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A Pollak Library Research Guide
Rob Sage, Reference and Instruction Librarian
Pollak Library 124
(714) 278-4057
rsage@fullerton.edu
 

FINANCE: A Pollak Library Research Guide

The CSUF library has a wealth of resources for your business research needs including books, articles, indexes and recommended web sites. This guide is especially designed for CSUF students of finance.  Here you will find Library & research resources for every area of finance.

Articles: How to find articles on your business topic.  These articles may be found in books, journals, or may even be in full text online!
Books: How to find books on your business topic
Journals: A list of business-related journals CSUF owns
Reference: A list of guides, dictionaries, directories, etc.
Web Sites: A list of recommended business-related Web Sites
FAQ: A guide to finding answers to the most frequently researched business topics.

 

 

Finance: Articles

Articles from journals or magazines usually provide the most current information on a topic. Articles in journals provide scholarly, professional or technical information. Articles in magazines are useful for brief, general, introductory information. 

Finance Databases

The Pollak Library subscribes to a large number of databases useful to students of finance.

Many of these databases provide full text of articles, but some contain only bibliographic citations with or without an abstract.  Most articles that you find will only have the text of the article, not the graphical information such as tables, graphs, charts, photographs, etc.

If you find an article that is not in full text or you need the graphical information not included in the full text of the article, you need to check the Pollak Library Catalog for the journal title. If the library has the journal, note the call number and the issues owned to be sure your article will be there.

Which Database Should I Search?

ABI/Inform Complete:                        

One of the best sources for scholarly journals in business.  Check this database first when you are starting a research paper and need reliable sources.

Advantages

Disadvantages

·          In addition to scholarly sources, ABI/Inform also has a large collection of articles from magazines (Business Week, The Economist), local business publications (Orange County Business Journal), Trade & Industry Publications (Advertising Age, WWD), and newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Times).

·          ABI/Inform is very easy to search.  All articles have extensive citations.  Citations are a record of terms that describe the article based on subject, product, industry, company, and many other variables.  All variables in the citation may be searched.  For instance, If I want articles about outsourcing jobs to India.  I can search for outsourcing in the Subject and India in Location.

·          Most articles contain abstracts.  Abstracts are brief summaries of the articles that you can read to help you decide whether the article is useful to your research.  Abstracts can make the research process go much more efficiently.

·          Most articles are in full-text, and include all tables, charts, images, and graphics.

·          Articles, particularly from newspapers and popular magazines, may appear in full-text closer to publication in other databases such as Lexis-Nexis and Factiva.

·          The total amount of sources and articles is less than other databases such as Lexis-Nexis and Factiva

Business Source Premier

One of the best sources for scholarly journals on business. Business Source Premier is a database to check first when you are starting a research paper and need reliable sources. 

Advantages

Disadvantages

·         Business Source Premier has the largest collection of up-to-date scholarly business journals.

·         Most articles in Business Source Premier have abstracts, summaries of the articles to help you decide if it is useful to your research.

·         You can search through the full-text of the articles, or limit your search to abstracts or specialized fields, such as subject, geography, company, or people. 

·         Includes the full-text of all Datamonitor Reports including company profiles, SWOT Analyses, country profiles, and industry profiles.

·         Articles, particularly from newspapers and popular magazines, may appear in full-text closer to publication in other databases such as Lexis-Nexis and Factiva.

·         The total amount of sources and articles is less than other databases such as Lexis-Nexis and Factiva.

 

Business Full-Text

Business Full-Text has the smallest collection of  articles.  It is best used to gather ideas and general information on your topic.

Advantages

Disadvantages

·         Business Full-Text contains mostly full-text articles.

·         This smaller database makes it easier to find articles on general topics.

·         You can search through the full-text of the articles, or limit your search to abstracts or specialized fields, such as subject, company, or industry (SIC code). 

·         Searches may be limited by publication type, date, or document type.

