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Finding Sources for FSEM 100P1 - Life Auditing

Primary Sources: finding primary sources can be tricky! For this class, primary sources are considered newspapers, SEC filings, press releases, and annual reports.

Secondary Sources: these sources include books and journal articles.

EDGAR - SEC Filings
Company details and annual reports (10-K Forms)

How to search:

  1. Under "Company Search", search for the company of your choosing
    • make sure you have its full name (for ex: Target's full name is Target Corp)
  2. Click Search
  3. Click "Company Information" to expand details
  4. Annual reports are labeled as "10-K", on the bottom right
     

ProQuest One Business
Company information, financial statements, annual reports, SEC filings, stock prices, and more.

How to search for company information:

  1. Click on "Browse all company overviews" below the main search bar.
    • Search for a company in the "Find a company" search bar (for ex: Microsoft)
  2. Click search
  3. Click on the company profile. On the profile, you can find an overview, financial statements, SWOT, competitors, news, etc.
     

Nexis Uni
Use it to find newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, company profiles, court cases.

How to search for news on Nexis Uni:

  1. In search bar, type company name
    • make sure you have its full name (for ex: McDonald's is "McDonald's Corp")
  2. Next to search button, click "All Content Types" and select "News"
  3. Click search and results will pop up of just news sources

How to search for corporate press releases on Nexis Uni:

  1. In search bar, type the company name
    • for example: Target Corp
  2. Next to the search button, click "All Content Types" and select News
  3. A second menu will appear with more detailed news choices. Click "Newswires & Press Releases"
  4. Click Search and results will pop up of just newswires and press releases
     

Factiva
Includes the last 2 weeks of major American newspapers such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and USA Today.

How to search for corporate press releases on Factiva:

  1. To the right of the search bar, click "Options"
  2. Click "All Sources"
  3. Select "Press Release Wires"
  4. Type the company of your choosing in the search bar (e.g. Target Corporation)
     

Newspaper Source Plus (EBSCO)
1999-present. National and international newspapers; television and radio news transcripts

Finding Journal Articles:

Start with the library search, Primo. 

  1. Type a keyword you're interested in
    • For ex: "personal finance"
  2. Click search
  3. Use the limiters on the left side to limit to scholarly articles
    • Scroll down and click "Material Type"
    • Select "Articles"
    • Click "Apply Filters"
    • Your results will change to only articles
       

ProQuest One Business
Business and financial news and analysis; newswires, magazines, trade, scholarly journals

To find journal articles:

  1. Above the search bar, click "Scholarly Journals"
  2. Type the topic of your choice (e.g. financial stress)
  3. Click Search

Business Source Complete (EBSCO)
Magazines, newspapers, trade publications, scholarly journals, book chapters, company and industry profiles; extensive full text.
 

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
Articles in many disciplines, many from scholarly journals; extensive full text.

Finding Books:

Start with the library search, Primo. 

  1. Type a keyword you're interested in
    • For ex: "personal finance"
  2. Click search
  3. Use the limiters on the left side to limit to books and eBooks
    • Scroll down and click "Material Type"
    • Select "Books" and "Electronic Books"
    • Click "Apply Filters"
    • Your results will change to only books and eBooks

If you need help with call numbers for physical books, read this or visit the research desk for help

Recommended eBook databases:

ProQuest Ebook Central
This database contains a large multidisciplinary collection of eBooks as well as a collection focusing on science and technology.
 

EBSCO eBook Collection
This database contains ebooks on all subjects published from 1915 to the present that can be read as PDF files or downloaded to your desktop or mobile device. In order to download an ebook from EBSCO, you need to log in to your EBSCO account.
 

O'Reilly for Higher Education
To login, click "Institution Not Listed?", then enter your UMW email address.

 
In the social sciences and the sciences, scholars use the terms "primary" and "secondary" differently from scholars in the arts and humanities. 
 
Primary research refers to the research conducted by the authors of the original source. The source will describe the authors' methodology, results and conclusions. This might be raw data, letters, research or study, tests, news reports, interviews, or some journal articles.
 
Secondary research describes or analyzes the research done by others. These include news analyses, magazine articles, some journal articles, scholarly books, opinion pieces or editorials. These can be excellent resources that can lead you to additional primary research on your topic.

Today's Newspapers

Clip art of a calendarTo read articles from today's newspapers, you could go to newspaper websites...  but you might hit a paywall. Most newspapers will only show you a few articles if you don't have a subscription.

So, instead of going to newspaper websites to read today's articles, use the library databases, such as Factiva, Nexis Uni, or Newspaper Source Plus. They contain the same articles that you'd see on newspaper websites, and you can access them with your UMW username and password.