Research Resources for Professional Writing Track

North American Industry Classfication System (NAICS)

• system used to classify business establishments e.g. 423720 is the 2007 NAICS for "Solar heating panels and equipment merchant wholesalers"
• NAICS numbers can often be used to search for information in other databases

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes have been replaced by NAICS codes.

Business Source Complete

• includes business news, company profiles, market research
• Search strategies: Search for a business, industry, or by a NAICS code
• Look for "Source Types" such as SWOT analysis, Industry profiles, Market research reports (e.g. information from MarketWatch and Consumer Behavior), and Product Reviews
• Other search terms to consider
• datamonitor (a business information company which produce industry analyses), trends, overview, innovation*, technolog*, environment*, marketing, accounting, law, legal, "public relations", statistics
• * is a truncation symbol to pick up different ends on a root word

Selected Magazine Sources from Business Source Complete

• a subset of magazine sources focused on marketing topics

LexisNexis Academic

• includes general and business news
• join similar terms with OR and join disimilar terms with AND e.g. landscaping AND (trend* or forecast*)
• look for document types such as Magazine & journals or Industry trade press publications

LexisNexis Congressional Research Reports

• focus on public policy issues
• e.g. search for Green

Factiva Access

• a global news sources, business focus
• Search strategies: In the subject search, select "Editor's choice -- Industry Trends/analysis" OR "Earning projections", add other terms or select a region etc. and Run Search
• e.g. "vitamin water" OR vitaminwater AND "Editor's choice -- Industry Trends/analysis" (subject)
• e.g. "rental cars" OR zip OR "car sharing" AND "Earnings Projections" (subject)
• be aware of default date limiter
• In "More Options", you can choose to search for your terms in Headline & Lead Paragraph and to sort by Relevance rather than Date.

Newsbank: Access World News

• worldwide news coverage
• can select various groupings e.g. Major Metro Titles, America's News Magazines etc.
• use the date limiter

Google

• Search for words which describe the industry you have selected.  Add other terms such as trend, innovation, technology, environment, ethics, sustainability, legislation etc.  You can OR together terms in Google.  Use a capital OR.
• a ~ before a term will pick up similar terms

Business Source Complete

• More > Company Profiles

LexisNexis Academic

Searches from Business tab

• Business > Company Dossiers
• Business > Company Profiles (retrieves Hoover's Company Records)
• Business > SEC Filings (Type in a company name and select SEC From 10-K from Sources.)
• Details of a Dossier
• SEC Filings 10-Ks (sections 7A), annual financial reports of American companies; 10Qs quarterly financial reports of American companies; 20-Fs annual financial reports of foreign companies traded on U.S. stock exchanges

Searches from General tab

• Searching within specific sources in LexisNexis, these sources are most suitable when looking for information on specific companies.

Searching for Investext Current Reports - Results will include the Company Profiles (Datamonitor Company Research reports) also available in Business Source Complete.

• Go to the Sources tab. > Search for Investext Current Reports. > Go. > Select Investext Current Reports. > Click OK-Continue.
• Continue by entering search terms. e.g. Amazon and SWOT

Searching for Experian Business Reports - may have financial information a private companies

• Go to the Sources tab. > Search for Experian. > Go. > Select Experian Business Reports. > Click OK-Continue.
• Continue by entering search terms.

WolframAlpha Company Comparison Report

• e.g. Apple and Microsoft; Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Links to resources listed in UC Library Search.  Use the links on the left to limit to a specific format e.g. books. Conduct your own searches in the UC Library Search catalog.

Business Planning

Cash Flow

Entrepreneurship

Home Based Businesses

Marketing

New Business Enterprises

Strategic Planning

Venture Capital

International Marketing

Trade journals are publications that fall somewhere in between a magazine and an academic journal.  They generally focus on industry, product and business information and are written for members of a trade or profession.  They often look more like magazines than academic journals, with color illustrations and advertisements.  Although not peer reviewed, trade journals can be great sources for product reviews, industry statistics, new publications, patents, etc.

There are a couple of ways to find and recognize trade journal articles:

Use Academic Search Complete

• Select Publications
• Enter a term in the search box, e.g. journalism
• Check option By Subject & Description
• Click Browse
• Checkmark desired items from results list
• Click Add
• You should see publication titles you selected displayed in the search box.  Click Search
• See Source Types in L.H. column - Checkmark Magazines
• Click Update
• See Publication list in L.H. column
• Publications and articles displayed may be considered Trade Journals
• Evaluate using above criteria

Use Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory

• Select Advanced Search
• Under Search On, select Keyword or Subject 
• Enter your search term, e.g. agriculture, photography, etc
• Under Serial Type, select Trade/Business-to-Business
• Opt to narrow your search with other limiters, e.g. date, price range, language, etc.
• Click Search
• Your results list will show a comprehensive list of Trade Journals based on your keyword or subject

To find out if UC Merced has access to a trade journal title, use the e-Journal Finder.

• Enter the title in the search box, e.g. advertising age
• Click Search
• In the results list, click on a title or the UC-eLinks or Get it at UC button to access the publication