Tips for Access to Library Resources

  • The simplest way to initiate library research is to open up your favorite browser and go directly to library.villanova.edu.
  • Most library subscription databases are authenticated with a single sign on.  Once you login to a single database with your Villanova email user name and password you will have access to all others. Some databases such as  ESRI Business Analyst online require additional registration credentials.
  • You will not be able to access known library resources by simply Googling them. 
  • Firewalls at workplaces are a common impediment to accessing library databases.  To avoid this problem find an open network connection elsewhere.  Few employers IT departments are willing to adjust firewalls.

  Choosing the Right Database

Knowing which database to use is half the battle.  Asking professors, classmates and librarians for recommendations is often helpful. 

When asking for suggestions about what sources to use, remember to provide a concise description of what information you think you need, describing how you would like to use the information. 

Library database descriptions try to convey database content, but sometimes you will need to log on to the database to get a better idea of what is offered and use database help tools.

The groupings of resources in the side bar of this page aids in finding databases that offer company profiles, industry and market research reports and more. 

We have many scholarly and practice oriented ebooks, search books & more and limit to online collections to find them.

Business researchers often engage in interdiscipinary or multidisciplinary inquiry.  Use our subject guides to learn about our non-business subscriptions.


  Get Full Text Article or Journal

There are multiple paths to getting the full text of an article or access to an electronic journal.  The LEAST favorable avenue is for you to do a web search and pay for the content.  Before you resort to buying articles or subscribing to journals use the tools listed here.  If they fail contact the library for help.
 

  • If you know the name of the journal, magazine or newspaper, use the Journal Finder.
  • If you know the Digital Object Identifier for an scholarly article, try the DOI tool.
  • If the bibliographic information for the article is incomplete, search Articles and more.
  • If  you are in a library database with only an article summary, link to the Findit button to see if we have full text elsewhere.
  • If the library doesn't have electronic full text, use interlibrary loan also called ILLIAD to request a scanned copy of the article.
  • If you don't have precise information about the article try linking to full text in Google Scholar (be sure the settings for  library links to Villanova are checked to get subscribed content).
  • MBA students often ask if they can get Harvard Business cases and Harvard Business Review through the library.  Harvard Business cases are only available from the publications.  Harvard Business Review articles are available from Business Source Premier (not licensed for assigned course reading) or on request from the library's print collection (without licensing restrictions).

  APA Citations

Academic integrity guidelines mandate the attribution of sources used in written work.  Most business courses require the use of American Psychological Association (APA) style for in-text citations and references.  The APA style is well suited to citing scholarly resources but more challenging to apply to practical business materials. Finding model APA citations that closely match typical business sources may take some adjustments.  Remember consistent citation is key.

There are a number of tools (listed here) at your disposal for creating and managing citations.  They save you time and effort but are imperfect.  You will need to get to know the APA style in order to correct mistakes.  The official APA Publication Manual is not available online.
 

  • Zotero A free web based reference manager also suitable for sharing
  • MS Word The reference tab enables you to create citations and works cited lists.
  • Citing Business Sources Using APA Home grown guide
  • Most academic article databases have citations utilities that generate citations for you or export citations to common citations managers such as Zotero or Mendeley. 

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  Finding Scholarly Studies

In business disciplines scholarly studies can take the form of books, journal articles,  working papers or reports.  Types of scholarly studies include theoretical papers, literature reviews or meta-analysis, and empirical research either quantitative, qualitative or mixed method. 

There are several dominant avenues for finding scholarly work.  Many article databases have check offs for scholarly or peer reviewed journals.

  • Search subject specific databases such as EconLit or Business Source Premier
  • Use general purpose and interdisciplinary search engines such as SCOPUS, Web of Science or Google Scholar.
  • Chase citations in articles and books (see section on getting full text or article or journal)

  Evaluating Journals and Articles

Journal metrics & rankings are imperfect but frequently used ways to gage the quality of research studies.  The following tools publish journal level metrics such as impact factor, immediacy index,&  H Index to name a few.  For definitions and keys to understanding these metrics use the help links.

SJR Scimago

JCR Journal Citation Reports

Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities

Peer reviewed research articles need to be evaluated for quality by considering the research methods, data used and analysis provided.  Nonetheless metrics such as citation counts, downloads and altmetrics such as views, uses and mentions reported by services such as PlumX are influence indicators.  The following business databases offer article level metrics.

