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Allen Memorial Library

Economics

Finding Books

Most research assignments should have a combination of different source types within your research. Books are a great resource for doing research. E-books and physical books both fall into this category.

Books differ from peer-reviewed journal articles because books provide general overviews of a topic, whereas articles are shorter and more specific. 

Remember: You don't have to read the entire book! If there is one chapter in the book that works for your topic, just read that chapter. 

Find Books at the VCSU Library

Using the VCSU Library Catalog

The link to the library catalog will take you to an advanced search. Use these steps to fill in the search box: 

  1. Make sure the "library catalog" option is selected at the top of the search box.
  2. Enter the keyword you want to search.
  3. Add a second keyword to the next line if you want to be more specific.
  4. Click the "material type" dropdown menu on the right side of the box, then choose "books." 
  5. The language dropdown is right below the material type. Pick English from these options unless you specifically need a book in another language.
  6. If you need a book published during a specific time period, use the start date and end date options below the language menu to set a date range.
  7. Click search to get your results! 

Your results will come up as a list of sources with the ability to save links. Along the right side of the page is a sidebar with more filtering options. 

The sidebar is labeled "Tweak your results." Use some or all of the following tips to narrow down your results further: 

  1. Your results are normally sorted by relevance, but you can sort them by date, title, or author instead if you prefer.
  2. Use the "availability: section to choose what format of book you prefer. If you want E-books, choose "available online." If you want physical books, choose "physical items." 
  3. You can use the "subject" section to make sure you are only looking at sources from the fields of study you need. For example, If I want to research space exploration, but the search term "exploration" brought information about both exploring space and historical exploration of the United States, I can check here for ways to filter out the unwanted options.
  4. If you didn't add a date to your original search or if you don't like the date range you used, you can edit the date range under the "creation date" section.

 

Finding Scholarly Articles

These articles are basically the "bread-and-butter" sources for scholarly research - they're used in every discipline.

What does peer-reviewed mean?

If an article is peer-reviewed that means that before the article was published it was reviewed and scrutinized by other experts in the same field. This process ensures that the sources are reliable and trustworthy. 

Why you should use them:

  • Information is based on research and expertise
  • Information is detailed and focused on a narrow topic
  • The peer-review process (mostly) insures that the information is accurate
  • They add to a growing understanding of a topic by contributing new ideas

These source types may also be referred to as peer-reviewed article, academic article, or journal article. 

Here are some of the best databases to use for finding scholarly articles in economics

Finding Company Information

The VCSU Library's Business Source Premier database is a great place to start when looking for company information. To find the industry information look to the right hand side of the database and select Company Profiles. 

There are also many websites that can connect you with company information: 

General Company Information

Directory of Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada Archives: This site provides a listing and contact information for companies that maintain their own historical records, or use consulting firms to maintain their archive collection.

Forbes Lists: Forbes annual listing of companies.

Hoovers: Provides free brief descriptions of 2,500 companies including annual sales, CEO, CFO etc. as well as links to several major news wires such as PR Newswire. Additional information available for purchase.

Financial Information 

Annualreports.com: Provides free access to annual reports for many companies.

Yahoo! Finance: Find financial information (including annual reports) for public companies.

SEC Filings & Forms: Publicly traded companies in the United States are required by law to submit information (10-K’s and 10-Q’s filed annually and quarterly respectively) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Barrons: Barron's is a leading source of financial news, providing in-depth analysis and commentary on stocks and investments.

Analyst Reports

These reports are often very expensive, however, sometimes summaries and abstracts can provide useful insights. And occasionally, firms may share the Executive Summary free.

Gartner

IDC

Yankee Group

Statistics and Data

The U.S. Government collects many kinds of data, and publishes a significant number of reports and literature on that data.  As a general rule, U.S. government websites end in the domain names .gov, .mil, or .fed.

Data.gov: US government open datasets resource.

Statistics Canada: Statistics Canada's provides for free and for fee Canadian economic, social and census data plus daily analysis of statistical releases.

Google Public Data Explorer: ​The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. You don't have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings.

OECD Statistics Portal: Some datasets are free, others require a subscription.

UN Millennium Development Goals Indicators: This site presents the official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for more than 60 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals around the world.

NationMaster: Publicly-available statistical data on the world's countries, on everything from crime to education, the economy, demographics and more, and allows users to choose a country and/or a set of statistics to graph a comparison between designated countries.