Library Guides: MBA Program: Databases

Tips for Searching Databases

If you are doing company research, in many of our databases you can search by ticker symbol. To find a company's ticker symbol, you can google it or look it up in a database like Morningstar or Value Line Investment Survey.

Likewise, if you are doing industry research, in many of our databases you can search by industry codes such as a NAICS code.

Finally, you should also utilize keywords and try boolean operators to search in databases.

NAICS
U.S. Census Bureau tool for using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Like knowing the ticker, knowing your company's NAICS code will help you locate industry and market information on library databases. You may have to try a few different keywords to find your NAICS code, for example, "Pest Management" won't return results but "Pest" and "Pest Control" will. I often will google "[Company Name] NAICS" to try to get a quick answer, but you should always check your results against the link here.
SIC Code
Search the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system from OSHA.gov by keyword to find the SIC code that classifies your industry. SIC codes are still used in some databases and reference sources, but the system is no longer being updated.

Not sure where to start? Here are some databases organized by research need...

These databases are a great place to start as they cover a wide range of business-related topics. They provide access to articles and some non-journal content (company profiles, industry profiles, market research reports, SWOT analyses, country reports, etc.).

ABI/INFORM Global
Provides indexing and abstracting for 1000 periodicals with full text for more than 600 publications.
Business Source Complete
Covers all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more. Content includes many full-text journals and topical video content

Morningstar
Provides up-to-date stock and fund information to research current or prospective holdings and see how investments work together. Data reports cover more than 20,000 securities.
Value Line Investment Survey
Provides year-ahead and three-to-five-year probable relative price performance, projections of key financial measures, and concise, objective commentary on current operations and future prospects, as well as full-page individual stock reports and industry reviews.

EconLit
SU no longer subscribes to this resource. Due to overlap in content, we suggest searching the following resources instead: Academic Search Ultimate, JSTOR. Read more information about the 2025 library cancellation process.
Statista
Provides data and infographics on over 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources, categorized into 21 market sectors with quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas.

Historical Wall Street Journal
Provides full-text and full-image articles from 1889-2010.
Morningstar
Provides up-to-date stock and fund information to research current or prospective holdings and see how investments work together. Data reports cover more than 20,000 securities.
Wall Street Journal
Indexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the Wall Street Journal newspaper 1984-present.
Value Line Investment Survey
Provides year-ahead and three-to-five-year probable relative price performance, projections of key financial measures, and concise, objective commentary on current operations and future prospects, as well as full-page individual stock reports and industry reviews.

ABI/INFORM Global
Provides indexing and abstracting for 1000 periodicals with full text for more than 600 publications.
Statista
Provides data and infographics on over 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources, categorized into 21 market sectors with quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas.

Academic Search Ultimate
Offers access to an unprecedented collection of resources including journals, magazines, reports, books, and videos. Many are peer-reviewed and full-text. Subjects range from astronomy to zoology.
JSTOR (including ARTSTOR)
Provides full-text access to a broad range of resources about the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, including primary sources, images, articles, and books. Does not contain the most recent journal articles.
ScienceDirect
Provides extensive full-text journal coverage of the physical and biological sciences, as well as some coverage of the social sciences and humanities.
Web of Science
Enables users to search current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from thousands of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. It also provides cited reference searching.

Baltimore Sun
Indexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for The Sun, Baltimore (Baltimore Sun) newspaper 1990-present.
Historical Baltimore Sun
Includes complete issues of The Baltimore Sun from 1837 to 1996.
Historical New York Times
Provides full-text and full-image articles from the New York Times from 1851-2018.
Historical Wall Street Journal
Provides full-text and full-image articles from 1889-2010.
New York Times
Indexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the New York Times newspaper (1980-present), the New York Times Book Review (1988-present), and the New York Times Magazine (1997-present).
Regional Business News
Provides comprehensive full text for regional business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). This database has full text for more than 60 sources.
Wall Street Journal
Indexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the Wall Street Journal newspaper 1984-present.
Washington Post
Indexes, abstracts, and provides online full text for the Washington Post newspaper 1987-present.

Statista
Provides data and infographics on over 60,000 topics from over 18,000 sources, categorized into 21 market sectors with quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas.
Historical Statistics of the United States
Provides data from the Millennial edition, 2006.

Checkpoint Edge
Provides information to tax and accounting professionals including expert research, guidance, technology, tools, learning and news.

Access is limited to 35 simultaneous users.