As we focus on the current Presidential Election, a Library of Congress blog post, Time to Say Goodbye to Thomas, reminds us to check in on our other branches of government. THOMAS.gov retired on July 5, 2016, and Congress.gov is now the place to go to find out what Congress is doing.
The site provides not only information on what Congress has done and is currently doing, but resources for all who want to understand and get involved in the legislative process. Coverage for legislative information includes committee reports and the Congressional Record starting from the 104th Congress and member profiles are available from the 93rd Congress to present. Need a primary source for a history class? A gallery of U. S. Founding Documents provides lots to choose from.
One can easily create a free account to set up alerts tracking particular bills, congressional members, or any aspect of the business of government reported in the Congressional Record.
You can also follow Congress.gov through various social media channels, view the Ways to Connect at the bottom of the landing page.
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Resource of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a useful website or Library database, highlighting key features you should know about. If you would like more information about this free web resource (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this resource for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using this form.
Uniworld Online is an online business directory that began as two print directories: American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries and Foreign Firms Operating in the United States. It provides information on headquarters, subsidiaries, and branches (including retail locations) of multinational firms that have offices in more than one country.
Both public and private companies are included.
Users often turn to Uniworld to locate corporate hierarchy and/or contact information, develop a list of desired companies for job-seeking purposes, generate sales leads, and to find out the location of a company’s worldwide offices.
Search Keys
The search interface is straightforward, with clearly labeled search boxes. Ways of searching include:
Keyword
Type of company: public or private
Hierarchy status: parent, domestic subsidiary or international subsidiary
Country: Domestic or international location of headquarters
Industry code: NAICS code from 2 to 6 digits
Zip/postal code: exact domestic/international code or within a specified radius
Other geography: states/provinces within international countries
Other business elements: Revenue or number of employees
Search Results
Directory information for American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.
In addition to standard directory information such as address, website, email and telephone numbers, each company entry includes relevant NAICS codes (useful if you’re conducting company or industry research) and, in the case of retailers, information about local branches (listed as subsidiaries).
Save Searches
Uniworld allows you to save searches using the “My Account” feature. Bentley provides a common user account to which searches can be saved, and searches stay in the account until the user deletes them.
Database Help
Uniworld provides a user guide that walks you through using the database. Report samples of Web, PDF and Excel files are also available for viewing.
Connect to this Database
Please visit the Uniworld Online page to start your research. Please note that this resource is available for on-campus users only.
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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a database available from the Library’s website, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using this form.
The Nielsen Segmentation & Market Solutions (SMS) database is now available to Bentley users via the SRDS database platform. Nielsen SMS has replaced the Local Market Audience Analyst (LMAA) database, previously available via SRDS.
Most of the the information that was available in LMAA continues to be available in Nielsen Segmentation & Market Solutions, but Nielsen SMS provides more data, more robust reports, and a more dynamic and improved search interface. This new database is also compatible with all web browsers (say goodbye to the “Internet Explorer only” restriction).
Nielsen SMS includes access to PRIZM Premier, which is an enhancement over LMAA’s use of PRIZM data. Another notable difference is that Nielsen Consumer Profiles have replaced the Simmons consumer profiles used in LMAA. More information about these features is provided below.
Please note that Nielsen SMS is currently only available to on-campus users, but we are working on a solution to provide off-campus access. Check back here for updates, or contact the Reference Desk for assistance.
What’s Inside Nielsen SMS?
The SMS Reports at a Glance document (below) maps the old LMAA content to the new Nielsen SMS database. For example, the data formerly included in a LMAA Demographic Concentration Report can now be found in the Nielsen SMS Consumer Concentration Segmentation Report.
Click to open Nielsen SMS Reports at a Glance PDF document.
Nielsen Pop-Facts Demographics Reports
Pop-Facts Demographic Reports provide comprehensive demographic information for your selected analysis area. Geographic analysis is available for states, counties and DMAs (Designated Market Areas). Demographic information is from the most current U.S. Census, estimated current year and projected five-year counts.
