Research Guides: Business Communication & Legal Studies: BCM520

Steen Library FAQs

Director, R.W. Steen Library

Subjects: Business, Business & Management, Economics & Finance, English, Literature, & Creative Writing, Environmental Science, Forestry, Forestry & Agriculture, Humanities, Research Methods

Step 1: Finding Company Information Written by the Company

Check out the company’s website
Look for historical information about the origin of the company
Look for products and/or services offered by the company
Check for webinars, presentations and conference calls
Review the Annual Report for corporate governance, strategy, sales targets, and upcoming opportunities, obligations or obstacles. Usually the Annual Report is under the website section called "Investor Relations."

Step 2: Finding Company Information written by Experts

You will need secondary resources that are written by experts about your company. These secondary resources could be business magazines and journals, company profiles written for market research, and other publications. To save time and get an "A" is to use the library's databases. Use the following databases to find the secondary resources:

Wall Street Journal
Access the last 4 years of the digital edition of the Wall Street Journal.
All users must create an individual account with an SFA email address through the SFA WSJ Registration page: https://wsj.com/SFASU
To activate your SFA-sponsored Wall Street Journal account:
1. Go to the WSJ registration page
2. Select an 'Account Type' from the dropdown: Student, Staff, or Professor
3. Enter your first and last name
4. Enter your SFA email address and create a password. The email address and password will allow access on other devices outside of the university network.
5. Agree to the Privacy Policy, Subscriber Agreement, and Cookie Policy
6. Click 'Create' to complete registration and create your WSJ subscription
7. Once you have an account you can go directly to: https://www.wsj.com/
NOTE: Student members accounts stay active until their graduation date. Faculty and staff need to validate their memberships once a year from the SFA site: https://wsj.com/SFASU

WSJ does not allow 2 simultaneous subscriptions for the same user. You can cancel your existing subscription and then go through the activation process via SFA. Call Customer Service to cancel at 1-800-JOURNAL (1-800-568-7625) and ask for the Education team.
Business Source Complete
Full-text access to business articles and other content, including company profiles with SWOT analyses, industry profiles, market research, case studies, and more.
Mergent Online
Access company financials, ratios, business segments, descriptions, sustainability, officers and directors.
Morningstar Investment Research Center
Continually updated mutual fund and stock database useful for investment information and data.
Westlaw Campus Research
Provides full-text access to case law, state law, federal statutes, and more.

Click here for more free credible Internet news sources.

Step 3: Citing Resources APA Style

Use APA Style to give credit to your resources. If you have any questions, please contact me and/or use the following resources:

Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab
- URL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
- Offers examples of the new revised style guides
Library Databases
- Many of our databases supply a citation already formatted in APA style that you can copy and paste into your paper.

Step 4: Ask for Help!

Jon's 1/2 Hour Rule: If you spend 1/2 hour and not getting the results that you need, please contact me at helmke@sfasu.edu or schedule an appointment (see right-hand side toolbar with my picture).

Business Communication & Legal Studies Guide