Business Librarian
Student consultation hours
Fall 2023 Semester
- 1-3 p.m. Mondays
- 3-5 p.m. Wednesdays
- 10-11:30 a.m. Thursdays
Your choice: Meet in-person in Hartman 1060 or via Zoom
Note: These are my usual office hours. Some weeks, I might need to adjust these hours to visit classes or attend trainings.
We'll use this Google quiz to explore this research guide.
Find Analyst Reports
Designed for investors, reports from financial, investment, and market intelligence research analysts contain specialized information regarding industry performance.
Corporate information centers might have similar subscriptions. Alternatively, you can purchase relevant reports a la carte.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
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Content types: Peer-reviewed journals, industry and market research reports, magazines, news sources, SWOTS
Dates covered: 1922-present - IBISWorld This link opens in a new windowContent type(s): Analyst reports on more than 700 U.S. industries.
Dates covered: Curren - ProcurementIQ This link opens in a new windowContent type(s): Analyst reports that assist with buying decisions in supply chains and sourcing.
Dates covered: Current
Other analyst groups you might see (but that JMU doesn't have access to) include Forester, FirstResearch, Plunkett Research Online, etc.
Find News
JMU subscription databases aggregate articles from multiple publications. Search for industry trends or mentions of your client.
- Factiva This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Content type(s): Business news sources, company press releases, and analyst reports
Dates covered: Current
This tutorial shows how to search in Factiva. - Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowContent types: Business directories, news coverage, legal filings
Dates covered: Current - Access World News This link opens in a new windowContent types: Articles from U.S. and international news sources, including Virginia newspapers like the Daily News Record.
Dates covered: 1950-present (dependent on publication)
- Google NewsAggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader's personalized interests.
Note: You may run into paywalls when you try to access full-text of articles. See if JMU Libraries has full-text access for you. - How to Create Google AlertsGet emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. For example, you can get info about companies, products, or mentions of your name.
- JMU Libraries JournalsOverwhelmed by the search results in a database?
Browse through journals instead using the periodical locator.
Find financial information
Public companies
Information is much easier to find because of required SEC reporting. Try these tools and search by company name.
- Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
U.S. and international publicly-held company data and reports.
Private companies
Usually require us to use industry financial benchmarks
- Data Axle Reference Solutions This link opens in a new windowFormerly known as ReferenceUSA. Directory of U.S. businesses (key personnel, addresses, credit rating, sales, subsidiaries, etc).
- PrivCo This link opens in a new windowSource for business and financial research on non-publicly traded corporations, including family-owned, private equity-owned, venture-backed, and international unlisted companies.
Note: Users will need to register for an academic account using their JMU email address
- OwlerProvides news alerts, company profiles, and polls on companies. Good for private companies and startups.
- BizMiner This link opens in a new windowWhen researching private companies, you might not have detailed financial information. Instead you can use industry benchmarks from this source if you know how much in annual revenue.