Nielsen Segmentation Reports
Segmentation reports help you determine who your best customers are, where they live, what they are like and how to connect with them.
Consumer Concentration Report: Shows details about demographics, consumer demand and customer data for any selected analysis area.
Market Potential Report: Compares current consumption pattern for one or more product profiles in an analysis area; calculates a Market Potential Index to help determine the potential for introducing new products and services
Profile Ranking Index Report: Compares one or more profiles with a selected collection of other profiles (product usage, media preference or demographic traits).
Profile Worksheet: Shows usage information, by PRIZM segment, for products and services (product profiles).
Segment Distribution Report: Shows the geographic distribution of each of the 68 PRIZM segments.
Target Concentration Report: Shows how many target users are located in an analysis area.
Target Segment Measures Report: Displays detailed profile data on demographics, media preferences and lifestyle characteristics for a selected target and/or its segments.
PRIZM Premier
PRIZM Premier, Nielsen’s consumer segmentation system, defines every U.S. household in terms of 68 demographically and behaviorally distinct segments to help marketers discern those consumers’ likes, dislikes, lifestyles and purchase behaviors. PRIZM Premier’s 68 segments are numbered according to socioeconomic rank (which takes into account characteristics such as income, education, occupation and home value) and are grouped into 11 Lifestage Groups and 14 Social Groups.
Nielsen’s Consumer Profiles uses data from Nielsen’s Scarborough USA+ consumer survey database. This annual survey of 200,000 U.S. adults provides information about consumer lifestyles, product usage, media exposure and psychographic dimensions. Consumer categories include: Alcohol, Automotive, Commuting & Transportation, Digital Video Displays, Environment, Financial, Food & Beverage, Health, Items in the Home, Newspapers, Radio, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping, Sports & Liesure, Telecommunications, Television, Travel, and Voting.
How to Access Nielsen Segmentation & Market Solutions
To access the Nielsen Segmentation & Market Solutions database:
On the SRDS landing page, click the link to Nielsen Segmentation & Market Solutions on the left side of the screen, under [Other SRDS Services].
Click the green button labeled [Login to Nielsen SMS].
After logging in to Nielsen SMS, click on the [Create Content] link to get started.
Important Information About Shared/Stored Reports & Report Deletion:Please note that all reports created within Nielsen SMS can be viewed and accessed by all Bentley users.
If you name and save a report in Excel or PDF format, it is saved automatically in My Content > Report Inbox. These reports can be viewed, modified and/or deleted by any Bentley user. Please save reports you create to your own computer to ensure continued access. Reports stored in the My Reports section are maintained for 120 days from the date they were last created or viewed. If you do not use a report for 120 days, it is deleted automatically.
Any report that you generate using the Interactive Report Viewer using the Create Content options will be saved in [Report History]. The system automatically deletes past reports when Report History reaches 200 reports.
Help & More Information
Help documentation is available on the Nielsen SMS log-in page (look at the “introduction to Neilsen SMS” and “How to Use Nielsen” documents). You may also view Nielsen’s 30 minute Online Training Webinar here: https://youtu.be/E75C_HdFaqI
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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a database available from the Library’s website, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using this form.
How to find journal relationships in InCitesTM Journal Citation Reports®
from Web of Science
InCitesTM Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) measures research influence and impact at the journal and category, or academic subject, levels and shows the relationship between citing and cited journals. In addition, the JCR® now includes an interactive graphic showing the relationship between citing and cited journals making it easier to visualize the strength of that relationship.
Here is a step-by-step guide to finding the relationships between journals in Journal Citation Reports®
Choose Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) from the list in Databases A to Z.
On the Web of Science page, click Journal Citation Reports® at the top of the page.
