Database Search Tips

To begin your research, go to http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/ebv

Listed below are some of the relevant databases that will help you locate information on companies, competitors, consumers, market share/market size etc.

ABI/Inform: Includes full-text articles from magazines and journals Includes company profiles, market share/market size, competitors, and SWOT analysis

Below is a sample search for the Company Fiat

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 1

Search Tips for ABI/Inform database:

Use quotation marks (“”) to search for exact phrases. Example: “life is good”

Two word queries such as advertising campaigns are searched as an exact phrase by default.

Three word queries such as fast food industry are searched as words that need to appear in proximity to each other by default. Use special characters and operators to focus queries.

The asterisk (*) is used as a right-handed truncation. It will find all forms of a word. Example: Searching for econom* will find economy, economics, economical, etc.

The question mark symbol (?) is used to replace any single character, either inside or the right end of the word. The question mark cannot be used to begin a word. Example: Searching for wom?n will find woman and women.

AND: will find all the words. Example: internet AND career

AND NOT: finds articles which have the first word, but not the second word. Example: Internet AND NOT html

OR: finds any of the words. Example: Internet OR intranet

W/# : finds documents where these words are within some number of words apart (either before or after). Use when searching for keywords within Citation and Document Text or Document Text. Example: computer W/3 careers

W/PARA: finds documents where words are within the same paragraph (within approximately 1,000 characters). Use when searching for keywords within Document Text. Example: business management W/PARA education

Business & Company Resource Center: brings together a wide variety of business information, including company profiles, company brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies, and new articles. Journal, newspaper, magazine, and newswire coverage runs from 1977 to the present. You can search by company name, industry, product or brand name, and by keywords.

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 2

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 3

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 4

Try the following sample searches in Business and Company Resource Center:

Company Search: Britvic

Eastern Mountain

Advanced search: coca-cola (in company/product)

Advanced search: sport* (in industry overviews)

Advanced search: eyewear (in rankings) – will give market share

Advanced search: sport* (in rankings) – will give market share

Advanced search: aero [in company profiles/products] ( from drop-down men limit to product/brand) and nestle (in company)

Factiva

Covers:

Provides news and data on companies, stock market, industries and economy. Includes full-text articles from thousands of newspapers, magazines, news wires Includes financial data and allows charting

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 5

Articles from Wall Street Journal going back to 1979 Coverage is both domestic and International.Below are some sample searches:

Basic Search Examples in Factiva:

For Articles Containing Enter

Both the word Nokia and the exact phrase emerging markets.Nokia and emerging markets

Either Michelin or Firestone.Michelin or Firestone

Wireless but not cellular.wireless not cellular

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 6

Information about online banking in the retail or consumer sectors.* online banking and (retail or consumer)

or

online banking and [retail or consumer]

Advanced Search Examples

For Articles Containing Enter

At least 5 mentions of Microsoft.Use with numbers 1-50. Use only against Search for free-text terms in: Full Article, not against specific fields.

The atleast operator does not support nested terms, therefore, the search atleast10 (Olympics and Winter Games) is not valid. Restate the atleast operator in your strategy when searching for multiple key terms.

atleast5 Microsoft

atleast10 Olympics and atleast10 Winter Games

Vodafone in the same paragraph as telecommunications.

The same operator must be used against Search for free-text terms in: Full Article, not against specific fields. The same operator also cannot be used repetitively, as in (wireless same cellular same telephone).

Vodafone same telecommunications

(wireless same (cellular and telephone))

President within 3 words of Bush, where Bush is the third word (there can be 0-2 words between), and the terms appear in that exact order. Search results would contain, for example, mentions of President Bush, President George Bush, President George W. Bush.

You must enter a number with this operator, between 1 and 10.

President w/3 Bush

World Cup within 5 words of rugby, where rugby is the fifth word (there can be 0-4 words between). The terms must appear in that exact order. Search results would contain, for example, mentions of World Cup rugby or World Cup match in rugby.

Use with numbers 1-10. adj1 is assumed if numbers are omitted.

World Cup adj5 rugby

Carrefour within 5 words of the word sales, where there can be 0-4 words between Carrefour and sales. For example, retail sales posted by Carrefour. The terms can appear in any order.

Use with numbers 1-500. near1 is assumed if numbers are omitted.

Carrefour near5 sales

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 7

Boeing 747 within 30 words of British Airways, where there can be 0-29 words between Boeing and British. The terms can appear in any order.

You must enter a number with this operator, between 1 and 500.

boeing 747/N30/british airways

The word Toyota used in the first 50 words of an article.

Note: /Fn/works only in Search: Search Builder, but not in Alerts.

You must enter a number with this operator, between 1 and 500.

toyota/F50/

Phrases which include a Factiva search operator such as Research and Development or not for profit.

Any phrase which contains one or more of the following terms should be enclosed in double quotes: and, or, not, same, near, date.

"Research and Development"

"not for profit"

Any word that begins with earn and ends with a given number of letters: earns, earnings.

Use with numbers 1-9. You must enter a minimum of 3 characters before using the truncation ($) sign, and the $ sign must be entered at the end of a word only. If no number is entered, the default will be 5 characters. The more characters you enter before the $ sign, e.g. earn$ rather than ear$, the better your results.

earn$4

Any words that begin with telecom.

You must use at least 3 characters before the truncation (*) sign and it must be used at the end of a word only. Do not enter numbers after the sign. The more characters you enter before the sign, e.g. telecom* rather than tel*, the better your results.

telecom*

Either globalization or globalisation, or other wildcard spellings.

You must enter a minimum of 3 characters before using the wildcard (?) sign.

globali?ation

The words U.S. stock market and word count greater than 5,000, to identify longer articles about the stock market.

Do not use commas in large numbers.

U.S. stock market and wc>5000

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 8

TableBase:

Provides Data from tables published in magazines, brokerage, and government reports. Covers market share, market size, capacity, production, imports and exports, sales, product and brand rankings, forecasts, healthcare statistics, and demographics.

You can search by keywords such as: burgers, health food, cell phone, online shopping

Below is an advanced search in TableBase: Energy drinks and western Europe (geographic region)

LexisNexis Business:

LexisNexis Business covers public and private companies, both U.S. and non-U.S. You can limit your search by SIC and NAICS codes, keywords, geography, number of employees, revenue etc.

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 9

Use the search form below to enter your search criteria.

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 10

Click on a company’s name to view its profile. See below. All results can be downloaded to Excel.

Mergent Online:

Mergent Online is a financial database that provides information on publicly traded U.S. and non-U.S. companies. Use Mergent Online to find:

Company profiles including financial and operational histories, list of subsidiaries, long term debt, and insider trading data

Biographies of officers and directors. List of Key competitors Annual reports SEC (EDGAR) filings Up to 15 years of spreadsheet-ready financial statements including annual and quarterly balance

sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, and financial ratios.

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 11

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 12

Mintel: This database covers

Market research reports in 18 broad categories of consumer markets: automotive, electronic goods, food and clothing, health and well being etc.

US and Global consumer markets, with an emphasis on European and US markets. Each report includes statistical data and commentary on market size, market segmentation,

market drivers, attitudes and motivation etc.

You can search by keywords such as: cloth* (will find all different endings of this word including clothe, clothing, clothes etc.), sport goods, iPod, eyewear, snacks, outdoor etc. See below:

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 13

NOTE: Upon the first login to Mintel, you will be required to register with your email address and select your own password. Once you have registered, Mintel creates a user profile where you can save and later retrieve your searches.

To learn more, contact Shikha Sharma, Business Librarian (Shikha.sharma@uconn.edu). Last Revised: 09/10/2010Page 14