Research Guides: Finance: Getting Started

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Find quick access to all of the business resources and databases on this homepage along with news, events, research guides, and video tutorials.

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This guide is designed for new researchers who need to find articles, sources, and get started with research in topics related to business and finance.

Start with:

S&P Capital IQ (with access to Aftermarket Research)
University students, staff, and faculty must create a user profile. Click "New User?" and input your UMN credentials to gain access. Credentials will then work for both Capital IQ and Capital IQ PRO.
Standard & Poor's Capital IQ is a resource for financial data, analytics, and research. The web-based platform combines deep information on public and private companies, markets, and people worldwide with robust tools for analysis, idea generation, and workflow management. Capital IQ includes access to Aftermarket Research, an extensive collection of embargoed analyst research reports, offering coverage across more than 1,800 research providers including 30 million+ reports (current & historical back to 1995).
Guest users not affiliated with the University, please contact busref@umn.edu 2 business days ahead of your visit to arrange for login access.
An Excel plugin feature provides powerful analytic capability.
UMN affiliated users will create an individual account through a self-registration process. Follow the steps after selecting from the link above. To use the Excel plug-in feature, please log in to the Virtual Private Network (VPN). Information on VPN is available at Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Faculty who wish to use this tool for a class may request a batch class registration. Please contact Mary Schoenborn (hawki003@umn.edu) to request this access.
PitchBook
Pitchbook is a mediated-access database. Please see Additional Information. Use PitchBook to search thousands of private equity and venture capital deals by hundreds of criteria. Establish benchmarks, find real time data on deals, identify and analyze comparables, and search investor details.
Each user must create a personal account while on campus using their valid @umn.edu e-mail address. Individual accounts must be reset every year on June 30th. Detailed instructions on how to create a personal account are available at: libguides.umn.edu/pitchbook

Faculty requiring larger data downloads may contact the library for assistance. Forward Pitchbook faculty download requests busref@umn.edu.
Mergent Online (Business)
Profiles of public corporations around the world that includes summaries, company histories, property, financials, subsdiaries, joint ventures, long term, press release and historical annual reports.
Morningstar Investing Center
Morningstar Investing Center provides data on over 50,000 stocks, 250,000 open-end mutual funds, over 17,000 exchange-traded funds, and over 13,000 closed-end funds.

Then try any of the following:

Factiva
Search millions of newspapers, business magazines, and newswires with international and foreign language coverage with all editions of the Wall Street Journal. Financial information for publicly traded companies, stocks, funds, currencies, and common market indexes. Limited to 7 simultaneous users.
Wall Street Journal (WSJ.COM)
Get WSJ.com subscription through the library. Sign up for a personal account at the link above. Access to the articles, photographs, charts, podcasts, videos and other premium content available on the WSJ.COM website back to the 2010. Mobile app access is included in the subscription.
Access available only for University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Duluth students, faculty, and staff. No guest access available. Each user must set up a personal account to save articles, create alerts, download apps, and use other features. Once a personal account is created, you can access WSJ.COM from anywhere.
Financial Times (FT.com)
News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, a leading global business publication. Current students, faculty, and staff must register and create personal accounts using University of Minnesota e-mail addresses at the link above.
Once registered, you can use your account to log in to FT.com from anywhere on any device by clicking on the "Sign in" link in the upper right-hand corner.

Guest access for non-affiliated users is available at the CD-ROM workstation (computer ID: ULWILB-CRT8W52) located in the Smart Commons area of Wilson Library basement.

Also check out:

Bloomberg Professional
Access to Bloomberg Professional is only available from terminals in Wilson or Walter libraries. See details below. News and analytics for over 129 countries and 250 exchanges for the financial services industry. Offerings include 24-hour historical and 15-minute delayed securities pricing, news, data, and analysis on companies, markets and economies.

Bloomberg Professional desktop is available in Wilson Library (West Bank Campus), and laptops in Walter Library (for use in the Toaster). See access instructions below. Direct specific questions to the Libraries business specialists: busref@umn.edu
Using Bloomberg Professional in Wilson Library
Using Bloomberg Professional laptops in Walter Library (for use in the Toaster)
Key Business Ratios
Database covering the critical areas of business performance --solvency, efficiency and profitability to help you to assess how a business is doing compared to an industry or a competitor.
Web of Science
A comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of journal article citations. Subjects generally covered are within science and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.

Last Updated: Jun 11, 2025 4:23 PM

Resources for: Finance