Business 550/551: Financial Accounting / Managerial Accounting
|
News |
|
|
Scope and purpose of this guide
This course guide has been designed as a starting point for the research you will need to do to complete your course assignments. It focuses on finding and evaluating Internet and online article index (database) resources, and on techniques for planning your searches so that you can use these resources effectively.
Although I have arranged the guide in a linear way (before, during, and after your search), you've probably already found that research is anything but a linear process. Expect to move back and forth among planning, searching, and evaluating as you explore the many resources available. Also, don't hesitate to seek help if you get stuck.
Need help?
Although I have tried to make this web page as complete and explanatory as possible, I'm sure it won't answer all your questions!
Here's how to get help with your research:
1) For basic or "just getting started" questions, contact SFU's reference librarians via email/chat/telephone through our Ask Us services. Complex questions will be referred to me and I'll generally be able to get back to you within one working day.
If you are near one of the SFU campuses (Downtown, Burnaby, or Surrey), you might want to visit the library and ask your questions at the reference desk.
A typical basic question might be, "I'm trying to find articles on accounting ethics and can't seem to find anything in the Business Source Complete database. What am I doing wrong?"
2) If you have further questions after working through this web guide, trying to search the web sources or the databases, and asking for basic help, send me an email at mbodnar@sfu.ca. I will get back to you within one working day if possible, but be prepared for a slightly longer wait if I'm off campus, giving classes, etc.
A typical question directly to me would be, "I'm looking for information on XX and I've already tried YY and ZZ. Is there something more?" It would also help if you told me what class you are in and when the assignment is due.
Bottom line: if you have a question but can't figure out who to ask, start with any of the contact points above, and we'll sort you out!
Good luck with your research!
Mark Bodnar
Business Librarian
2. BEFORE You Start Searching
What kinds of sources do you need?
Think about what type of information would answer your question(s) and what type of sources or publishers might provide that information.
Type of Information Type of Source Examples introductory information and overviews directories, encyclopedias and handbooks Accountants Handbook (book in the SFU Library: HF 5621 A22 2007) and ebook: Volume 1 and Volume 2. in-depth studies books and government reports Modern comptrollership and the management accountability framework statistics government agencies and associations Quarterly Financial Statistics for Enterprises standards professional associations IFRS and CICA Handbooks in Knotia.ca (online via the SFU Library) scholarly articles academic journals* "Accountants for the 21st Century, where are you? A five-year study of accounting students’ personality preferences." current issues newspapers and magazines Wall Street Journal via the SFU Library position papers and analyses association and institute reports Removing the Shackles: Deferring Capital Gains Taxes on Asset Rollovers "expert" discussions (evaluate carefully!) listservs, blogs, and newsgroups The SEC's Proposal: Bye-Bye, US GAAP
For a clear discussion of the difference between the journals and other sources, check out What is a Scholarly Journal?
* I understand that many students from this course may not have much experience looking for academic accounting articles. If you need more assistance than you see in this guide, try the research guide I built for BUS 421.
In many cases you will be able to retrieve the actual information electronically through the SFU Library or on the free web, although there are still cases where resources are only available in print. Start with the tabs in the SFU Library guide to Business for lists of accounting databases, web guides, associations, reference sources, and more.
Before searching the databases, analyze your topic and break it down into concepts. Think of synonyms for each idea.
Use truncation symbols to find all variations of a term. The asterisk ( * ) is the most common truncation symbol. It's used by many of the databases available through the SFU Library. For example, the SFU Library catalogue, Business Source Premier, and CBCA Business all use it. A search for "forest* " in any of these databases will result in items containing any of: forestry, forest, and forests.
Boolean operators, named for English mathematician George Boole, allow you to combine terms to narrow or broaden your database searches.
AND requires BOTH terms to be found in search results
OR requires EITHER term to be found in search results
NOT eliminates term(s) from search results
Sample Search Question
Topic: What are the current issues in the financial services industry?
Concepts: financial services industry AND issue*Synonyms: bank* AND trend*
Your research will be more successful if you think of several synonyms for the words in your topic. For example, for "financial services" try also "bank* or accountan*". If you are searching for company information, be sure to try all variations of a company name, e.g. "CIBC" or "Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce".
3. SEARCHING
Books and more via the Library Catalogue
The Library Catalogue lists all the books, journals, and other materials the SFU Library owns or subscribes to. Most of the print material you will find in the Catalogue is physically housed in the Bennett Library on the Burnaby campus or in the Belzberg Library at the Harbour Centre campus. In other words, while you can connect to the Library Catalogue on the web, you would have to visit the Library to read the print materials.