Scopus

Google Scholar

Web of Science (Clarivate)

Business Source Premier


 Business Databases A-Z

  ABI/INFORM Complete (ProQuest)
Provides access to scholarly journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals, and country- and industry-focused reports.

  Ad$pender (Kantar Media)
Creates custom reports on advertising expenditures across twelve media channels including TV, cable, magazines, newspapers, radio, and outdoor and internet displays on the level of industries, categories, brands, products, and advertisers going back to 2007.

  Advertising Age Datacenter (AdAge)  Access Instructions
Features news, reports, and statistics about the advertising industry.

  Audit Analytics
Provides access to data and information about public company audits, compliance, and governance.

  BoardEx  Access Instructions
Contains biographical information on board members and senior executives around the world from 1999 to 2015.

  Business Abstracts with Full Text (EBSCO)
Indexes business magazines and scholarly journals. Includes abstracts and selected full text. Coverage goes back to 1995.

  Business Regional News (Ebscohost)
This database provides comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Regional Business News incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States.

  Business Source Premier (EBSCO)
Provides access to a wide range of academic business journals and trade magazines. Topics include management, marketing, finance, economics, and management information systems. Full text access may be embargoed for up to three years. Coverage goes back to 1965.

  China Data Online (China Marketing Research Co.)
Provides national, provincial, city, and regional data series including national accounts, prices, employment, income, industry, foreign trade, agriculture, construction, transportation, telecommunication, and education in monthly and annual time series.

  Communication & Mass Media Complete (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals, magazines, books, and book reviews in the fields of communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields. Includes abstracts and full text for selected journals. Coverage goes back to the early 20th century.

  Conference Board Business & Economics Portfolio
Includes reports, economic indicator data sets, and global macroeconomic time series for economists. Also features interviews and studies on leadership, compensation, organizational development, operations, globalization, diversity, sustainability, innovation and more for management and human resource development professionals. Coverage varies.

  D&B Hoovers
Offers public and private company and industry information including company profiles, market research reports from Marketline, Freedonia, Euromonitor, and RMA updated with recent news, executive profiles, and analyst reports.

  Data-Planet (Sage)
Provides access to a wide variety of economic, social, and political indicators including data sets from the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the OECD, Eurostat, the United Nations, the world's stock exchanges, and Zillow. Offers customized graphing and mapping.

  EMIS Intelligence (Emerging Markets Information Service)
Delivers company and industry information together with relevant news, research, and analytics for developing markets.

  ESRI Business Analyst Online  Access Instructions
Provides geographic analysis tools. Includes demographic, consumer spending, and business data.
Access courtesy of the Department of Geography & the Environment.

  EconLit with Full Text (EBSCO)
Indexes and abstracts journal articles, books, working papers, and dissertations in the field of economics based on the Journal of Economic Literature's subject classification. Provides access to the full text of selected journals including all American Economic Association journals. Coverage goes back to 1886.

  Economist Intelligence Unit
Features commerce reports, country reports, market indicators, and forecasts with monthly and annual in-depth analysis, data, and ratings. Covers infrastructure, demographics, political scene, domestic economy, and foreign trade, including regional and industrial sector breakdowns for over 200 countries.

  Financial Times  Access Instructions
Provides full access to the web edition which features the same content found in the print edition plus additional multimedia features, company tear sheets, interactive charting, a dictionary of financial terms, and recruitment tools. Digital access to the print edition is available via ABI/Inform and Nexis Uni.
Subscription courtesy of Villanova School of Business.

  First Research Industry Profiles (ABI/Inform Collection - ProQuest)
Provides industry profiles with critical analysis, statistics, and forecasts. Coverage extends back to 2009.

  Foundation Directory Online Professional (Foundation Center)
Offers information on foundations, corporate giving programs, and grantmaking charities. Grantmaker profiles include private and independent foundations, corporate foundations, U.S. federal funders, public charities, and international foundations.

  Gale Directory Library
Presents a collection of directories including Business Rankings Annual, Market Share Reporter, Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources, Encyclopedia of Associations: National Organizations of the U.S., and Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media.

