Define the Research Topic and Determine Information Needs

Current or Historical Data

Some assignments require that you use current, up-to-the-minute information. For example:

• company news
• latest mergers or acquisitions
• litigation
• stock quotes
• IPOs
• new laws or regulations
• CEO change
• current commodity prices

While other assignments require historical information (time series). For example:

• ten years of financials on a public company (including balance sheet, income statement, ratios and growth data) in an excel spreadsheet
• consumption data of frozen dinners in Chile for the past five years
• annual currency exchange rates for the past three years
• historical stock prices on 10 NASDAQ companies