Researching Social or Consumer Needs Within the Community
Social Issues Databases
- Opposing Viewpoints
"Pro" and "con" arguments on controversial issues. Includes full-text materials drawn from print series such as Opposing Viewpoints, Current Controversies, At Issue, Contemporary Issues Companion, and Gale Information Plus series. It also provides full-text periodicals, newspapers, journals, pamphlets, primary source documents, statistics, images, web sites, and student research tools. - CQ Researcher
CQ Researcher provides award winning in-depth coverage of the most important issues of the day. Our reports are written by experienced journalists, footnoted and professionally fact-checked.
News
- Access World News
Through nearly 7000 news sources, find diverse global, local, regional, and national perspectives on topics related to controversial issues, the environment, health, education, science, the arts, literature, business, economics, criminal justice, and more. - Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete, designed specifically for academic institutions, is among the most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals.
Statistics
- Statista
Easy to use statistics search engine with access to more than a million statistics and facts.
Industry News and Trends
- Ethnic NewsWatch
Ethnic NewsWatch covers 1990 to present and includes newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The publications offer both national and regional coverage - ProQuest One Business
A comprehensive business database containing millions of full-text items across scholarly and popular periodicals, newspapers, market research reports, dissertations, books, videos and more. Includes the full text of the Wall Street Journal. Formerly called ABI/INFORM Collection - Business Source Complete
This is the world's definitive scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full text content. As part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included. - Nexis Uni
Replaces LexisNexis Academic.
More than 15,000 news, business, and legal sources from LexisNexis—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.
Professional Associations:
These are great for finding out what people in the profession or industry area are reading and thinking about, as well as current trends. For many associations, some of the content is freely available, while other content is available to members only. To find industry associations, try these tools:
- Encyclopedia of AssociationsThis ebook allows you to search for associations that are based in the United States, in a variety of categories. Use the pull down menu on the first screen that says, "Select Series" to choose the Encyclopedia of Associations.
- Association DirectoryThis is a freely available web site that allows you to search for professional and industry associations by region, category, state, and more.
- Google SearchA quick search on a keyword for your industry (food service, finance, transportation, hospitality, etc.) plus the words association or organization will give you a list of web sites you can view.
Look for web sites for organizations and associations that address the problem you are researching. To do this, use the search engine of your choice, and simply type in your topic and the word organizations (ex. unemployment and organizations).
Industry Descriptions and Overviews, Plus Potential Competitors
- PrivCo
Private company information! PrivCo.com is the premiere source for business and financial research on non-publicly traded corporations, including family-owned, private equity-owned, venture-backed and international unlisted companies.
Registration Required! The first time you access PrivCo, you will be asked to create an account. Register with your academic email address (@usfca.edu). With your own account, you will be able to save your searches and track companies in your personalized watchlist. Your account provides 1,000 profile views, 1,000 exported records, and 500 deal views per year. - Passport
Country, industry, and consumer statistics and market research: Passport offers integrated access to internationally comparable statistics, full-text market reports, comment from expert industry and country analysts as well as thousands of sources of further information.
Market Share and Statistics
- StatistaEasy to use statistics search engine with access to more than a million statistics and facts.
Market Share ReporterProvides the market share for many companies within an industry, shown with pie charts and graphs. Each entry features a descriptive title; data and market description; a list of producers/products along with their market share. To search: Use the search box on the right that says, "Search within publication." You can search products, companies, brands, industries.
Researching Potential Customers
Want to use a quick and easy survey method to reach your potential customers? Try Google Forms. Quick how-to guide.
- Data.census.gov
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. It replaces the American FactFinder website, which was retired in 2020. - StatistaEasy to use statistics search engine with access to more than a million statistics and facts.
- Claritas: My Best SegmentsThis web site groups consumers into general categories, with brief descriptions and demographic information. Use the Zip Code Look-Up to get information about consumers in a particular area in both descriptions and graphs. There are three categories of information for consumers; PRIZM, P$YCLE, which describes the financial status of consumers, and ConneXions, which describes the level of technology use and connectivity of consumers. Use Segment Details to view descriptions of all of the consumer segments on the web site. Use the Narrow Segments button in the middle of the screen to search for consumer groups by age, income, and other categories.
- Think with GoogleThis free resource contains analysis done on trends, digital communications, consumers, and marketing by using data from Google searches. presented in visuals and interactive reports. Can do keyword searching or browse topics.
Researching How Things are Made
How It's Made: Discovery Science: Science Channel
How Everyday Things are Made: Stanford University
Modern Marvels: History Channel
Citing Your Sources
Whenever you do research, you will need to cite the information sources that you use. Most business scholars use APA style. Here are some tools that can help you with this task:
Gleeson Library's guide to citations: How? Why? When?
- APA 7th Edition Citations for Business SourcesAn excellent guide to using APA 7th edition style for popular business sources. Scroll through the guide to find an example for the business source you are using in your research. Compiled by librarians Naomi Schemm, Marcia Dellenbach, Zachary Grisham, Marianne Hageman, Natalia Tingle, Matt Trowbridge, and Amanda Wheatley
- Citing Business Databases in APA: Michigan State University GuideThis guide was created to help with citing some common business databases
- Citing Business Databases from the University of North Carolina at GreensboroThis guide has some additional business database examples in APA style.
- MLA Business Citations: Youngstown State UniversityScroll down the page to see citations for specific business web sites, reports, and databases cited in MLA style.
- Purdue OWLOur favorite style guide web site is the OWL from Purdue University.
- RefWorks
RefWorks allows users to create personal databases to manage, store, and share the information citations/references. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds. See our RefWorks Guide for information about creating accounts, adding references, and using add-ons.
Getting Help!
There are several ways to obtain assistance with your research. Read on!
You have your very own librarian! She is Penny Scott, and you can contact her for help.
Her contact information is: email: plscott@usfca.edu * phone: 415-422-5389
It is best to email ahead, or make an appointment, to make sure she is available! Appointments are available virtually via Zoom, or in person, and are great for groups or individuals. If you don't see a time that works for you, email Penny.
If Penny is not available, or any time you need help, you can always get help, just Ask a Librarian!
You can also take a look at our Research Guides on many topics!