  Gale Virtual Reference Library  Tutorial
Offers access to a collection of digital encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, and directories in the arts, social sciences, business, and sciences.

  Gartner  Limitations on Use
Features analyses, forecasts, and market statistics on IT products and services.
Subscription courtesy of Villanova UNIT.

  Global Financial Data  Limitations on Use
Features historical data on worldwide stock exchanges, bond indices, intraday data, futures, interest rates, population, and much more. All data is clearly defined, easy to read, and can be readily exported into Excel.

  GuideStar Pro
Provides detailed information about nonprofit organizations including IRS Form 990 with financial statements. Also offers self-reported information about programs and activities.
Partially funded by Villanova School of Business.

  Hoover's Company & Industry Reports (Lexis-Nexis)

  IBISWorld
Provides access to U.S. and global industry market research reports.

  JSTOR
Provides a full text archive of academic journals and books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. The most recent three to five years of a journal are usually not included.

  Leadership Directory

  Lexis-Nexis Company Dossier
Provides full-text access to company profiles and dossiers.

  Lexis-Nexis Market & Industry Reports
Features BMI, Canadean, IDC, and Hoover industry profiles.

  MarketLine Company Profiles (EBSCO)
Offers detailed reports on U.S. and foreign companies in a wide range of industries. These reports provide a description of the business, company history, key personnel, products, services, and competitors. MarketLine Industry Reports are available from the D&B Global Business Browser database.

  MarketResearch.com Academic  Limitations on Use
Provides marketing reports for many industries and demographic reports on a variety of age groups. Documents are formatted as Adobe Acrobat or PowerPoint files.

  Mergent Archives (Moody's Manuals, Annual Reports, SEC & Commodity Research Bureau)
Offers the full text of all of Mergent/Moody's Corporate Manuals, including Mergent/Moody's Industrial, OTC, Bank & Finance, Public Utilities & Transportation Manuals for some titles going back to 1909. The glossy annual report archive includes U.S. and foreign companies with coverage to the 1800s. The SEC Historical collection covers 1970-1995 and includes 10-Ks, 11-Ks & 20-Fs. The CRB Commodity Yearbook, covers 1939 to present. Searching by company, year and location, but not full text, offered.

  Mergent Online  Limitations on Use
Provides detailed financial statements for U.S. and international public and private companies, including SEC filings and current and historical annual reports for U.S. and international public companies. Data can be downloaded in a variety of formats. Also includes country profiles.

  Mintel Insights & Analytics  Limitations on Use
Offers product and industry market research reports covering U.S. and international marketplaces. Each report combines data and analysis of the competitive landscape, supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profiles. Analytics advance search monitors new product activity in consumer packaged goods markets worldwide.

  Morningstar Investment Research Center
Contains information on more than 30,000 stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. Provides independent analysis, industry information, stock charts, portfolio building tools, and web-based educational tutorials.

  NetAdvantage (Standard & Poor's Capital IQ)
Offers market information, company quotes, equity index information, industry information (including the S&P Industry Surveys), and economic data.

  Nexis Uni  Limitations on Use
Formerly known as LexisNexis Academic. Provides full text access to national and international newspaper and magazine articles and news transcripts, business, company, and industry information in the U.S. and abroad, and legal documents, including U.S. Federal and State court cases, and law reviews. Coverage varies.

  Oxford Bibliographies (Oxford University Press)  Tutorial
Presents peer-reviewed, annotated bibliographies and expert commentary on current scholarship in selected disciplines. Villanova University has access to the following bibliographies: African American Studies, Art History, Atlantic History, Biblical Studies, British and Irish Literature, Buddhism, Cinema and Media Studies, Classics, Communication, Criminology, Environmental Science, Geography, International Relations, Islamic Studies, Latin American Studies, Management, Medieval Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Renaissance and Reformation, and Victorian Literature.

  O'Reilly for Higher Education  Tutorial  Access Instructions
Provides access to over 35,000 ebooks, 30,000 hours of video, curated learning paths, technology manuals, case studies, audio books, and videos covering fields ranging from software development, business, management, career development, engineering, design and more. Formerly known as Safari Books Online.

  PRS International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) Tables  Limitations on Use
Offers political, economic, and financial risk ratings and forecasts for 146 countries. Time series data covers 1985 through 2018. This is a downloadable file in Microsoft Excel format.