However, the SFU Library Catalogue also provides links to the web version of many titles. You will be able to access these online documents from your computer. Look at the records for Management accounting demystified (an eBook) and the Contemporary Accounting Research to see examples of online resources accessible via the Catalogue.
The SFU Library Catalogue Search Guide is a step-by-step guide to searching the SFU Catalogue.
Articles in the business press
Articles in trade journals and business newspapers are a great source of infomation about companies, industry trends, new products, market projections, and other topics.
If you are looking for information on a specific industry or company, you don't have to flip through journals and newspapers hoping to find relevant articles. There are comprehensive indexes to business publications which you can search online to find articles about your topic. These indexes will give you citations to print journals and newspapers and many of them will also provide the full text of the articles on your computer. At SFU, as in many libraries, we refer to online versions of these indexes as Databases.
Databases are electronic files of information. Many of them are indexes to journal and newspaper articles, including full text articles; others may be data files, industry ratios, and other types of information. Most databases to which SFU subscribes are available over the Internet to distance users - you will be asked to enter your SFU computing account name and password if you are working from off-campus.
Here are a few of the main article databases you will need to use:
|
Database |
Details |
|
|
A few accounting-related subject headings to start you off:
|
|
|
A few accounting-related subjects to start you off:
|
|
|
Note that although newspapers aren't academic resources, they can often give you leads to other valuable resources such as reports, associations, mergers/acquisitions, and more. |
|
|
A few accounting-related subject headings to start you off:
|
|
|
LexisNexis doesn't use subject headings, but you can focus your search by searching for one word or phrase within 'X' words of another word or phrase. If the two concepts are close to each other in the document, there is a greater chance that they are related. |
|
Connect to SFU's list of Accounting Databases for more indexes to journal and newspaper articles.
All of the databases listed above provide at least some journal articles fulltext online, but for some journals they will only give you the abstract of the articles. In such cases, check out Moving from Citation to Article to find out how to find the actual article(s).
Internet searching
Finding useful (and dependable) information on the webcan be frustrating and time consuming, but there is an increasing amount of useful information out there. It's worth spending some time learning how to find what you need on it effectively and efficiently. Here are 3 basic strategies:
1) Search a general subject or hierarchical index such as the Librarians' Index to the Internet or BUBL LINK.
Because hierarchical indexes such as the BUBL have already assigned web sites to specific categories such as Business, Political Science, or Entertainment, you can retrieve relevant information by concentrating your search efforts on a particular category or categories. You gain focus and selectivity, but you have "pre-limited" your search to a relatively small result set. This is not a major concern in web searching as sites are generally linked to other relevant sites and all roads lead to Rome sooner or later.
2) Use a search engine such as Google.
With search engines you run the risk of "overkill" in the number of results retrieved. Search using unique and specific keywords wherever possible.
3) Start with a known site or a known person/organization. Sometimes the trick is simply to find one or two good sites that will link you to many other reliable and relevant sites on your topic.
Government sites are particularly rich (e.g., Industry Canada or Statistics Canada) both in information about themselves and their areas of responsibilities, and in links to other useful sites.
Association web pages, business, professional, and/or academic sites are also very worth finding and exploring. Connect to Trade Associations for directories, links, and tips for finding association web sites.
Here are a few good accounting sites to get you started:
AICPA
Connect to the Online Publications section to find a large selection of full text online material, some of which is free.
American Accounting Association
Online tables of content and article abstracts from AAA newsletters and journals. Search Business Source Complete to find complete journal articles if you find potentially valuable article citations at this site.
Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
Has news from CGA Magazine and information about the CGA Program of Professional Studies as well as regional information from the Provincial chapters.
Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
Look for Exposure Drafts, Research Studies and other documents under the Standards and Research & Guidance sections. Note that SFU researchers also have online access to the CICA Standards and Guidance Collection.via our Knotia.ca subscription.
Financial Standards Accounting Board
FASB Exposure Drafts and selected Cases are online in the Publications section. (The full collection of cases is available in a print book in our library.) FASB Standards, Interpretations, Concepts, and Technical Bulletins are also available online, but note that you would need to register as a "New User" to get the Basic View of those publications for free.
International Federation of Accountants
A variety of articles and links with a strong international focus.
Society of Management Accountants of Canada
Most of their publications appear to be restricted to members only. However, SFU Researchers have access via some of our databases to several years worth of online articles from CMA Management magazine.
