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Introduction

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 online 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 rarely 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 as possible (anticipating that many of you haven't done business research recently, if ever), I'm sure it won't answer all your questions!

Here's how to get help with your research:

a)  Get in touch with me, your Business liaison librarian: moninder_lalli@sfu.ca

Typical questions: "I'm trying to find articles on accounting ethics and can't seem to find anything in the Business Source Complete database. Can you help?"  ..or...   "I'm looking for information on ABC and I've already tried YY and ZZ.  Is there somewhere else I could try?"  (It also helps if you tell me what class you are in and when the assignment is due.)

b) Contact SFU's reference librarians via email, online chat, or telephone through our Ask a Librarian services. If you are near one of the SFU campuses (Vancouver, Burnaby, or Surrey), you could also visit the library and ask your questions at the reference desk. 

c) Check our Business guides for other SFU Library research guides that may come close to your topic.  For example, the following guides all list resources that may be useful for accounting researchers:

• Company Information
• Industry Surveys
• Ratio Analysis
• Annual Reports
• Sustainable Business
• Belzberg Library (SFU Vancouver) Guide for Graduate Business Programs

Bottom line: if you have a question that involves research resources and strategies 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!

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 [print or online]
in-depth studies	ebooks/books and government reports	Contemporary issues in sustainability accounting, assurance and reporting
statistics	government agencies and associations	Multinational enterprises in Canada
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

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 assistance beyond this guide, try the academic accounting research guide for BUS 421.)

In many cases you will be able to retrieve the actual information you need online 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.

Analyzing your topic

Before searching the databases, analyze your topic: break it down into  concepts  and 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 Complete, 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.

You can then combine these concepts and synonyms with in different ways 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*

Broad search: (financial service* OR bank*) AND (issue* OR 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".

Searching

Books and more via the library catalogue

The SFU 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 Vancouver campus.  In other words, while you can connect to our catalogue online, you would have to visit the library to read the print materials.

However, the SFU Library catalogue also provides links to thousands of ebooks and ejournals. You will be able to access these online documents from your computer using your SFU ID and password.  For examples of such resources, see the catalogue records for Introduction to Financial Accounting & International financial statement analysis (both are ebooks) and  Contemporary Accounting Research (an ejournal).

For more on effective use of our catalogue, see the SFU Library Catalogue Search Guide, a step-by-step guide to searching the SFU Catalogue.

Articles in the business press

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 databases covering business publications (academic journals, professional magazines, industry magazines, and business news sources) which you can search online to find articles about your topic. These databases will give you citations to print journals and newspapers and many of them will also provide the full text of the articles online.

Internet searching

Finding useful (and dependable) information on the web can be frustrating and time consuming, but there is an amazing 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:

a) Search a general subject or hierarchical index such as the ipl2.

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.

b) Use a search engine such as Google.

I'm guessing most of you are completely familiar with Google, so I won't go into great detail on how to use it effectively here.  In general, with search engines you run the risk of information overload - especially of useless information. Search using unique and specific keywords wherever possible.  And, if possible, start from a site you know instead (see below)...

c) 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, as well as links to related organisations.  Search Business Source Complete to find complete journal articles publsihed by the AAA if you find potentially valuable article citations at their site.  Also check the SFU Library's list of AAA ejournals.

• Chartered Professional Accountants Canada (CPA)
  SFU researchers also have online access to the CPA Canada Standards and Guidance Collection (CPACHB) and International Financial Reportings Standards (IFRS) documents via our Knotia.ca subscription.

Their professional journal is CPA magazine.  This organization was formed with the merger of Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Certified General Accountants and the Society of Management Accountants of Canada.  

Provincial and Regional Accounting Bodies

British Columbia chapter: CPABC

Access to previous issues of magazines: 

• CGA Magazine
• CMA Magazine

Note that SFU researchers also have access via some of our databases to several older years' worth of online articles from CMA Management magazine.

• 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.

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, conversations with friends, etc.  You can apply the following criteria to information found in many sources:

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.

You also need to correctly cite all of the books, journal articles, and sites that you used in your research. Start with the SFU Library Writing & Citing guides for APA assistance (general and business-specific).

The APA offers a bit of online guidance for those citing electronic materials in APA format at their APAStyle page.  Note that some of our online article indexes will even create a citation for you -- look for the Cite option next to an article citation in Business Source, for example.

NOTE: Citation or reference management tools collect your journal article, book, or other document citations together in one place, and help you create properly formatted bibliographies in almost any style — in seconds.  Citation management tools help you keep track of your sources while you work and store your references for future use and reuse.

 

Learning how to properly credit others when you use their ideas is a difficult, but important part of research. Start with the SFU Library's interactive tutorial "Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism" to test yourself and to learn more about plagiarism. Also read the SFU Library Guide on Plagiarism for further discussion of this critical topic and for links to other plagiarism guides.

Assignment-specific suggestions

I understand that one of your assignments will involve gathering some ratios for a Canadian company.  This task is roughly similar to one being done by the students in BUS 320, so you may want to start by going through the research guide for that class and trying some of the suggested resources and search strategies. 

Here are a resource that seem especially likely to be helpful:

• S&P Capital IQ (CapIQ)
  Search for your target company, then navigate to Financials/Valuation > Ratios.  Also look for Peer Analysis > Quick Comps to gather and average ratios from peer companies.

And I heard that one assignment would involve looking for some benchmark retail industry statistics. Start with sources such as Canada's SME Benchmarking Tool (uses slightly old Revenue Canada data). Check the Ratio Analysis guide above for more suggestions.