis Academic holds a wealth of information on public and private companies through its hundreds of journals and newspaper holdings. Additionally, the Business section of LexisNexis Academic includes the full text of company profiles from Hoover’s (see under company resources, below), as well as US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and financial reports. LexisNexis Academic also provides access to state and federal regulations and to other legal content useful for business research. For a supplemental fee, subscribers can add the LexisNexis Company Dossier suite for more functionality and content, including litigation and intellectual property information, and data on corporate structures.
Local newspapers and business publications can also be great sources of information about smaller private companies or regional industries and executives. Two publishers, Crain Communications and American City Business Journals, each produce a number of publications focusing on specific cities. The latter covers more than forty market areas including larger cities (such as Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco) and smaller cities (Buffalo, Dayton, Santa Barbara, Wichita, etc.). Crain’s publication suite covers fewer areas and focuses on major midwestern cities but also includes Crain’s New York Business. Another source of local business news is EBSCO’s Regional Business News database.