Type the title of the journal you would like to compare with other journals in the box under Go to Journal Profile and click the search icon. Within the Journal Profile you will be able to:
Sort journal data by clearly defined fields: impact factor, immediacy index, total cites, total articles, cited half-life, or journal title
Sort subject category data by fields such as, journal title, impact factor, JCR year, and publisher
Determine the cited half-life of a journal in a given JCR year
Determine how many citations a journal received in the JCR year (Cited Journal Data) and how many citations a journal made to other journals (including itself) in the JCR year (Citing Journal Data)
Graphically visualize displays of the citing or cited data relationships between the parent journal and the top twenty journals in its field
Link to Ulrich’s Global Serials Directory to find detailed information about the journal’s language of text, content type, abstracting & indexing coverage, online availability, audience and reviews.
Let’s take a look at Cited Journal Data (inbound citations) and Citing Journal Data (outbound citations) to establish the relationship of the journal, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, to other journals in its subject areas through citation patterns and distribution. Click on Cited Journal Data – the Cited Journal Graph shows the distribution by cited year of citations to articles published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. The top (yellow) portion of each column indicates journal self-citations: citations from articles in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology to articles in the same journal.
The bottom (orange) portion of each column indicates non self-citations: citations from Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology to articles in other journals.
On the Cited Journal Data table, journals that cited Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology in a given JCR year are listed in order of occurrence.
The table above shows that in 2014, the journal PLOS One cited sixty-two (62) articles published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology in 2011.
Now let’s look at the Citing Journal Graph. The Citing Journal Graph shows the distribution by cited year of citations from articles in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. All of the citing articles were published in the JCR year.
The top (yellow) portion of each column indicates journal self-citations – citations from articles in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology to articles in the same journal.
The bottom (orange) portion of each column indicates non-self-citations – citations from Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology to articles in other journals.
The Citing Journal Datatable reveals a journal’s subject specialty, points to its closest peer or competitor publications, and highlights the network of journals within a particular field or fields. Citing Journal Data table identifies those publications that were most frequently cited by Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology for a given year – outbound citations.
In this table, the citing journal is Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, and all of the citing articles were published in 2014. The journals cited by articles in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology are listed in the Cited Journal column.
Web of Science has made it easy to visualize the relationships between journals and their subject categories through its Journal Relationships link.
On the Journal Relationships diagram, the top twenty cited or citing journals are displayed as arcs on the circle. The size of each arc is indicative of the relative citation relationships to that journal. The thickness of the chords connecting the arcs is demonstrative of the strength of citation relationship between the journals. The Journal Relationships diagram includes several interactive features:
Hover over arcs to display the journal Impact Factor;
Hover over over chords to display the citation relationship to the parent journal;
Click the title of any journal in the arc to go straight to that title’s profile page;
Click the title of any journal in the arc to go straight to that title’s profile page;
Let’s select Cited Data from the drop down arrow next to the word Data to find the top 20 journals that have the strongest relationship to Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. The chords, connecting the citing journals, display the number of contributed citations. Click on another journal arc to reveal connections between that journal and others within Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology relationships. The widest arcs represent the strength of the relationships. The wider the arc, the stronger the relationship between journals.
In the example above, the journals Animal Behavior and PLOS One each contributed a high number of citations to Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology than other journals in this network. Hovering over the chord between these connected journals will reveal the number of citations in the connection.
Hovering over the citing journal’s arc in the circle will reveal a journal’s impact factor. For example, the Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, a citing journal, has an impact factor of 4.823.
A journal’s impact factor (JIF) is an indicator of the importance of a journal to its field. The higher the impact factor, the greater the perceived importance of the contribution this journal – and in turn, its related journals – has on its academic or research fields.
Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to library databases and selected web resources, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like assistance using this database, please schedule a research consultation using this form. For more information about the library’s databases contact the Reference Desk.
ReferenceUSA is a strong, reliable database filled with directory information on businesses and people. It is most popularly used for getting detailed company information or to create a list of competitors in a specific industry. It contains private and public company information and is updated monthly.
Who can use it?
ReferenceUSA is available online to all Bentley community users with active Bentley coordinates; find it on Bentley Library’s Databases A-Z page.
Students of GB320 are the most likely users of this resource, especially for company research assignments. Other typical projects informed by ReferenceUSA are business intelligence or research for an upcoming interview.
