Research Basics - Top Tips
1. Always remember to evaluate your sources!
2. Researching for a business plan, marketing plan, or similar project? Use our JumpStart Your Research form to help you through the planning process. E-mail it to a librarian or bring a copy to the drop-in research help desk.
Top Sources for Industry & Market Research
- Industry & Market Research GuideIncludes access to guides on specific industries
- Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new windowProvides access to journal articles, books and videos related to business, management, economics, banking, finance, and accounting. Use for finding articles, case studies, and company and industry information.
- eMarketer This link opens in a new windowMarket research and trend analysis on Internet, e-business, online marketing, media and emerging technologies.
- IBISWorld Industry Reports This link opens in a new windowContains full-text market research reports for Canadian, US and global industries. Reports cover industry structure, trends, competitive landscape and operating conditions.
- Industry CanadaIncludes industrial sector reports
- MarketResearch.com Academic This link opens in a new windowMarket research reports for consumer products, demographics, food, beverage, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and more. Includes reports from various sources, including Freedonia Focus, Packaged Facts and Kalorama.
- Passport GMID This link opens in a new windowInternational statistical and market research reports for over 200 countries, covering consumer products and services, demographic and lifestyle reports and economic data.
- Vividata This link opens in a new windowData on Canadian consumers, print readership, product usage and lifestyles. (Formerly Print Measurement Bureau)
- SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new windowInternet-based mapping application that enables users to develop interactive thematic maps and reports using Canadian and US demographic, business, and marketing data.
- Warc : World Advertising Research Center This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles, reports and case studies on advertising. Includes advertising expenditure data. Can search by brand, advertiser, and agency.
Top Sources for International Business Research
- International Business Research GuideMore resources for researching international business intelligence information, including links on business costs, data & statistics.
- ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new windowABI/INFORM Collection is a comprehensive business database, which contains journals, business periodicals, dissertations, and country-and industry-focused reports
- Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new windowProvides access to journal articles, books and videos related to business, management, economics, banking, finance, and accounting. Use for finding articles, case studies, and company and industry information.
- Canadian Trade Commissioner ServicePortal with information for Canadian exporters on doing business abroad
- Country Insights. Foreign Affairs and International Trade CanadaInternational business etiquette profiles by country
- IMF eLibrary Data This link opens in a new windowAnnual, monthly, and quarterly financial and economic time series for more than 200 countries and over 40 regional and special groups of countries.
- KPMG: Competitive AlternativesKPMG's guide for comparing business locations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific
- PricewaterhouseCoopers. Doing business seriesSearch the website for the phrase "doing business" to find guides for specific regions
- World Bank Data This link opens in a new windowDevelopment-oriented statistics from the World Bank: social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators for over 200 countries and 18 country groups, covering 1960 to the present.
- World Bank: Doing BusinessObjective measures of business regulations and enforcement across 183 economies. Each economy is ranked according to 10 sets of indicators, which are combined into an overall "ease of doing business" ranking
Searching Article Databases
Articles are specific in scope and can also provide information on current trends and issues. Article databases listed here are available through the library and allow you to search hundreds of journals, magazines or newspapers for information on a variety of topics.
Learn the basics of searching for articles in business databases in our short video below, or refer to our Research Tips guide for for examples of how to search article databases effectively, like using single words or short phrases.
(Sample video content from Business Source Ultimate database used by permission of EBSCO Publishing.)
Professional Skills Resources
- Sage Skills: BusinessSage Skills: Business empowers students to develop and practice real-world skills needed to successfully transition from campus to the workplace through self assessment, virtual scenarios, data and expert insights.