Research Guides: Accountancy: Find Articles–From Journals & Databases

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by Anne Trenholme Last Updated Oct 1, 2024 400 views this year

Company Annual Reports, Glossy & Historical

Company glossy annual reports state what a company wants you to know about it's culture, vision, purpose, growth, and future.

Written for stakeholders, it also contains annual financial reports in addition to text & images, magazine style. They can be valuable for the tone & perspective they show to the public.

Other reports & filings are also useful, and using either of these 2 databases, you'll see the name (10-K, etc.) and file size–select by the type you need, the year, and use the file size as an indication of the most important/complete one since they are not distinctively named.

The collection from Mergent is easy to use–simply use the A-Z hyperlinks to select your company name, then use the bottom of page forward arrows to advance the years to the one you need.

Historical Annual Reports (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Over 800 companies' annual reports (1844-current) available through searchable pdf images. Over 75% of the most prevalent Fortune 500 companies, which have been on the ranking list for 30 years or more.
Subject coverage: Company overview, Company history, Products and operations, Historical financials
Historical Annual Report Collection (Mergent) This link opens in a new window
Corporate and industry related documents, 100 countries and industries, US, global, 1925- 500K reports. Click Document Date column, sort for oldest. Continually updated.

Articles in Databases

The KSL Research Database List has smaller Subject sections so you can find relevant sources quickly. Select the Management Subject for all sources applicable for WSOM. Or, select only Accounting.

Note: This partial list shown here highlights featured databases for searching information related to accountancy, trends, news, and more.

Find related research in the larger Management folder onthe Research Database list, for sources related to Banking and Finance, Companies, Economics, Management, Market & Industry Analysis, Historical Annual Corporate Reports, News resources, statistical databases, and more.

Accounting, Tax & Banking Collection This link opens in a new window
Article database for accounting, taxation, financial management, policies, standards, legislation, compensation & pension plans, AICPA, FASB, and IASB. Includes accounting & consulting firm profiles. Comprehensive coverage of key industry publications, newspapers, and scholarly & trade literature. Advanced search options & help features available.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Go-to database for articles (academic, peer-reviewed, magazines, trade literature, newspapers), case studies, interviews, SWOT reports, and more. Controlled language hyperlinks generate excellent results. Save time & organize your work with features (save to folders, cite, share, export, create notes, and links). 80+ other database subjects on same platform for depth andease of cross-research areas. Create “My Research” account to save documents.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Deep financials with customized search & export report features for company data, economic research, and supply chain (Horizon tab). Create index, exchange lists, and data elements. Includes U.S. & global, active/inactive, public & private company & data, executive information, annual reports, filings, and industry & equity reports. Includes robust Report Builder and create list functions.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A broad multi-disciplinary database encompassing areas in art, science, and humanities. Includes full-text, plus indexing and abstracts for monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and other publications.
Business Expert Press This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Business and management topics for operations, supply chain, finance, accounting, marketing, public relations. Editors include WSOM faculty. Sign In to create workspace to mark up, save chapters.
Cabells Journalytics & Predatory Reports This link opens in a new window
Journalytics has information about academic journals such as evaluation metrics, submission details, and acceptance rates to help authors identify where to publish and how to take action. The Predatory Reports tracks publication by 60+ criteria that demonstrate when publications are taking advantage of authors.
EconLit This link opens in a new window
Includes literature, citations, abstracts, book reviews from major journals, proceedings, books, dissertations, and working papers from major publications & the American Economic Association. Covers 1969 to current. Includes econometrics, markets, forecasting, regulations, labor, monetary theory, accounting and more.
Reference Solutions This link opens in a new window
Directory information for publicly and privately owned companies in the United States and Canada.

Consultants and Consulting Organizations Directory
25,000 firms and individuals, arranged in subject sections under 14 general fields of consulting activity. 400+ specialties, including finance, computers, fund-raising & more. Choose & expand 'Companies & Consultancies' in Directory list upper right of screen.

Accounting & Tax Database

Content coverage:

National & international scope
Focus on accounting policies & standards, legislation for state & national tax, corporate & individual tax
Compensation & pension plans
Corporate financial information & management
Profiles of accounting firms, CPAs, management consulting firms
Includes scholarly journals, peer-reviewed journals, trade publications, newspapers, magazines, reference/report titles.
1971–present, via ProQuest publishing
Advanced Search Features:

Search publication title, company/organization, person, location, NAICS/SIC codes

Options to include document features like charts/diagrams, maps. Include document types like cover story, commentary, retractions, editorial, and to exclude book reviews and other formats.
Your initial search will return results that you can sort by source (trade publications, scholarly, etc.)
TIP: "Suggested Topics"

A search result will suggest similar topics. Example: January 2010,"AIG" suggests topics for refining or expanding research with terms like insurance industry, insurance companies, stock prices, bailouts, financial performance, people, investigations & more...

Research Database List/Business Folder, Accounting
Find the Research Database list on the KSL homepage in "Research Tools", or on the Case Catalog quick link for all "Research Databases."

Select Accounting from the top left Subject menu

Accounting Research Database @ Weatherhead

Weatherhead hosts a search function for several important accountancy journals :

Accounting Historians Journal, Accounting History Review (formerly Accounting, Business and Financial History) and Accounting History.

Use Quick search or Advanced Search, as the page links suggest, to locate author, title, years.

Kelvin Smith Library's EJournal Portal also has content in various databases:

Accounting & Tax Database 6/1/1993-6/1/2014
Business Source Complete 6/1/2004-present
EBSCO Open Access Journals 1/1/1974 - 12/31/2013
JSTOR Arts & Science IX Archive Collection 1/1/1974 - present with Full Text Embargo 4 years

Accounting, Tax & Banking Collection This link opens in a new window
Article database for accounting, taxation, financial management, policies, standards, legislation, compensation & pension plans, AICPA, FASB, and IASB. Includes accounting & consulting firm profiles. Comprehensive coverage of key industry publications, newspapers, and scholarly & trade literature. Advanced search options & help features available.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Go-to database for articles (academic, peer-reviewed, magazines, trade literature, newspapers), case studies, interviews, SWOT reports, and more. Controlled language hyperlinks generate excellent results. Save time & organize your work with features (save to folders, cite, share, export, create notes, and links). 80+ other database subjects on same platform for depth andease of cross-research areas. Create “My Research” account to save documents.

The Economist

Economist This link opens in a new window
Offers opinion on international news, politics, business, finance, science and technology. Includes articles from the print edition (US & British copies) and web-only content. Also includes a searchable online archive dating back to June 1997.