Our sample search today is research for an upcoming interview (see below).
What’s inside?
ReferenceUSA generates data in the form of addresses, phone numbers, and URLs, without narrative comment or storyline. The ReferenceUSA search interface guides users to select parameters and the database dynamically generates this list.
Sample search for potential internship places
The sample search that follows is preparation for an upcoming interview. In this scenario, the goal is to identify organizations and inquire about internships. We will look for small organizations specializing in disaster relief work in the south of the United States.
On the ReferenceUSA landing page, choose to search “U.S. Businesses”, then select the “Advanced Search” tab for best results.
Click to view larger image.
On the “Advanced Search” screen, identify search parameters:
Click to view larger image.
Under Business Type, select to do a “Keyword SIC/NAICS” search, which will search within SIC or NAICS industry classification codes. A keyword search for “disaster” within SIC Codes results in several options. We will choose “832290 Disaster Contractors” and three related industries which look good for our future internship.
Additional parameters chosen for this search – “Geography” (state), “Phone” (business phone) and “Business Size” (Number of Employees = less than 100). Note that in the screenshot above, “Sales Volume” is not checked as a parameter, reasoning that disaster relief organizations may not have metrics in this area.
Click “Update Count” when finished selecting parameters.
Click “View Results” to view 28 results in this search for disaster relief agencies located in 10 southern states of the US, with 100 or fewer employees. Drill into each record for granular information on that organization.
Click to view larger image.
Download this list of 28 to a laptop in .xlsx format for easy sorting and saving. Note that the number of downloads is limited to 500 hits.
You’re done! These are leads to pursue for a future internship.
What sets it apart?
ReferenceUSA prioritizes accuracy very highly and fact-checks everything by telephone calls. ReferenceUSA culls its information from the US White page telephone directories, the U.S. Census Bureau, and from publicly filed records. It has estimated 44 million US businesses, 1.5 million of them closed and 4.5 of them newly established, making historical analysis or projections possible.
Other goodies:
Links under the “Job Help” tab connect users to outside sources such as CareerOneStop.org and Marketwatch.com , a reflection of ReferenceUSA’s origins in 1992 when it began as a search tool for students, job seekers and researchers.
For self-help, ReferenceUSA provides user-contributed how-to videos under the “Take a Tour” tab, each of these recordings explain the search process in under 5 minutes.
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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a database available from the Library’s website, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using this form.
Business Insights: Essentials provides in-depth information on U.S. and international businesses (both public and private) and industries. Included are company profiles, industry profiles, financial data, investment reports and articles from business periodicals. The strength of this database comes from its underlying sources. It is a great resource for getting a company’s history, market share and SWOT analysis. It is also a great resource for getting an overview of a particular industry as well.
Usage tip: Start by searching for a company name (such as Wal-mart) or ticker symbol (such as WMT) in the keyword box and look through your results for the company profile. This will create a “dashboard” view of all of the available reports regarding your company including:
A Company History (sourced from International Directory of Company Histories)
Market share (sourced from Market Share Reporter)
SWOT Analysis (sourced from Global Markets Direct SWOT Reports published by GlobalData Ltd.)
And many others (see below image).
The company profile also provides a Related Articles area that groups current article content into specific subject categories. These articles help to update the above reports with the most current data available. The Related Articles are grouped into these categories:
Financial Data
Legal Issues
Management
Operations & Technology
People; Products & Services
Sales & Marketing
Statistics
Strategy & Planning
Remember, when you click on one of these subject categories in the company profile, you will only link to articles relevant to this specific company.
The company profile also includes the industry names and the NAICS codes in which the company operates including the one indicated as the Primary Industry. Clicking on the linked title (see below image) will bring up an industry profile.
Of note: searching for the NAICS code (such as 452990) in the keyword search box on the database’s homepage will also bring up an industry profile.
An industry profiles lists “Top Companies” by Revenue and provides “Industry Essays” (sourced from the Gale Business Insights Online Collection, 2016 which consists of these encyclopedias: Encyclopedia of American Industries; Emerging Industries & Global Industries).