 

·         Articles, particularly from newspapers and popular magazines, may appear in full-text closer to publication in other databases such as Lexis-Nexis and Factiva.

·         The total amount of sources and articles is less than all other business databases.

 

Lexis-Nexis Academic:                       

 Lexis-Nexis is best used when you need the very latest information on your business topic.  It is also very useful as a supplement to what you find in other databases or when you have a very narrow topic.

Advantages

Disadvantages

·          Lexis-Nexis provides a huge amount of articles from over 5,000 sources, particularly from newspapers.  Lexis-Nexis provides articles from newspapers, magazines, and trade & Industry publications from all over the world.

·          Lexis-Nexis is timely.  Many articles appear in Lexis-Nexis on the same day, they are published.

·          Lexis-Nexis places limits on how many articles you can retrieve at once.  If over 1,000 articles are returned, you will be forced to narrow your search down.

·          All articles include the full-text.

 

·          Lexis-Nexis only allows you to search through the text of each article.  There aren’t any citations or abstracts to make searching for and identifying useful articles easier.

·          There are not very many scholarly journal articles available in Lexis-Nexis.

·          You can not search through the entire database at once. 

·          You must select what type of article you want before searching.  For instance, if you are looking for magazine or journal articles on outsourcing jobs to India, you must first select General News, then select Magazines and Journals.

·          Tables, charts, images, and graphics are not included.

 

Factiva:                                               

Use Factiva when you need to find articles on a very narrow topic, need to supplement what you find in other databases, or need up-to-the-minute articles on your topic. 

Advantages

Disadvantages

·          Factiva has an enormous database of articles from well over 5,000 periodicals.

·          In addition to searching through the text of the articles, Factiva has subject, industry, region or company variables that may be used to limit your search.

·          All articles are in full-text format.

 

·          Factiva searches its entire database at once and does not place any limits on how many articles you can retrieve at once.  Your search must be very narrow or else you could end up with thousands of articles.

·          Citations and abstracts are not available.

·          Most tables, charts, graphics, and images are not available.

 

JSTOR:                                             

 Use JSTOR when you need scholarly research articles on your topic. 

Advantages

Disadvantages

·          JSTOR provides exact copies of articles from scholarly journals.  All information from the journal, including tables, charts, images, and graphics is included.

·          JSTOR has an enormous archive of journal articles.  If you need historical information on your topic, JSTOR is the place to go.

·          JSTOR is a cross-disciplinary database.  For instance, if you search for articles about outsourcing jobs to India, you will get articles from publications on business, economics, political science, law, sociology, and even geography!

·          Each article in JSTOR has an abstract, a summary of the article to help you decide if it is useful to your research.

·          You can search through the full-text of the articles, or limit your search to just the title and abstract

·          JSTOR does not contain many current issues of its journals.  It serves mainly as a historical archive of journal articles.

·          Searches are limited to the text, abstract and basic citation information (title, author, publication, date, etc.). Subject and other variables are not included.

·          JSTOR only includes scholarly journals.  Articles from newspapers, trade & Industry publications, and magazines are not included.

 

 

Finding an article that we do not own

If you have checked the Library Catalog and we do not own the journal, there are several ways you can obtain it:

Step 1:  See if it is in electronic format in another database.  Do this by checking our Journal Title List

Step 2: If you need it in a hurry, check to see if it is held by another library in the area.  Use the Worldcat database.  Search for the name of the journal and click on libraries, to get a list of libraries, starting with those in California, that own the title.  WARNING!!!!  Make sure to check with the library to see if they have the issue you want before going down there.

Step 3:  If you have time, you can fill in an Interlibrary loan request form to have the article sent to this library from another institution. 

Created: February 2002  Updated: 20 May 2008

Prepared by Rob Sage: rsage@fullerton.edu
An instructional page of the Paulina June & George Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton.
(c) 2007 California State University, Fullerton. All rights reserved.