4. AFTER (and During) Your Search
Evaluating information sources
Evaluate information found on the Web by the same criteria as information you find in books, journals, newspapers, electronic databases, television, radio, converstations with friends, etc. You can apply the following criteria to information found in many sources:
-
ACCURACY
Are the facts presented accurate? You may want to cross-check statistics or other facts against other sources. -
AUTHORITY
What are the qualifications and reputation of the writer/speaker/publisher? Are they experts in their field? What is their point of view? Information about the effects of clear-cut logging will be very different from Greenpeace or from the Forest Alliance of British Columbia. -
COMPLETENESS
Is the information presented complete or does it seem that something might be missing? For example, a list of stock exchanges world-wide with less than 5 entries would be questionable. -
CURRENCY
Up-to-dateness is especially important for statistical data or political or socio-economic studies. A detailed report on doing business in China in 1957 would be historically interesting but not currently useful. -
DOCUMENTATION
Does the book/journal/web page explain the sources of its information and how the information was obtained? -
LEVEL
Who is the intended audience for the information? Is the level of treatment academic or popular, expert or novice?
See also:
What is a Scholarly Journal? Learn how to distinguish between academic and popular journals
Internet Research. A guide to finding and evaluating websites and other freely available Web resources.
Writing & citing
See the SFU Library guide to Business Writing for resources (online handbooks, dictionaries, etc.) to help you write a clear business report or academic paper. The Business Writing guide also lists resources to help you cite your sources in your bibliography and to learn more about the complex issue of plagiarism.
5. Subject-Specific Library Guides
Business Administration (generally)
Subject Research Guides are set up to guide students to the key resources for their subject areas, and include links to databases, library guides and relevent web sites beyond SFU. Connect to Business Administration for a wide range of resources. Also check out the Belzberg Library Research Guide for Graduate Business Programs.
Company information
The SFU Library databases listed below all provide detailed financial data (ratios, stock prices, etc.) for companies. If you need reports, news, or free web resources, check out the following SFU Library guides for some suggestions.
Financial data sources available via the SFU Library:
MINT Global/ORBIS
Information on over 50,000 publicly-traded companies and 5 million private companies from around the world. Available via basic (MINT Global), advanced (ORBIS), and data retrieval (WRDS) interfaces.
ThomsonOne.com Investment Banking
Detailed profiles of companies, equity data and international filings.
Bloomberg
Real-time and historical information on bonds, equities, commodities, currencies and funds in international markets.
WRDS - Wharton Research Data Services
Platform for a variety of datasets in the fields of finance, accounting, banking and economics.
CFMRC TSX Database
The Canadian Financial Markets Research Centre (CFMRC) Summary Information Database. Daily and monthly Toronto Stock Exchange trading information.
China Securities Market and Account Research Databases (CSMAR)
Data on China's corporate governance, regional economics, automobile industry, and listed companies' financial statements.
Compustat North America & Global
Detailed financial and market data covering publicly traded companies from around the world.
CRSP
Provides access to NYSE/AMEX/Nasdaq Daily and Monthly Security Prices and other historical data related to over 20,000 companies.
Dun & Bradstreet (Canada): Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
Industry norms (ratios) by asset range for Canadian industries.
EBS FX data
Provides historical insight into trading activity.
ExecuComp
Executive compensation data on S&P1500 company officers.
Fund Profiler
Detailed data on over 4000 mutual funds based in Canada.
Fundata Mutual Fund Database (Fundata MF)
Downloadable data for over 4000 active funds from almost 200 sponsor companies.
Futures and Index DB
Tick Data provides clean, ready-to-use historical intraday time series data for the world's equities, futures and options markets. The RDL has Intraday Options data starting mid 2004. Updates added each quarter. The Futures & Index DB covers various periods from July 1997 to date.
Hoover's Company and Industry Reports
Company profiles and financial information for over 15,000 major companies.
I/B/E/S
International stock analysts' estimates and recommendations.
Infomart
Historical, investor, and industry reports on Canada's leading publicly-traded companies.
Ivy DB - OptionMetrics
Historical option price and implied volatility database.
Thomson Financial Ownership: 13f Institutional Holdings
CDA/Spectrum Institutional 13(f) Common Stock Holdings and Transactions.
Tick Data Options
Tick Data provides clean, ready-to-use historical intraday time series data for the world's equities, futures and options markets. The RDL has Intraday Options data starting mid 2004. Updates added each quarter. The Futures & Index DB covers various periods from July 1997 to date.
Trade and Quote (TAQ) Data
Intraday trade and quote data from NYSE, AMEX,Nasdaq and NMS.
Questions? Comments?
Mark Bodnar
Email: mbodnar@sfu.ca
Business Liaison Librarian
Simon Fraser University
- Page Views: 2694 reads
- Email this page
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Twitter