Business Insights: Essentials can be used to compare companies and/or industries using available metrics. This feature is available under the Comparison Charts drop down menu from the database’s homepage.
Metrics available for companies: Number of employees, Number of employees over Time, Revenue, Sales per employee, Sales Per Employee over Time
Metrics available for industries: Number of Companies; Number of Companies over Time; Employees; Number of Employees over time; Sales Per Employee; Sales Per Employee over Time; Revenue
Comparison charts & data can be exported into Excel.
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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a database available from the Library’s website, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using this form.
Mediamark University Internet Reporter is a profiling system used to define targets in order to gain insights and better understand markets and/or the media used to reach those markets. First time Mediamark users must register and create an account before they can us the database. Users should contact the Bentley University Library at 781.891.2300 or refdesk@bentley.edu to receive a registration code to be entered when creating a Mediamark account. Mediamark is available to current Bentley University students, faculty and staff.
Enter the Registration Code, your name and your Bentley University email address. If your professor has not provided you with a registration code, please visit or email the Reference Desk at refdesk@bentley.edu to obtain the code. A Bentley email address is required for proper authentication.
After registering, you will receive a password validation email from clientservices@gfkmri.com. You must click the activation link in the email within 3 days to activate your account and set up your password.
After clicking the activation link, you will be able to create your own password to access Mediamark University Internet Reporter. The password must be between 8-16 characters in length and have at least one alphabetic character and one numeric digit.
After all these steps have been completed, proceed to Mediamark Reporter to begin using the database.
After registering for an account users will be able to access data on media use, product use, behavioral and other marketing measures from Mediamark’s yearly national probability sample of consumers. The University Internet Reporter provides access to GfK MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer for academic use by students and faculty. The Survey’s vast database of media usage, demographics, psychographics and consumer behavior makes it a powerful resource for penetrating insight into the actions and motivations of adult American consumers.
Once logged in users will select a Category for a list of over 25 product areas:
Click to view larger image
Users will then select a Question — a consumer activity. Once the consumer activity has been selected users will be able to create a report based on Target criteria including report type, consumer activities (Details) and demographics (Target).
Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a database available from the Library’s website, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using this form.
ACM Digital Library, published by the Association for Computing Machinery, is a comprehensive collection of full-text articles and citations covering the fields of computing and information technology. A noteworthy strength of this database is full-text access to conference papers containing emerging research within the ACM’s special interest groups (SIGs).
This database is particularly useful for those pursuing research in the areas of computer science and/or Human Factors Information Design.
Our subscription includes:
The Full-Text collection of all ACM publications, including journals, conference proceedings, technical magazines, newsletters and books, and a select collection of other computing publications.
ACM Guide to Computing Literature, including a comprehensive bibliography of citations.
ACM Author and Institutional Profile Pages, which include bibliographic and bibliometric data for over 1.5 million authors, and every academic, government, and industry organization publishing articles in the field.
Search, Retrieval and Export
Browsing options are available on the main page, including a page containing names and descriptions of each SIG. Each interest group focuses on a specific area of computer science research; the searcher with a specific area of interest may wish to click a group name to narrow his/her search to a particular group.
Basic and Advanced searches are also provided. Advanced searching enables the user to join keywords or phrases to form a tailored search. Both the Basic and the Advanced searches allow the user to refine the result set by author, institution, conference name, date, publication name, and more.
Several options for exporting citations are available, including Endnote and CSV.
Personal Web Account
Sign up for a free Web account to save searches. Using the My Binder feature (available after login), the user can compile a bibliography of citations from the database.
Database Help
Visit the Training & Resources page to schedule an online training session, watch videos, set up RSS alerts for Tables of Contents, and more.
Connect to this Database
Please visit the ACM Digital Library page to start your research. ACM also provides a mobile app for Android, Apple iOS, and Windows phones, available in the app store for the specific device.
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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a database available from the Library’s website, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using this form.