  Passport (Euromonitor International)  Limitations on Use
Provides lifestyle statistics and reports, market data and analysis, and market forecasts for selected countries. Includes 6-year historic market size data for selected consumer products plus 5-year forecasts.

  Philadelphia Business Journal (American City Business Journals)
Offers full text access to the Philadelphia Business Journal and their Book of Lists with a 10-year archive of content. Also provides access to Business Journal content from many additional U.S. cities.

  Plunkett's Industry Almanacs

  PolicyMap  Tutorial
Offers a tool for mapping and analyzing U.S. national data on a wide variety of topics including education, income, employment, public health, crime, housing, transit, and more. Researchers can conduct demographic and socioeconomic analyses on a variety of geographic levels, from the national level to the neighborhood census block group as well as custom regions. Time series data covers 2000 to present.

  Polling the Nations
Presents public opinion poll data from surveys conducted in the U.S. and more than 100 other countries. Includes the full text of hundreds of thousands of questions and responses from thousands of surveys. Only polls using statistically valid sampling and methods are included. Covers 1986 to the present.

  PsycINFO (ProQuest)  Tutorial
Provides abstracts and indexing to journals, books, book chapters, technical reports and dissertations in all areas of psychology. This database is produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). International in scope; coverage is from 1887 to the present.

  RIA Checkpoint (Thomson Reuters)  Limitations on Use  Access Instructions
Includes federal, state, local, and international tax codes, regulations, cases, and administrative rulings with explanations and commentary. Also offers news alerts and a tax thesaurus.

  ReferenceUSA
Provides company reports and directory information for U.S. private and public companies. Also includes consumer marketing and directory information for U.S. individuals.

  Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (iPOLL)  Access Instructions
Offers public opinion poll data from surveys conducted in the U.S. and other countries by many major polling organizations. Includes the full text of questions and responses. Items with a green plus icon have crosstab breakdowns; those with an X have microdata available for download; while those with a green and blue star icon allow you to perform custom crosstab analysis online. Covers 1935 to the present, updated daily.

  Scopus (Elsevier)
Provides citations and abstracts to peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedings in all major disciplines. Provides information on citing and cited references for each article.

  Sports Market Analytics
Offers statistics, articles, and reports on sporting goods, participation, fans, media, and facilities. Formerly known as Sports Business Research Network.

  Statista
Provides a portal to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources. Topics covered include industries, media, companies, product categories, and countries.

  Statistical Insight (ProQuest)  Tutorial
Offers indexing, abstracting, and selected full text of statistical publications from U.S. state and federal governments, business and research institutes, and international material from the UN, OECD, EU, etc. Some tables are available in GIF, XLS, CSV, and other formats.

  Value Line Investment Survey
Provides information for investors on individual stocks and companies. Offers forecasting and historical information, as well as detailed financials, charts, and reports. Includes sorting, filtering (screening), graphing, and reporting functions.

  Vault
Offers career, school, and industry guides; internship information and reviews; company rankings and profiles; and job search advice. Formerly known as Vault Online Career Library.
Access courtesy of the Villanova Career Center.

  Venture Capital & Private Equity Firms (Grey House Publishing)
Presents an international directory of venture capital and private equity firms. Profiles include information about each firm's mission, industry and geographic preferences, portfolio companies, and more; also includes background information about each firm's executives.

  WARC
Offers information on global advertising and marketing trends including case studies, articles, reports, opinion pieces, and expenditure data. Formerly known as World Advertising Research Center.

  WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services)  Limitations on Use  Access Instructions
Offers a data research platform for business and economics datasets including AuditAnalytics, COMPUSTAT, CRSP, CBOE, Option Metrics, Risk Metrics, TAQ, TRACE, Thomson Reuters 13f, and others.

  Web of Science (Clarivate)  Tutorial
Provides access to the Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Conference Proceeding Citation Index, Book Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index, Current Chemical Reactions, and Index Chemicus. Search for scholarly articles in any discipline, or for articles that cite a known author or work. Coverage varies.

  eMarketer
Offers data and reports related to digital marketing. Topics include advertising spending, digital marketing, social media, media usage, e-commerce, email marketing, and device usage. Coverage is global.